Pretty much the title say it all...i want to know if the VR would support apps such as Youtube, or other movies app that we use on Note 4...or even play our own movies that are stored on our Micro SD CARD?
loaferkan said:
Pretty much the title say it all...i want to know if the VR would support apps such as Youtube, or other movies app that we use on Note 4...or even play our own movies that are stored on our Micro SD CARD?
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Based on the countless hours I have spent reading through every minute detail I could find about Gear VR, here is what we know that you will be able to do and not do with the unit out of the box:
CAN:
- Play back your own standard-format (MP4, etc) movie files within the immersive Oculus Cinema
- Download and play VR games from the proprietary game/app store; these have been curated specifically by Oculus
- Browse photos that have been pre-installed with the Gear VR, or your own photos. At the Oculus Connect conference, Oculus confirmed that it was possible to have 360-degree viewing of pictures taken from the Ricoh Theta camera (and thus, likely, other 360-degree user-generated images as well)
- Play Oculus-curated 3D movies, including stereoscopic 3D 360-degree live-action and animated experiences
- Use either 3.5mm wired headphones or a Bluetooth wireless headset to listen to audio. Otherwise, audio will be played through the device's external speakers.
CAN NOT (YET):
- Use apps on your phone that are not part of the Gear VR ecosystem (including texting, calling, etc)
- Watch your own 3D movie files that are encoded in side-by-side/over-under, etc. Preliminary reports show that there is no way to denote or recognize these files as such, meaning the Oculus Cinema will treat them as 2D movies and leave the original split video presentation intact.
- Access content that was purchased outside of the Gear VR ecosystem (Google Play movies, Vudu movies, etc, etc)
The Oculus team got low-level access to the actual hardware of the phone so they have manipulated it in ways that no other software maker can. That being said, it is only common sense that down the road there will be access to services like Netflix, whether that is a custom Gear VR experience or some way to seamlessly integrate the existing Netflix Android experience. The same will surely go for any number of other apps. For now, though, you will only be able to experience the stuff that Oculus has designed for you to experience.
Let me know if I've missed anything!
mdude04 said:
Based on the countless hours I have spent reading through every minute detail I could find about Gear VR, here is what we know that you will be able to do and not do with the unit out of the box:
CAN:
- Play back your own standard-format (MP4, etc) movie files within the immersive Oculus Cinema
- Download and play VR games from the proprietary game/app store; these have been curated specifically by Oculus
- Browse photos that have been pre-installed with the Gear VR, or your own photos. At the Oculus Connect conference, Oculus confirmed that it was possible to have 360-degree viewing of pictures taken from the Ricoh Theta camera (and thus, likely, other 360-degree user-generated images as well)
- Play Oculus-curated 3D movies, including stereoscopic 3D 360-degree live-action and animated experiences
- Use either 3.5mm wired headphones or a Bluetooth wireless headset to listen to audio. Otherwise, audio will be played through the device's external speakers.
CAN NOT (YET):
- Use apps on your phone that are not part of the Gear VR ecosystem (including texting, calling, etc)
- Watch your own 3D movie files that are encoded in side-by-side/over-under, etc. Preliminary reports show that there is no way to denote or recognize these files as such, meaning the Oculus Cinema will treat them as 2D movies and leave the original split video presentation intact.
- Access content that was purchased outside of the Gear VR ecosystem (Google Play movies, Vudu movies, etc, etc)
The Oculus team got low-level access to the actual hardware of the phone so they have manipulated it in ways that no other software maker can. That being said, it is only common sense that down the road there will be access to services like Netflix, whether that is a custom Gear VR experience or some way to seamlessly integrate the existing Netflix Android experience. The same will surely go for any number of other apps. For now, though, you will only be able to experience the stuff that Oculus has designed for you to experience.
Let me know if I've missed anything!
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Note however that I would not recommend watching a movie this way. The field of view is larger than your field of vision. This means that you cannot see everything on screen at the same time and will mean movie watching is fatiguing. This is why alternatives like the Sony HMD units have an optimum "cinema" field of view angle. I am sure it will be initially impressive to watch like this, but I think watching a whole movie could be challenging.
