Wowza Community

What live encoder to choose ? (MPEG-4 & multi bitrate)

Like the title says: i’m looking for a (software) live encoder with full MPEG-4 and multi bitrate support for use with Wowza 2. Currently i think Wirecast would be the best choice, but the price of 450$ makes me ask you for oppinions to make sure there isn’t a better alternative .

Questions:

  1. Do you know better or cheaper alternatives to Wirecast, what about FMLE with AAC Plugin and it’s Video/Audio sync problems ?

  2. Can i install Wirecast on multiple machines with only one license ?

Wirecast doesn’t actually do multi-bitrate live correctly. FMLE (read the EULA) does do multibitrate correctly. MainConcept has released a new version of the AAC plugin. It seems to work better for many folks. It seems to be dependent on the capture card.

The other options for multibitrate off the top of my head are Digitial Rapdis, Haivision, Harmonic, Kulabyte and Inlet.

Charlie

well as with regards to Wirecast alternatives, there are plenty others there like ustream pro. tricaster, etc. The problem is their equally expensive and most of the response for those products are not good as well. Most people said its hard to configure and it barely works especially for full screen streaming

theres this new program called XSplit Broadcaster which is just in BETA right now. they are completely giving away their product for free just as long as you sign up to the beta crew… been using it but so far i haven’t had any problems yet. its neat considering its just in beta stage right now. you could give them a try if you want. heres the link http://www.xsplit.com/