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  • How to play Equirectangular videos on Pico 4?

I think it's Equirectangular - if you look at the live cams on SLR/dreamcam/stripchat you'll know the shape I am referring to, it's a rectangle with the edges curved inwards slightly. The exact specifications can vary slightly but they seem to all be that shape IIRC

I have saved private shows from live cams that i'd like to playback on my Pico 4 but I cannot figure out how to get them to display properly without being stretched or forced into fisheye (and losing the edges)

With Pico 4 I have tried the built-in video player, Moon Player and also HereSphere with Virtual Desktop but none can display the videos as they are meant to be. I've tried every single option in the settings - Virtual Desktop is complex, maybe I missed something?

SLR's Drive also cannot display them properly - it shows a rectangular shape (progress!) but it's not Equirectangular and it's too zoomed out - example clip for any admins https://www.sexlikereal.com/drive/scene/id/676608ea4c772227bf191ad2 & https://www.sexlikereal.com/drive/scene/id/676608ea4c772227bf191ad2

I also tried converting them with ffmpeg with various commands from GPT and Claude but it made things worse 😆

Naming the files does not work either 3840x1920_60FPS_180_LR_3D_EQ

Is it a limitation of video players or incorrect file metadata? Maybe ffmpeg converting can help?

I also tried a regular 3D movie and that looked similarly stretched

Perhaps Pico 4 is just a crap headset 😠

    jommy Have you tried playing them on HereSphere? You can do almost anything with that player. I think I have seen Equirectangular or something close to that on there.

        jommy Hello,

        First of all you have to be sure that you recorded the video properly, I mean you have to see if it's a Stereoscopic (2 Video Channels) or if it's in mono (1 Video Channel).
        If it's in mono, that means the recording is not correct and you just recorded 1 Video channel out of 2 (Either the left or the right side in case of SBS format), and you can't view it as a VR 180° video unfortunately.

        If it's in Stereoscopic, then, the recording is successful and you should be able to play it as a VR 180° if you name it correctly. You can test that easily by opening them with DeoVR Steam Version on Windows desktop. You can also do that by using the modern version of Windows Media Player in Windows 10/11 (BUT It's NOT always accurate, and can display just one channel out of 2 in some cases).

        First, you need to name the video files without any VR adjustment. For example: Cam Record 01.mp4
        Then play them on Windows by DeoVR Steam, If you see a flat video, that means the video is in mono, and you can't do anything about it unfortunately. If you see a side by side or top and bottom identical videos, then you are on the safe side, and you should play them perfectly with Pico 4 headset when you add the accurate VR adjustments to the video file name.

        Here's all the accurate adjustments for all the VR Video formats (Be careful of the spaces, they are very Important and you should add them in case of SBS 180 and TB 360). Just name the file to whatever you want and then add them:

        Stereoscopic and Projection and FOV auto adjustment:
        SideBySide and Equirectangular and 180°: SBS 180
        SideBySide and Fisheye and 190°: Fisheye190
        SideBySide and Fisheye and 200°: MKX200
        TopBottom and Equirectangular and 360°: TB 360

        Example: Cam Record 01 SBS 180.mp4

        Hope this helps and tell me if it worked for you.

        Best Regards.

            rerun119

            Yeah I tried HereSphere but could not find the correct settings

            VRXVR

            Thanks for the big reply, they are SBS videos yep

            I tried the naming, it did change the FOV however none display the videos properly - they're all fisheye

            I've attached screenshots of what a live cam view looks like vs playing a recording with differing file naming - same results in Pico 4 video player and Moon VR

                  A little bit of progress, I logged into DeoVR and loaded my XBVR to play the sample files - they are no longer fisheye and instead look how the SLR Drive files are: Rectangle but not Equirectangular so the shape is still slightly off and stretched at the top/bottom/sides and unable to zoom in enough

                  To get this far, the DeoVR setting needs to be as Flat and SBS

                  It's an improvement but not how it should be, unsure if i'll ever get there!

                  jommy 3840x1920_60FPS_180_LR_3D_EQ

                  No idea if this is helpful in any way but the other day I saw that the Dreamcam 4K cam's image format is supposed to be 3840x2000 while your recording seems to be 3840x1920. Any chance that this is why it looks stretched?

                      SchnuppiLilac

                      I'm afraid not, I wish it were that simple 😆 I've seen live cams have a small difference in resolution but they generally look the same

                        jommy Interesting, I can't judge from these screenshots, but it seems like these VR Webcams are using odd/ not supported FOV by the VR Video players? 150° or 160° maybe?

                        I mean, if this speculation is true, it could be the reason why you got stretched/ inaccurate projection.

                        Can you try editing them, by cropping and converting them to Equirectangular or Fisheye 180°? The aspect ratio should be 2:1 as you know. Please try this when you have a free time and let us know.

                            VRXVR

                            I'm not really sure if the FOV is different than normal VR 180 SBS - I wish there was more transparency with the dreamcam software as that's where it's from

                            I have seen on their website they offer a recording setting on the cam software which I assume is for performers to sell VR videos, but I wonder if those are encoded any differently or do users also have issues watching them?

                            I tried running multiple commands with ffmpeg that GPT recommended but nothing made it look better than the rectangle DeoVR view which isn't how it's meant to look

                                jommy All I can find is this info about the 4K VR Webcams:
                                https://vr.cam/product/vr-cam-02/

                                Notice how they advertise it as a VR180 but the actual FoV is 160°.
                                Maybe you encountered this specific cam for your recording (speculation).

                                Anyway, even if you cropped and converted them, you'll maybe have scaling issues, since the characters (the girl) and the objects will look larger as a result of this operation (another speculation).

                                    jommy Interesting. So this is the new 6K model that slowly replace the 4K model. Thanks for the link.

                                    I don't know if I could assist any further, sorry my friend, I also still have cold, damn. lol

                                    Apologies gain, and I hope you'll find a solution for this, If you do, please share it with us.

                                    Anyway, it was a great and informative conversation. Thank you so much 🙂

                                    Respectfully.

                                        VRXVR I appreciate you trying to help!

                                        Fingers crossed someone can shed some light on how to play the files properly