Enlarge / Grab a phone, strap in, and start watching VR content.
VidCon, the largest conference for online video creators, took place this week, and YouTube celebrated by announcing a new VR format.
YouTube has supported VR and 360° video for some time, but the format is really hard to do right. The camera rigs are really expensive, and for any kind of clarity, 4K resolution isn’t good enough—you need at least an 8K video feed for each eye, which is really hard to record, store, and stream to viewers. 360 video is great for virtually teleporting someone to a location, but it’s not an appropriate format for more traditional, structured content with a stage, lighting, and a place you’re supposed to be looking at.
To help pull traditional content creators into the VR space, YouTube is launching a new “VR180” format, which is exactly what it sounds like: stereoscopic video, but only in 180 degrees. This cuts the data requirements in half—4K for each eye looks great—and the format should map a lot easier to the existing content most content creators produce, where they can just set up a camera, aim it at a (slightly wider than normal) staged area, and start filming. The new format even supports live streaming.
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