What are the limitations of the Free Edition?
The Free Edition of Rocket Broadcaster is missing some features for power users and professional radio broadcasters.
One Stream Only
The main limitation is that the Free Edition can only broadcast a single stream at a time, which means you can broadcast a single bitrate or audio codec. Being able to broadcast multiple streams is important for some broadcasters because it allows them to serve different streams to listeners on different devices. This approach tends to offer better compatibility, quality, and stability across the most range of devices. For example, a common configuration is to offer a high quality (128 kbps+) stream for listeners on a desktop PC with broadband, and a lower quality (32-64 kbps) stream for listeners on mobile devices. On mobile devices, listeners often have limited data plans and adverse network conditions, and serving them a lower bitrate stream helps with both aspects.
Missing SSL Support
Another limitation is that the Free Edition does not inlcude support for Icecast with SSL. SSL provides an encrypted connection for authenticating and streaming your audio. This is important for some broadcasters because the terms of use for their music library may require that audio is only transmitted via an encrypted connection. If you need all your audio to be streamed over an encrypted connection, please upgrade to Rocket Broadcaster PRo.
Lossless Ogg FLAC streaming
Lossless Ogg FLAC streaming is also missing from the Free Edition. Lossless streaming broadcasts your audio without losing any quality at all. The audio is compressed to save bandwidth, but the quality of the audio is not reduced in any way. If you wish to offer the highest possible quality of stream to your listeners, please upgrade to Rocket Broadcaster Pro and use Ogg FLAC streaming.
128 kbps Only
The Free Edition of Rocket Broadcaster can only stream at a bitrate of 128 kbps. The Pro Edition can stream at bitrates from 16 kbps to 320 kbps.
Auto-Reconnect Delay
Lastly, if a stream experiences a momentary network interruption and has to reconnect, there is a 20 second delay in the Free Edition before Rocket Broadcaster reconnects. If you are a professional broadcaster and every second of stream uptime counts, please consider upgrading to Rocket Broadcaster Pro to shave precious seconds off your downtime when there are network issues.
Missing VST Plugin Support
Rocket Broadcaster Pro is one of the only encoders that offers VST plugin support for processing and enhancing your audio. The Free Edition allows you to load and test out a VST plugin for 10 minutes only, after which time it will be automatically disabled. This allows you to evaluate how VST plugins work and check compatibility with any VST plugin you'd like to use.
Need any of these missing features?
Upgrade to Rocket Broadcaster Pro today to unlock all of these features.