Samsung has announced six new TV series that it’s introducing to its VR Video service for its Gear VR, with a pilot episode from each made available today.
The shows are the result of a select few indie filmmakers who received a grant from Samsung in order to produce original VR content. They were given access to Samsung’s 360 Round camera as well, although only one series (&Design) chose to utilize it.
You can check out the brief trailer of the initiative (dubbed Pilot Season) below, which gives you a glimpse into the vastly different genres and themes that each of the six new series explores.
You can check out the full description on each show from Samsung’s own page, but here’s a condensed run-down:
“&Design” (Sibling Rivalry and Curious Octopus)
An original episodic series about design that will change the way we look at the world. The series presents design in its intersection with science, technology and anthropology, weaving an array of items that link each episode by a universally humanistic theme.
“Bro Bots” (Breaking Fourth)
A scripted sci-fi comedy series in VR, set in a New York City of the future. Two British robots – Otis and Roberto – arrive in New York and join the NYPD. Otis acts like a Downton Abbey butler. Roberto is rough and tough, from the other side of the tracks. They are best friends.
“The Interpretation of Dreams” (Graham Sack & Sensorium)
In 1899, Sigmund Freud published his magnum opus, The Interpretation of Dreams, which shocked the world and forever changed our understanding of dreams and the unconscious mind. This episodic narrative fiction series reimagines each of Freud’s original case studies as visually luxurious, psychologically complex, and emotionally haunting immersive VR dreamscapes.
“Lightcatcher” (Occupied VR, RSA VR)
The Earth is evolving and digesting our human footprint. Now humanity has a choice – stay or leave. Lightcatcher is an odyssey that revolves around earth and its people in the year 2150. Get lost with five adventurers as they travel through unique environments – enduring hardships and triumphs in the new world.
“Sam’s Surreal Gems” (RSA VR, Hey Wonderful)
Set in a collection of real world locations, this fresh, funny and irreverent VR series challenges its viewers to spot eight surreal and unexpected Easter eggs hidden within each episode. Sam’s Surreal Gems is the antithesis of overly familiar futuristic and fantastical VR, rather, this series will celebrate the truly entertaining and wonderfully funny possibilities within the real world already around us.
“Voyages – Pilot” (Kaleidoscope)
A virtual reality animation that takes you on an epic journey from birth to death. Comprised of six distinct movements, “Voyages – Pilot” guides you through the emotional arc of an entire life. Experience what it feels like to be born, to grow up, to grow old, and to eventually die.
If you’ve got a Samsung Gear VR, you can head to the Oculus Store and find the free Samsung VR video service to download. Once downloaded, check out Pilot Season under the service’s Featured section.
If you thought using Facebook was free, think again.
The age-old adage of “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” holds true for Facebook’s business model, which many pundits have argued it build on trading users’ personal data as currency. And what the social media platform does – or allows others to do – with that data has recently copped a lot of criticism in the wake of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica Scandal.
Facebook has a tough fight ahead of it as it tries to restore its name and win back public trust, and the latest shot in that war is an official blog post titled “Hard Questions” , which seeks to reassure Facebook users that they “are not the product”.
Just semantics?
In the post, Facebook’s vice president of advertising, Rob Goldman, addresses the question, “If I’m not paying for Facebook, am I the product?”
“No,” is Goldman’s answer. “Our product is social media – the ability to connect with the people that matter to you, wherever they are in the world. It’s the same with a free search engine, website or newspaper. The core product is reading the news or finding information – and the ads exist to fund that experience.”
While Goldman is quick to compare Facebook to a “website or newspaper”, the social media platform has historically fought against any suggestion that it’s a media company.
In fact, when questioned by the US Senate as to which companies are Facebook’s direct competitors, CEO Mark Zuckerberg struggled to come up with an answer.
No such thing as a free lunch
It’s hard to define what service Facebook truly offers, even for its CEO. It not only owns the world’s largest social media network, but sells advertising space and, now, hardware such as the Oculus Rift VR headset and it’s seemingly delayed smart speakers.
While the company may claim its main product is the social media site itself, it’s not hard to understand why Goldman’s statement rings hollow.
Strictly following the flow of money, Facebook’s free social networking site is largely able to make a profit through the collation and collection of user data, which is then supplied (usually indirectly) to advertisers in order to target ads.
Most would argue that this structure makes the advertisers the clients – no matter how Facebook wants to spin it – and this blog post likely won’t do much to change that perception.
Best VR Headset Buying Guide: Welcome to TechRadar’s round-up of the best Virtual Reality Headsets on PCs, phones and consoles you can buy in 2018.
Update: Can smartphone-powered VR compete with their PC-tethered counterparts?
To find out for sure, check out ourGoogle Daydream View (2017) review. Here’s a teaser: while not nearly near as powerful or robust as the likes of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, we were impressed with the variety of VR content on offer with Google’s mobile headset, plus its capability for running virtual reality right from a phone.
