What do I need to watch AV1 files in Quest 2?

mgbgt35

The downloaded AV1 files cannot be played in Quest 2.Any info will be very much appreciated.

SchnuppiLilac

Only HEVC/H.265 for Q2, AV1 decoding is not supported. It's the hardware, so you won't be able to retrofit. Q3 or Q3S will work.

mgbgt35

SchnuppiLilac Thanks for the info.BTW,does AV1 gives a better image?

SchnuppiLilac

mgbgt35 Overall: no. 8K Max AV1 vs 8K Max H.265: You are not missing anything if you watch H.265. 8K Studio Master AV1: You don't have an H.265 alternative anymore (for SLRO scenes), so you will be missing the best possible bitrate. If that matters to you depends on whether you perceived an improvement over the 8K Max versions in the past when the Studio Masters were still H.265.

Considering that you are still on Q2, I think the best improvement you can achieve experience-wise is by getting a Q3 (because of the better lenses), independent of codecs and bitrates.

mgbgt35

SchnuppiLilac I hope you don't mind me picking your brain.I have been hoping to upgrade my headset for a while now.My only interest is the actual pictual quality.Pass through and AR etc do not interest me.Judging by what I heard from various sources,if all the other improvements were disregarded,the amount of improvement in picture quality alone in Q3 is not big enough for an upgrade.I was waiting for Meta's Q4 but they have switched their priority to wearable now.I have just had a reasonably fast PC built for me (for VR 180 3D file editing) by PC Specialist.I often heard discussion from this forum that PCVR offers better picture quality.Since Q4 is no where to be seen and I already have the PC,I just need a headset to go down this road.Your advice on the suitable headset and any other thing I need to be aware of will be greatly appreciated.

SchnuppiLilac

mgbgt35 Indeed, the Q3 display alone is not a huge upgrade over Q2. But together with the improved lenses the upgrade was good enough for me to not skip it.

I'm not using PCVR, so cannot give any robust advice and leave that to others. As a note, a PC optimized for editing VR videos may not necessarily also be optimized for PCVR, depending on the GPU you have. If your GPU was more expensive than a Q3, it may work...

Acc. to others in this forum, Galaxy XR has the best display image quality right now (even better than AVP), but I have not noticed anyone using it for PCVR.

mgbgt35

SchnuppiLilac Thank you so much for your advice.May be I should have a look at the Galaxy XR.Really appreciate your input.