so i've rented splitters both ways.
the one i liked best pushed the wedge into the log. For easy wood you can push the wedge in until the log snaps, back the wedge out, roll the log that is still sort of connected, then run the ram through it, splitting what is left in halves. In ohter words, you don't have to pick up the halves or catch them as they fell.
Also, the one home made splitter I saw had steel guards so that if you pulled the ram all the way out, the guards would pull the wood off the wedge. Sometimes the wood gets stuck on the wedge which is mostly annoying.