You have various options to watch movies on Gear VR, virtual reality headset. Watching movies on Gear VR is nothing but watching movies on a virtual screen in a virtual environment. It doesn’t sound that exciting. But actually, there are many things possible thanks to VR. Here are some tips to have the best Gear VR movie experience.
Huge Virtual Screen
A notable feature of movies in VR is that you can watch movies on a big screen. As if you were in a theater, but there were no other audiences to block your sight or disturb by receiving phone calls.
Change Virtual Environment
You can change an environment in VR. Depending on apps, you may choose a living room, theater, and so on. Oculus Video even has Moon or Ant Theater (as if you became an ant and watching movies on Samsung Galaxy smartphone on grass.)
Move a screen wherever you want
After you look through all virtual environments, you probably want to choose Void theater as your primary mode. Void mode is not only a virtual screen floating in the blank but a mobile screen wherever you want it to be. Say you are sitting on a sofa in a real world and watching a movie on the headset. When you get tired and lie down, a virtual screen will be way out of your sight. Then, just a tap on the trackpad of Gear VR brings back the screen right in front of you. This feature is available in Netflix, Hulu, and Oculus Video apps.
Travel Mode
Travel Mode is available in Void theater of Netflix and Oculus Video. Say you travel by bus, the screen will move every time a bus turns and goes up or down a slope. This feature always keeps the screen in front of you. The movement of the screen is so slow that you won’t get sick. You can also bring it back immediately by tapping a trackpad in case the screen get way out of your sight.
Change the size of a screen
A large screen is not always necessarily depending on genres of movies. And it also gets your eyes tired quickly. Sometimes, you want to watch on a small screen for a comfort and relaxation. On the other hand, when you watch 3D movies, you may want a larger screen for more impressiveness. You can change the size of the screen by swiping a trackpad either upward or downward. This feature is available in Void Theater mode of Netflix and Oculus Video. Hulu doesn’t have this feature.
Tips for browsing
If you subscribe Netflix or Hulu, you can watch their contents on Gear VR. When you browse, it’s better to do so on a smartphone or PC and add them to My List so you can find them in VR app easily. I found it very hard to browse movies in Hulu VR app.
Watch your own contents on Oculus Video
If you have your own movies downloaded from somewhere or ripped from DVDs or Blu-rays, you can watch them on Oculus Video. You need to copy and paste video files in a storage of smartphone. If it’s a regular 2D movie, copy and paste it in Movie folder. The folder probably exists in a phone’s storage. If it’s a 3D movie, which is a side-by-side format, create a folder inside of Movie folder and name it 3D. Then paste it there. If it’s 360-degree video, create 360 folder inside of Movie folder and paste it there. Your own contents are found in My Videos of Oculus Video app. As long as video files are in the right folders, you can watch any contents, 2D, 3D, 360-degree, without any problem. And all features of Oculus Video, such as Theater, Moon, Void, and so on work, too. Oculus sells or rents movies in the app, but they are very expensive.
Conclusion
If you have an account of Netflix or Hulu, you should try them on a VR headset. If you never have their accounts, please note that they both offer either one week or one month free trial for new customers. I tried both of them. Then I found that Netflix provides a better experience. Hulu lacks a feature of Travel Mode and changing the size of the screen in Void Theater Mode. And navigation in the app is a little frustrating. Beside, contents of Hulu is not good.
If you have your own movies on PC, copy and paste them in phone’s storage. And you can watch them in Oculus Video app. Make sure that create each folder for each format of video files and paste them in the right folder. Making the screen bigger for 3D movies, lying on a bed for relaxing, having the screen always stay in front of you when traveling by airplane, all features are available in Oculus Video.