Look at this. It seems like watching a movie is a great experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRSOUbpDgM
jonstatt said:
Note however that I would not recommend watching a movie this way. The field of view is larger than your field of vision. This means that you cannot see everything on screen at the same time and will mean movie watching is fatiguing. This is why alternatives like the Sony HMD units have an optimum "cinema" field of view angle. I am sure it will be initially impressive to watch like this, but I think watching a whole movie could be challenging.
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You are incorrect. With the Gear VR, you also get a "cinema" experience. You watch the video from in the middle of a virtual movie theater (or other custom environments), so there will be no fatigue and you will very much be able to see everything on screen at the same time.
mdude04 said:
You are incorrect. With the Gear VR, you also get a "cinema" experience. You watch the video from in the middle of a virtual movie theater (or other custom environments), so there will be no fatigue and you will very much be able to see everything on screen at the same time.
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I think mdude04 make sense. I'm sure that the Gear VR makers wouldn't allow us to watch movies directly from our own apps, or a matter of fact youtube...but who going to stop these great Devs here who can has turn our phone the future phones...the things that Samsung or any other company come out with, we already have experienced it long before...lol
I'll try to invest in it, until I see the Devs has worked on custom rom or software for it.
mdude04 said:
You are incorrect. With the Gear VR, you also get a "cinema" experience. You watch the video from in the middle of a virtual movie theater (or other custom environments), so there will be no fatigue and you will very much be able to see everything on screen at the same time.
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Before you start saying I am "incorrect", let's just get things a bit clearer here as your post wasn't very clear on the "how" this might be done. The main issue with the Oculus Rift which I have tried BTW for movie is its 110 degree field of view. The Samsung has a FOV of 96 degrees which is much too large for watching a movie. In comparison the Sony HMD-T3W which I also have, is 45 degrees. 45 degrees is considered the optimum movie viewing experience, sitting in the middle row of a large theatre screen. 96 degrees would be like sitting in the front row, which for most people is not a comfortable place to sit. So the only way that Samsung could reconcile this is to not use the whole resolution of the Note 4 display, which woudn't be great, as to my understanding each eye is not receiving a 1080 image to start with (as the 2560x1440 display is chopped in half, with half going to the left eye and half going to the right).
In discussions on various forums, there is a "general" opinion that the glasses you wear for playing virtual reality games or experiences needs a big FOV so you feel you are actually there, whereas movies need a smaller one. This typically means owning two pairs of this type of glasses, or compromising resolution so that the movie is not taking up the full screen area.
So could you explain more about how Samsung handles this?
I will be getting the Gear VR anyway, but for the hopefully stellar VR experiences.
jonstatt said:
Before you start saying I am "incorrect", let's just get things a bit clearer here as your post wasn't very clear on the "how" this might be done. The main issue with the Oculus Rift which I have tried BTW for movie is its 110 degree field of view. The Samsung has a FOV of 96 degrees which is much too large for watching a movie. In comparison the Sony HMD-T3W which I also have, is 45 degrees. 45 degrees is considered the optimum movie viewing experience, sitting in the middle row of a large theatre screen. 96 degrees would be like sitting in the front row, which for most people is not a comfortable place to sit. So the only way that Samsung could reconcile this is to not use the whole resolution of the Note 4 display, which woudn't be great, as to my understanding each eye is not receiving a 1080 image to start with (as the 2560x1440 display is chopped in half, with half going to the left eye and half going to the right).
In discussions on various forums, there is a "general" opinion that the glasses you wear for playing virtual reality games or experiences needs a big FOV so you feel you are actually there, whereas movies need a smaller one. This typically means owning two pairs of this type of glasses, or compromising resolution so that the movie is not taking up the full screen area.
So could you explain more about how Samsung handles this?
I will be getting the Gear VR anyway, but for the hopefully stellar VR experiences.