The big question is whether standalone VR headsets will usurp mobile VR as the new way to VR game on the go. With the Oculus Go rumored to launch soon, we likely don’t have long before we find out.
Original article continues below…
The best VR headset can be a hard thing to pin down, especially when virtual reality devices are getting ever-more advanced while at the same time dropping their prices to all-time lows.
Permanent price drops have swept across the high-end VR landscape, making it more and more difficult to choose between headsets that each bring something unique to the table.
Decisions are complicated by the fact that there is seemingly a new VR headset or significant advancement to an existing one every day. Where once Oculus Rift and HTC Vive dominated the best VR headset conversation, new headsets are springing up left and right, some even without wires.
On the flip side, more powerful VR headsets are coming to the fore as well. The HTC Vive Pro, which releases on April 5, is an sizeable upgrade over the HTC Vive that also comes at the sizeable price of $799 / £799 (about AU$1,015).
Then, of course, there are the mobile headsets, namely the Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream View. These, too, are about to meet a major rival in the form of the standalone Oculus Go.
You can skip down below to see our choices and explanations in depth, but it’s important to note that permanent price cuts have brought the so-called traditional VR headsets more closely in line with one another.
The four best on the market right now, the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro and PlayStation VR, are unsurprisingly also the most expensive of all the mainstream VR headset offerings. These four offer unparalleled immersion through superior refresh rates, extremely high resolutions, and both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift offer room-scale tracking and motion controllers for your hands right out of the box.
You get much the same perks with the HTC Vive Pro, except it doesn’t include any accessories in the box, yet.
Each headset has its own distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and if you’re not aware of these before you buy, it could be a very costly mistake to make. But that’s exactly why we put this guide together.
And, if you want less expensive fare, our guide also includes two mobile VR headsets for your consideration.
The best VR headset: HTC Vive
HTC Vive reigns over the competition
Availability: Out now | Price: $499 / £499 / about AU$615
Best overall VR experience
Software partnership with Valve
Requires a high-end GPU
Still expensive
When it originally released, the HTC Vive was streets ahead of its nearest competitor, the Oculus Rift. It supported room-scale tracking out of the box, and came with two motion controllers that allowed it to offer a much more immersive experience.
Now, however, the gap has narrowed. Nowadays the Oculus Rift matches much of the Vive’s functionality and includes two motion controllers of its own.
But the Vive still has the edge over the Oculus because, for our money, the room-scale tracking is that much better. The feature allows you to walk around a space that’s 4.5 x 4.5m big, adding another dimension to the feeling of presence that you experience while using it; you’re not just pressing up on an analogue stick, you’re using your legs to walk.
That’s if you have enough space in your real room, of course.
The headset itself contains two 1080p screens which makes for a very crisp image. Unfortunately it’s not quite high-resolution enough to prevent you from being able to discern individual pixels when you wear it, and the HTC Vive Pro, with its 78% increase in dots per inch, offers a much sharper screen in addition to built-in audio, which the original Vive lacks.
However, despite not being the latest and greatest Vive, where the original HTC gains back points is in its price.
Though it’s still more expensive than Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive Pro has a few shortcomings that don’t quite justify its high price tag. For the regular user who doesn’t have the funds to buy an HTC Vive Pro, the HTC Vive offers a still-excellent experience for less cost.
Virtual reality has made it to consoles, and it’s stunning
Availability: Out now | Price: $299 / £259 / AU$655
Affordable
Near PC-quality performance
Good selection of games
Lacking required accessories in box
Poor job sealing out light
Spotty motion controller tracking
There’s no getting around the fact that in order to run either the HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro or the Oculus Rift you need a pretty substantial gaming PC, which is a hefty investment for most people.
That’s not the case with Sony’s PlayStation VR, which requires little more than a PS4 console to run.
Considering the huge difference in power between the PS4 and PC, the PlayStation VR is a surprisingly capable virtual reality headset. Its refresh rate is nice and responsive, and we’ve had no problems with the reliability of its head-tracking.
Thanks to Sony’s backing, the selection of PlayStation VR games is also impressive. There were dozens available at launch, and many more have followed over its first year on sale.
Sony has addressed one of our biggest complaints with the PlayStation VR – that its accessories are sold separately – by offering a variety of packs and bundles with devices like the PlayStation Camera included. However, PlayStation Move controllers, while are included in some bundles, aren’t in every one.
While you have to be wary of the additional charges involved, depending on what bundle you opt for, recent price cuts have made the PlayStation VR even more affordable. It may not be the top VR headset, but the PSVR is certainly making a strong case to users.
