If you own one of Sony’s PlayStation VR headsets then you can now enjoy YouTube’s 360° VR videos with your unit. The support was added via the app’s latest version (1.09).
Worth noting that some Reddit users who tried the update noted that the quality wasn’t great, likely due to videos maxing out at 1080p and having to stretch across a 100 degree field of view. One user explained:
The entire video is 1080p, but that’s stretched across the full 360 degrees of view, so the 100 degree FOV you have on the PSVR is getting approximately 100/360 * 1920 (pixels wide) = approximately 533 pixels diameter, which gives you about 223,402 pixels total, which is 0.2 megapixels. That’s the 16×9 equivalent of approximately 354p.
So the video file is 1080p, but you visually see the equivalent of 354p because it’s stretched across the entire 360 degree field. That’s the reason Google recommends encoding 360 degree videos in 4K. I’m not sure whether the PS4 app is compatible with 4K video or not, but if it is, 4K 360 videos should display at the PSVR’s native resolution (which is the equivalent of approximately 680p per eye).
The update is in the process of being rolled out.