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The Gear VR is going to ship with Oculus Cinema, which allows you to watch your own content in a virtual movie theater. It simulates that "Perfect Seat" experience of being in a movie theater. It effectively fills your field of vision, no more, no less, and (if you want) allows you to move your head around the theater and look around.
In terms of video quality, you're not going to lose anything. It only plays back 2D content, yes, but this allows the use of interlacing to maintain a full 1080i image. Essentially, the sum of the parts to make the whole.
If 3D playback was added in down the road, you would lose out on the quality more than likely, but it all depends on how it's implemented.
John Carmack (CTO of Oculus, and lead on the Gear VR project with Samsung) even mentioned that he's watched the entire Matrix trilogy on his, and he said it was incredible.
xxbadsushixx said:
The Gear VR is going to ship with Oculus Cinema, which allows you to watch your own content in a virtual movie theater. It simulates that "Perfect Seat" experience of being in a movie theater. It effectively fills your field of vision, no more, no less, and (if you want) allows you to move your head around the theater and look around.
In terms of video quality, you're not going to lose anything. It only plays back 2D content, yes, but this allows the use of interlacing to maintain a full 1080i image. Essentially, the sum of the parts to make the whole.
If 3D playback was added in down the road, you would lose out on the quality more than likely, but it all depends on how it's implemented.
John Carmack (CTO of Oculus, and lead on the Gear VR project with Samsung) even mentioned that he's watched the entire Matrix trilogy on his, and he said it was incredible.
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HI,On the contrarytThe way it is implemented in VR Headset,there is no way you would lose in quality in 3D playback since for 2D playbackyou already sending twice the same image for each eye hence the quality has already been lowered(You only see half of the display)
If there was a single lense instead of the 2 at the moment the whole screen would be entirely visible and you would have a 2D Screen much larger and with much better resolution...
And maybe in this case i believe screen door effect would be even less visible.
IF you have Side by Side (SBS or TTB) videos there is no reason the experience would be less than a 2D film providing Oculus Cinema is
able to natively manage that 3D SBS format.
joexda75 said:
HI,On the contrarytThe way it is implemented in VR Headset,there is no way you would lose in quality in 3D playback since for 2D playbackyou already sending twice the same image for each eye hence the quality has already been lowered(You only see half of the display)
If there was a single lense instead of the 2 at the moment the whole screen would be entirely visible and you would have a 2D Screen much larger and with much better resolution...
And maybe in this case i believe screen door effect would be even less visible.
IF you have Side by Side (SBS or TTB) videos there is no reason the experience would be less than a 2D film providing Oculus Cinema is
able to natively manage that 3D SBS format.
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Yep. And in fact, looking through Oculus's newly released developer documentation, it is in fact possible to watch 3D videos in the Oculus Cinema from day one. It looks like you either need to follow some kind of naming convention when importing your SBS content into the micro SD card, or place it into a specially designated "3D" folder. That will give the Gear VR the information it needs to recognize that it is a 3D video, and it will be rendered on the virtual movie screen accordingly.
Just another awesome reason to be excited about Gear VR!
Wonder if the movies referred to were watched in 1080 or 2k resolution...
xxbadsushixx said:
In terms of video quality, you're not going to lose anything. It only plays back 2D content, yes, but this allows the use of interlacing to maintain a full 1080i image. Essentially, the sum of the parts to make the whole.
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I think John Carmack said the resolution of the video shown in the oculus cinema is 720p.
---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 AM ----------
jonstatt said:
So could you explain more about how Samsung handles this?
I will be getting the Gear VR anyway, but for the hopefully stellar VR experiences.
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i don't know if you have seen this video yet, it gives an idea how the moon theater in oculus cinema looks and there is also cirque du soleil video later on.
http://youtu.be/SVwNz4_NbRw?t=38s
I honestly can't wait to get the Gear VR. I in a lot of ways looking forward to it more than I did the Note 4 itself.
