The Challenge of Making the Jump to 360 Video

Here's a little 360-video how to from postPerspective.com. Lots of good info here for content makers preparing to make the switch to immersive content. We've got affordable gear bundles to get you started that combine multiple YI 4K Action Cameras with a 360Rize Camera Mount. And, we've got the impressive Samsung 360 Round professional camera for creating and livestreaming 4K 3D content to deliver an exceptional virtual reality experience. The 360 Round offers high-quality 3D images with a 4K camera, thanks to 17 paired lenses that capture a 360-degree view for a full 3D experience. Plus, 6 internal microphones for spatial audio support high-quality sound, perfect for film and broadcasting. From PostPerspective.com

VR headsets have been available for over a year now, and more content is constantly being developed for them. We should expect that rate to increase as new headset models are being released from established technology companies, prompted in part by the new VR features expected in Microsoft’s next update to Windows 10. As the potential customer base increases, the software continues to mature, and the content offerings broaden. And with the advances in graphics processing technology, we are finally getting to a point where it is feasible to edit videos in VR, on a laptop.

While a full VR experience requires true 3D content, in order to render a custom perspective based on the position of the viewer’s head, there is a “video” version of VR, which is called 360 Video. The difference between “Full VR” and “360 Video,” is that while both allow you to look around every direction, 360 Video is pre-recorded from a particular point, and you are limited to the view from that spot. You can’t move your head to see around behind something, like you can in true VR. But 360 video can still offer a very immersive experience and arguably better visuals, since they aren’t being rendered on the fly. 360 video can be recorded in stereoscopic or flat, depending on the capabilities of the cameras used.

Stereoscopic is obviously more immersive, less of a video dome and inherently supported by the nature of VR HMDs (Head Mounted Displays). I expect that stereoscopic content will be much more popular in 360 Video than it ever was for flat screen content. Basically the viewer is already wearing the 3D glasses, so there is no downside, besides needing twice as much source imagery to work with, similar to flat screen stereoscopic...[continue reading]