February 2016 - Page 4 of 4

YouTube Live Support in XSplit Broadcaster

We’ve received several emails from content creators in all categories during these past few months asking for YouTube Live support in XSplit Broadcaster.

We are happy to let you let you know that XSplit Broadcaster 1.3 for personal and premium licensed users now includes a plugin that make it easy for anyone to broadcast and stream content to YouTube live.

YouTube has gradually eased the requirements from “select partners” to “anyone with 1000+ subscribers” and as of writing this, the current requirement is “anyone with 100+ subscribers”. This is great news for entertainers, hobbyists and up-and-coming professional broadcasters looking to broadcast live content to their YouTube channel.

To get started launch XSplit Broadcaster 1.3, go to Broadcast menu -> Add channel -> More… locate YouTube Live and install the plugin. Next you need to authorize your account using your YouTube credentials and now you are ready to make your first live show!

YouTube’s Live service was created for professional online TV, so while XSplit Broadcaster 1.3 makes it easy for anyone to use, there are still a couple of settings that some users may find a bit strange. One of the noticeable differences with YouTube Live is that it takes ~45 seconds to start a stream, and there will always be a delay of ~45 seconds between the broadcaster and the viewers (it will take ~45 seconds for the viewers to receive (see and hear) the broadcaster and his/her actions). On the positive side, YouTube Live supports DVR functionality which allows your viewers to join your broadcasts late and still see it from the start — that’s pretty cool to say the least.

XSplit Supports Extra Life

We are pleased to announce that XSplit has officially become a main supporter for this year’s Extra Life charity event.

For those unfamiliar with Extra Life, the charity is a celebration of gaming culture where it’s entrants host a variety of events with everything from gaming marathons to LAN parties, all in effort to raise money and awareness for children’s hospitals. XSplit was also on board during the last year’s event where we also donated licenses to the pledgies.

How is XSplit supporting the event?

Anyone that registers for this year’s Extra Life and earns over $15 in sponsorship will receive a 1 Month XSplit Premium License completely for free.

How can i get involved?

The easiest way is to visit Extra Life’s official website, whereby users can register for free and begin gathering support from their friends and families.

Are you organizing an event for Extra Life?

If you’re organizing an event for Extra Life, we want to hear about it! Send us a tweet telling us about your event and we will retweet the most interesting ones to our community

Watch our live XSplit Streamathon!

XSplit will be hosting a live streaming event from within our Manila-based development centre! We will be playing a variety of games in aid of raising awareness for Extra Life.

Issues regarding Adobe Flash v. 11.9 – Updated!

Oct 11 9.59 pm UTC+8

Update: We have a fix!

A new version 1.3.1310.1103 RC of XSplit Broadcaster is available. This update resolves the previously listed issues with Title source and Image Slideshow source affecting users who have updated Flash player to v 11.9

Have a nice weekend

The XSplit team

Tech Advisory: Flash Player 11.9 may break Title sources, etc.

XSplit Broadcaster makes use of Adobe Flash Player to render extension sources such as Title source, Image Slideshow source and Whiteboard source. If Flash is not detected when installing XSplit, the XSplit installer installs Flash 10.3 on the computer, but if Flash is detected, XSplit makes use of whatever Flash is already in the users system.

Adobe just released version 11.9 of Flash player for Internet Explorer and this update breaks the full functionality of these extension components on Windows 7. We are still trying to find out why, so we can make a workaround in a coming update of XSplit Broadcaster 1.3 and later versions, but this is not going to help those good people out there who have already upgraded to 11.9.

If you are on Windows 7 and have allowed Flash to upgrade to 11.9 you are likely affected. As a solution to quickly help users we have made a Flash downgrader to downgrade Flash from 11.9 to 11.8 on Windows 7 machines.

How do I check if I have Flash 11.9

Launch Internet Explorer (NOT Chrome and NOT Firefox) and go to www.adobe.com/software/flash/about. This site will show you the Flash player version you have installed.

How do I know for sure if I am affected?

Try to add a title to a scene in XSplit and make the text scrolling – if it works then you are not affected, but if the source is invisible then (well you know what that means). Demo.

How do I fix the problem?

Download our custom downgrader here: click to download

This downgrader will only work on Windows 7 and only if you have Flash 11.9 installed. Run the downgrader and follow the steps in the instructions screens.

Note: In the end you may be prompted if you will allow Flash to auto update – MAKE SURE TO NOT ALLOW FLASH TO AUTO UPDATE WITHOUT YOUR APPROVAL.

This issue is as far as we know is not present on Windows 8. We’re gathering as much data as we can, before filing a report with Adobe. We currently foresee this may affect many types of applications, not just XSplit.

XSplit Gamecaster is FREE for Licensed Users

XSplit Gamecaster

Today, we are pleased to announce the public release of XSplit Gamecaster. We’re excited about this product and are proud to announce that it will be FREE for all current paid users. That’s right, if you have an XSplit license, you now have TWO products available for just one license!

The last few weeks have been a wild ride, but since announcing XSplit Gamecaster back in January, we’ve received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from both the XSplit community and members of the gaming press.

We believe that XSplit Gamecaster will prove to be an excellent addition to our live streaming and recording solutions.

Win an XSplit License and get access to try XSplit Gamecaster today!

To celebrate the release of XSplit Gamecaster, we will be giving out 101 Personal XSplit Licenses via our Twitterand Facebook page every 5 minutes from February 18 16:00 CET & 10:00am EST.

Codes will be distributed on a first come, first served basis every 5 minutes so when you see a code, be sure to visit this page to redeem it.