I can't wait to watch a movie on the frickin moon! I must say brief shot of the reflections hitting the ground on the moon look incredible.
is this different than oculus ?
or more or less the same ?
these 2 looks futuristic
awesomista said:
is this different than oculus ?
or more or less the same ?
these 2 looks futuristic
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The Gear VR has a better display than the Oculus Rift DK2, lower latency and no wires. The Dk2 has wires but is connected to a PC and therefore you have better looking graphics but you would also need a more powerful PC to use it wiithout judder and high FPS.
The DK2 has besides Headtracking also positional tracking, the Gear VR does not have positional tracking yet but most likely the next version of the Gear VR will. But when you buy additional STEM packs or STEM controllers from sixense, then you also already get positional tracking with the first version of the Gear VR.
Powerslash said:
The Gear VR has a better display than the Oculus Rift DK2, lower latency and no wires. The Dk2 has wires but is connected to a PC and therefore you have better looking graphics but you would also need a more powerful PC to use it wiithout judder and high FPS.
The DK2 has besides Headtracking also positional tracking, the Gear VR does not have positional tracking yet but most likely the next version of the Gear VR will. But when you buy additional STEM packs or STEM controllers from sixense, then you also already get positional tracking with the first version of the Gear VR.
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mindblown......
too hard to understand hahaha
awesomista said:
mindblown......
too hard to understand hahaha
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Both devices can do headtracking that means, you can look around 360° in a virtual world.
Positional tracking what the Oculus Rift DK2 can do with help of a special camera mounted to the pc and the Gear VR with additional controllers/packs means that you can also lean to the left/right and front/back in the virtual world.
For the Gear VR you will need the Galaxy Note 4 to run it and for the DK2 you will need a beefy PC.
The Gear VR has a higher resolution display, lower latency means that you look around with less lag/judder but when everything is optimized on the PC then it should perform similarly and you have no wires, so you can use the Gear VR on your couch, in bed, on a plane, in a hotel and easier showcase it to family and friends without having to bring along your PC, camera and cables.
Hello,
Samsung Gear VR is a game changer for personal media enjoyment.
Not only Virtual Reality that most people might not be interested in it but mainly watching movies in a true cinema theater environment.
lately, hostesses or nearby passengers used to alert me that the plane has landed and that people are out already while i'm enjoying the movie.
i never enjoyed traveling like this before.
the issue with the Gear VR, is head motion tracking, which is a great feature when you are on your couch or chair, but when the airplane or train or car are moving, this becomes annoying because you have to continuously re-align / re-orient screen.
i tried many solutions like disabling the gear service or avoiding inserting the note 4 in the gear usb plug, but then cardboard traditional software like AAA VR, side-by-side player, Kodi, and others didn't function normally like they do on a normal cardboard. in addition to that, the Gear VR cinema is an experience they can't ever beat.
i'm dreaming of a solution that will disable head tracking when on airplane.
"An airplane mode for Samsung Gear VR".
It would be nice if there was a Fixed view option to avoid this. Seems a kind of obvious option IMO.
Not sure I could use one of these in public places (planes too) since do not like being that out of sync with what is around me.
What about selecting the last cinema in the menu? Not the theater, not the moon, but the last one on the right I can't remember its name. I think it has the image fixed and it doesn't depend on your head movement
Keep pushing
It's called Void mode
For movie watching, some Chinese version vr glasses is better than gear vr.
3D VR Glasses overview and demonstration: https://youtu.be/nEALrvhDfIU
what you want is "cmoar virtual cinema" (avaiable in the app store). its the only non-oculus cinema that actually is on the same level (and in some ways a lot more powerful) as mr. carmacks masterpiece. the only thing that is a lot worse is the precision of the head tracking, which is the usual cardboard jitterfest - but then, you want a head tracking free cinema, and cmoar virtual cinema lets you completely disable any head tracking in its settings.
be prepared though that a complete lack of head tracking also feels a bit odd. im not sure, but i think id rather deal with the occasional screen reorienting than with a fixed screen in front of me. after all, the only time where its really that much of an issue is when the plane starts and lands, and the occasional fly route readjustment. same for cars, once youre on the highway, while you dont always go in a straight line (which you very much do on the plane), you still keep going in roughly the same direction and can just follow the screen a bit.
