We won’t get into the technical details behind the following, but the goal here is for you to experience the clearest, highest resolution 360 VR videos you can.
There are some limitations to watching these videos at their highest resolution that have to do with the fact that there is so much data involved with displaying an 8k 360 VR video that your headset sometimes can’t handle processing it all fast enough for you to watch without crashing.
Because of this, you will find videos that claim to be 8k or even 12k, but you will not be able to easily watch them in their fullest resolution. YouTube doesn’t even have a way for you to watch the 12k ones at all. At the time we write this, 8k is the highest resolution we were able to set.
These apps are changing very quickly and we’ve already had to change this once because of it. So, if any of this changes and we don’t catch it, please let us know.
There are different types of videos you will find on YouTube.
- 180 VR Videos – These allow you to see VR, but only in front of you. You will usually see a black bar if you look to the left or right. In the right situation, these are just fine and fun to watch.
- 360 VR Videos – As the name suggests, you can see video all the way around you as well as above and below, though below is usually where the camera is and you will mostly see a circle with the videographer logo and info there.
- 3d Videos in 180 or 360 VR
- The 3d videos can be absolutely stunning, but they can also throw you off and not always be as clear as the others. You’ll need to experiment with them. Sometimes they also require additional settings to view. We’ll detail this below.
There are a number of ways you can watch 360 VR videos. Below are three that are most often used.
- YouTube VR
- When using the YouTube 360 viewer, be sure to select Highest Quality. This seems to allow the 8k videos to be viewed in 8k though they don’t allow you the option to select the actual resolution. We also found that some videos are restricted and won’t play at all. If you find a video like that, try the FireFox Reality Browser. We’ve had success with that.
- Oculus Browser
- You can view YouTube.com in the Oculus Browser, but they have limited your ability to increase the resolution so we don’t suggest you use this for viewing 360 VR videos
- FireFox Reality Browser
- This is our recommended way to view 360 VR videos at the highest resolution. It allows you the most flexibility for viewing 360 VR videos in high resolution. The 8k videos start out with a 4k setting, but you can select that and increase the resolution to 8k. You will notice the clarity right away