*IMPORTANT UPDATE 02/19/2014*

We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re going to attempt to continue our wonderful 101 code giveaway, but this time with a few added tweaks:

– Codes will now be distributed through our Twitter & Facebook pages as images. No more copy/pasting, so get those fingers typing!

– We will send out codes intermittently in groups to increase people’s chances of winning and to reduce the frequency of Tweets and Facebook posts. Hopefully this means less spam and more win!

– Codes must be redeemed before 28 February 2014 and cannot be redeemed on existing Premium license accounts.

Also, if we catch people code stacking we’ll hunt you down, lock you in a basement and carry out cruel and unusual punishments… or just get kind of annoyed and remove the excess license duration. But seriously, this is supposed to be fun! If you know someone that has been wanting to try XSplit, tell them to look out for this cool giveaway on our Twitter and Facebook page and get them involved.

– Happy XSplit Gamecaster Day Everyone!

Twitch IRC Chat and Hitbox Chat Viewer Plugins

One of the most requested features in XSplit Broadcaster is the ability to pull chat feeds from streaming services such as Twitch and Hitbox so it can be easily shown on the stream without needing to use screen capture. There are various workarounds to achieve this but they are definitely not ideal.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that the Twitch and Hitbox chat viewer plugins are finally now available in XSplit Broadcaster.

Installing the Chat Viewer Plugins

To install both plugins, click on ‘Add Source’ >> ‘Get more plugins from the plugin store’. Find the plugins and hit the Install button.
Twitch IRC Chat for XSplit

Hitbox chat

Adding the chat viewer source to your scene

Now that you’ve installed them, it’s time to add the source on your scene. To add, simply click on ‘Add Sources’ >> ‘Other’ >> Hitbox Chat Viewer / Twitch IRC Chat Viewer. After adding it, right click the source and authorize it first. When done authorizing your account, hit the ‘Connect’ button and you’re done!
Chat viewer for XSplit

Take note that for this version of the Twitch IRC Chat Viewer, we currently do not support connecting to group and event chats. We shall be adding this in an update in the near future.

XSplit Broadcaster v2.4 is Here

When we released version 2.4 of XSplit Gamecaster last Thursday, a lot of you have naturally asked us for when XSplit Broadcaster v2.4 will become available. We’re happy to announce that XSplit Broadcaster v2.4 is now also here!

XSplit Broadcaster v2.4 now available

Windows 10 compliance, YouTube Gaming compatibility, Azubu 3.0 support and tweaked user interface are the same new features and improvements that are included in version 2.4 of XSplit Broadcaster so that’s something that you can try out immediately.

Another new feature that we’re really excited about is the adaptive bitrate technology which automatically adjusts your bitrate according to your network conditions. This means you no longer need to manually reconfigure your steam if you experience bandwidth starvation as the adjustment will be done for you automatically. We’ve written more details about adaptive bitrate here.

We’ve also implemented the ability to freely resize the main window which has been requested by a lot of you (Thanks to Gunrun for giving us an extra push on this one). This is just a small glimpse of many user interface changes that will enhance your XSplit experience in the coming near future so stay tuned!

Finally, we have other improvements and plenty of bug fixes that we cannot simply write all in this blog post so make sure to check out the full release notes here. You can update via the application (Help >> Check for Updates…) or by getting it from xsplit.com/download

Let us know what you think of this new version in the comments!

Bandwidth Tester Guide for Broadcaster

This entry shows you how to use the Bandwidth Tester.

1. Go to Broadcast menu & Right Click the Specific Channel to which you Wish to
Test your Data-rate

When you right click a channel, the settings dialog will pop up. This corresponds to the action
Broadcast – > Edit Channels – > select and press the edit button.

(So now you know the shortcut. 🙂 )

2. Click ‘Test Bandwidth’ in the Settings Dialog

In the settings dialog, click the ‘Test Bandwidth” button to start the bandwidth
test which will run for approximately 45 seconds.

How the Bandwidth Tester Works and Why you Should Always Use it?

Correction: The bandwidth tester also take dropped frames into account, but some slight adjustments may still be needed.

Even if you may have a huge general upload bandwidth assigned by your Internet Service Provider, you have absolutely no guarantee of the data-rate (bandwidth) you can maintain to a particular target server. That is why general bandwidth testers are next to useless if you need to make sure you can maintain a particular data-rate to a particular server.

The XSplit bandwidth tester reads the configuration of your streaming settings, and more specifically your video max bitrate (MBR) setting and your audio bitrate (ABR) setting. Based on those settings, the bandwidth tester will try to maintain a stream of constant MBR + ABR to your target server. This is why the XSplit bandwidth tester is reliable (and any other method is next to useless).

If your video bitrate setting is generally low (<500 kbps) then you will often find that the bandwidth tester overshoots the target by a small margin and if your bitrate setting is equally high (>2000 kbps) then you may find that the tester slightly undershoots the target of MBR + ABR (don’t ask why).

If more than 2 bandwidth readings fall into below 96% of the target bandwidth test, the tester will respond with RED signal and suggest a lower bandwidth setting or alternatively to redo the test. If one reading falls below 96% and/or 2 or more readings fall below 97% but above 96% of the target bandwidth, the tester will respond with a YELLOW signal indicating that the bandwidth is probably sufficient but will still recommend to redo the test. If all bandwidth readings are above 97% of the target bandwidth then the bandwidth tester will respond with a GREEN signal indicating that you are good to go for now! (But remember that it just may be different tomorrow. 🙂 )

Please note: During the testing, XSplit will automatically set the frame rate to a maximum of 30 fps which is the maximum recommended frame rate for live streaming. This is to ensure an absolute constant frame rate can be maintained which is required to achieve accurate test results. You should be aware that the actual scene which was active when you started the bandwidth test will be streamed to your target.