maybe you like the fixed one better. having used both options, im kind of divided (but still recommend the cmoar cinema, be it only because of the other 346974634 features i wish the oculus cinema had). i guess the only real solution is long term, where headsets may track your orientation not only absolute but also relative to your body. you know, when that whole hand recognition thing gets big and all that
zorglub667 said:
what you want is "cmoar virtual cinema" (avaiable in the app store). its the only non-oculus cinema that actually is on the same level (and in some ways a lot more powerful) as mr. carmacks masterpiece. the only thing that is a lot worse is the precision of the head tracking, which is the usual cardboard jitterfest - but then, you want a head tracking free cinema, and cmoar virtual cinema lets you completely disable any head tracking in its settings.
be prepared though that a complete lack of head tracking also feels a bit odd. im not sure, but i think id rather deal with the occasional screen reorienting than with a fixed screen in front of me. after all, the only time where its really that much of an issue is when the plane starts and lands, and the occasional fly route readjustment. same for cars, once youre on the highway, while you dont always go in a straight line (which you very much do on the plane), you still keep going in roughly the same direction and can just follow the screen a bit.
maybe you like the fixed one better. having used both options, im kind of divided (but still recommend the cmoar cinema, be it only because of the other 346974634 features i wish the oculus cinema had). i guess the only real solution is long term, where headsets may track your orientation not only absolute but also relative to your body. you know, when that whole hand recognition thing gets big and all that
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Agreed with Cmoar. It has more codec support, Youtube 2D/3D support and video LAN streaming. Worth the $7 IMO. I also use with a generic VR unit since the app has barrel and FOV adjustments.
It makes the Oculus effort so far seem very shallow, but Oculus wants to control content as much as possible, so of course no streaming LAN or Youtube in Oculus They are hoping people are too lazy to copy content on the device themselves. Perhaps a future update will stop that.....
yes, the oculus approach of trying to create a confined ecosystem is starting to get a bit annoying. doesnt go well with the whole early adopters vibe of VR at the moment. i truly think they need to open this up, but since theres not much outrage from users about this, this will probably never happen.
shame how times have changed, and how people got used to what once was something only apples IOS dared to do to its users.
just think about it, for the very same reason, we will probably never have the wonderful cmoar cinema running as a real oculus app. which is a real shame, cause the featureset of that cinema is truly mighty impressive. i love the oculus cinema for its smoothness and quality of craftsmanship, but in terms of features, it doesnt hold a candle to cmoar. cmoar is truly better in every regard except the usual cardboard app jitter (for which i blame the underlying google VR framework).
meh. not an ideal situation. i dont mind the whole early adopters thing. but to combine that with the restricted nature of a closed ecosystem from day one is really a huge letdown. i fully understand the motives behind it and would happily go with that, but thats a move you can make once you have lots and lots and lots of content, but not in these early stages IMO.
hi guys
i wanted to know if there is a way to download the gear vr apk and launch it on google cardboard headset?
i do have root if needed
I don't think you'll have much luck, since Gear VR apps are designed to respond to tapping or swiping the touch controller on the side of the Gear VR (which doesn't touch the screen or use a magnet like Google Cardboard).
Devhux said:
I don't think you'll have much luck, since Gear VR apps are designed to respond to tapping or swiping the touch controller on the side of the Gear VR (which doesn't touch the screen or use a magnet like Google Cardboard).
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Someone in the xda gear vr furom said he succeeded but he didnt explain how
They also mentioned head tracking didn't work as it needs the Gear VR sensors (the sensors built into the phone aren't that great in comparison).
Check here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/mobile-vr/gear-vr/samsung-vr-apps-generic-vr-vr-box-vr-t3287848
And my YouTube vid that show the whole thing working:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17pzEGNfmWA
By the way I use a Zeiss VR one and with a controller and the Gyro board all works. Some stuff only takes input from the gear VR trackpad but some say a bluetooth mouse will do the trick. (i have not tried that yet)