XSplit Broadcaster

Simply uploading a video on the Internet has become as common as sawdust at a lumber mill nowadays. Live streams are the latest trend nowadays and it is becoming more and more accessible. XSplit Broadcaster places everything you need at your disposal to live-stream like a pro. The software can help you broadcast from various sources, so you can do anything, from a live "Let's play" to a talk show.

XSplit Broadcaster is free to try, with some minor limitations. It works on Windows XP, Vista and Win 7 and although its suggested minimum system requirements are a bit high, you can run it with less resources, if you don't mind a slight performance drop. The program doesn't ask for any special tools or codecs, so you can run it right away, without any distractions.

The software is capable of broadcasting live footage from games, videos and images, from webcams, websites and it can also broadcast a live feed of your desktop. What's more, you can overlay multiple feeds in the same scene. The compact user interface presents a preview of your stream, in which you can move each feed separately, by simply clicking and dragging.

Added sources are listed in the lower region of the interface, where you can also find speaker and microphone volume controls. Besides moving and resizing them, you can also make a wide range of tweaks to each broadcast source. You can bring up a tabbed settings panel for individual feeds and adjust the colors and layout, enable a chroma key and more.

Another key feature is the possibility of setting up multiple scenes and switching between them at a moment's notice at any time, even during a live stream. You can add and arrange multiple broadcast sources in up to twelve scenes and switch from one scene to another just by clicking its corresponding button, in the lower part for the interface.

You will be glad to know that XSplit Broadcaster provides support for all popular streaming services, including Twitch, YouTube and UStream. You can choose your favorite service in one of the top menus and provide your login credentials on a separate window. If you can't find the service you are looking for, you only need to install the necessary plug-in, which should take only a few seconds.