Despite some hiccups, Oculus Rift will take your breath away
Availability: Out now | Price: $399 / £499 / AU$649
VR pioneers
Facebook backing
Room-scale isn’t as good
The current VR arms race is all thanks to one man: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. As a teenager, Luckey collected VR tech and was fascinated with making his own headset in his garage. Numerous prototypes and a $2 billion Facebook buyout later, Oculus is still the biggest name in VR.
It’s seen some decent upgrades over the years thanks to the inclusion of the Touch controllers (which we’d argue are slightly superior to the Vive’s), and a couple of key price drops.
Yet, compared to the HTC Vive’s room-scale technology, the Rift isn’t quite as good. The reason is that while the Vive is designed to let you walk around in any direction, by default the Rift has you place its two sensors in front of you. This means that the tracking is more single-sided, and you can’t let yourself get turned around, or else the sensors will lose track of you.
The experience is a bit different when you add a third sensor to the mix, but if you’re comparing apples-to-apples, we still believe the Vive does room-scale a heck of a lot better.
That being said, by being cheaper than the Vive, the Oculus Rift offers a very compelling mid-range virtual reality option for those with less space to spare.
Availability: Out now | Price: $799 / £799 / about AU$1,015
High resolution display
Blocks out light better than HTC Vive
Built-in headphones
Most expensive VR headset
Setup is difficult
Headphones can crackle
The newest high-end VR headset in town comes packing a lot of impressive specs. Take, for instance, the HTC Vive Pro resolution of 2880 x 1600, offering a 78% increase in dots per inch than the HTC Vive.
This means ultra-crisp visual fidelity that lets you experience textures and shadows in a way previously impossible in VR.
But the HTC Vive Pro perks don’t end there. There’s also the addition of built-in headphones and new nose guards that do a better job of blocking out light than the HTC Vive. All told, the HTC Vive Pro is a clear evolution in both design and tech on the older HTC Vive.
However, for all its shiny new specs, new navy blue color and a game library that’s sure to grow, the HTC Vive Pro has some serious flaws.
The main one is obvious: it’s expensive. It costs the same as the HTC Vive did at launch, and it doesn’t come with any accessories in the box. That’s right: you’ll have to buy controllers and sensors separately, at least until a bundle is available later in 2018.
Setup is also a challenge with the Vive Pro because all of your firmware has to be as up-to-date as possible. Even then, you may run into some challenges, which could deter the average user from jumping into the Vive Pro experience.
Because of its price, its challenging setup and the fact that the still-excellent HTC Vive is now much less expensive, the HTC Vive Pro is likely best suited for VR enthusiasts and arcade owners. It’s still an awesome headset, just one that’s probably not for everyone.
Availability: Out now | Price: $129 / about £100 / about AU$120
Light weight
Supports several Samsung phones
Pricier than Google Daydream View
You can’t recharge the controller batteries
Samsung Gear VR has always been a respectable smartphone-powered VR headset, but now that it has a motion controller, it’s taken things to the next level.
In addition to the new controller, the updated Gear VR is lighter and more streamlined than before, and features a USB-C connector that hooks directly to a Samsung Galaxy phone.
The included motion controller has undertones of the HTC Vive controller design, with a touchpad and trigger button, which aren’t bad things. It’s with the controller that the Gear VR really takes off, allowing you to interact with the VR worlds in front of you in a way previously impossible without it.
Of course, being powered by a smartphone, the headset’s performance is entirely dependent on the phone you’ve slotted in, though in our experience this isn’t a problem considering the power behind Samsung’s higher-end handsets. However, if you’re using an older Galaxy phone, your experience could be noticeably different.
As Oculus prepares to launch the Oculus Go standalone headset, the question of where smartphone-powered devices like Gear VR fit only becomes more pertinent. But since the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR share an app and game library, you can expect support for the Gear VR to continue for quite some time.
An improvement over the original, but there’s not a ton here
Availability: Out now | Price: $99 / £99 / around AU$125
Decent VR for a mobile headset
Feels good in the hand
Heavy in the front
Lacks compelling content
If you own an Android phone (that’s not necessarily a Galaxy) and want to get into virtual reality without spending a fortune on a headset and PC set up, then consider the Google Daydream View (2017) a viable option.
What makes this headset compelling is its price; it’s less than $100 / £100, and a recent discount has made it even cheaper, at least for the time being.
It’s also an easy headset for just about anyone to use. Not only does it require little on your part aside from installing an app on your phone, but once you’re inside the VR world, navigating to and fro is easy with the included controller.
You won’t get the deeply immersive worlds of a higher-end, PC-powered VR headset with the Google Daydream View, but you will get a device that’s made of a nice material, works with many of the best Android phones, and, did we mention how inexpensive it is?
The content on offer isn’t very compelling – there’s not a ton to draw you back for multiple play sessions – but it is varied and offers a little something for everyone.
This isn’t the best VR headset on the market, by far, but it is an easy way to get into VR for Android phone owners. And that, really, could be all you need to know.
