One of the main appeals of the Oculus Quest is being able to watch TV and movies in VR. But how do you do it?
Oculus Videos
Oculus Video allows you to watch trailers, movies, your own videos or even VR porn in 4K through a variety of virtual environments on your Oculus Quest.
To download Oculus Video:
- On the Oculus Quest, select Search at the bottom-right of the home screen toolbar.
- Type video into the search field and select Go.
- Select Oculus Video, and Download.
Oculus Video can be used to watch:
- New, featured 360 videos
- 360 videos about movies, apps, and more
- Travel and nature videos from all over the world
- News and educational videos
- 360 horror videos
- Curated videos optimised for the Oculus Quest
- Videos you have taken on your Oculus Quest or videos you have transferred to your headset.
- Oculus Quest 2 Games
To watch a video in Oculus Video:
- Turn on your Oculus Go and put on your headsets.
- Select Library from the home screen toolbar.
- Open the app by selecting Oculus Video.
- Select a video category in the left menu, then select the video that you want to watch.
Watching With Friends
If you and a friend both have Oculus Quests, you can watch movies together without actually being together. There are lots of options to enjoy movies together with VR.
Bigscreen VR
Bigscreen VR was released in 2016 on PC VR headsets. Since then, it has expanded into a virtual cinema experience, with a public theatre lobby, paid screenings, and the ability to connect your desktop and stream your content with friends and strangers.
You can access a wide variety of 2D and £D content at any time. Thanks to team-ups with lots of big studios, you can watch from an impressive catalogue of films, including Star Trek, Top Gun, Transformers, Terminator, and many more.
You can head to the cinema with friends or create a private room to enjoy personal content together. Through the app, you can draw, throw popcorn, or even steal a bit of someone’s virtual soda as you watch.
Venues
Facebook has a new and improved platform for live music, sports, and other events in VR.
Venues comes with an avatar creator that lets you customise your in-game character with a range of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories. New shows and livestreams are always being hosted by Venues, from concerts by popular live acts like H.E.R and Major Lazer, to major events like sports competitions and The Game Awards. You and your friends can join the audience live or enjoy the show from a private viewing booth.
VRChat
One of the most popular socialVR platforms for Oculus Quest headsets is VRChat. VRChat offers a mix of video player plugins which allow you to get access to the web through specific video-built rooms. You can chat with your friends at the same time as browsing through YouTube playlists or explore the amazing worlds of VRChat. You can choose from a range of unique avatars or create one of your own. You can then build your own environments and games, go to live events, or take part in lots of other virtual activities with a large player-base of VR and PC users.
Skybox
Skybox VR Video Player is designed for single users for solo viewing, but it’s still worth knowing about. It is one of the most versatile video apps that is currently available in VR, as it allows users to sideload their favourite media directly to the Oculus Quest headset. This means it is the perfect app to have with you when you’re travelling, as you will be able to access all kinds of content, even without an internet connection. Skybox VR Player is also compatible with a big range of video formats and even has support for 360-degree and VR180 video. You can choose between different environments, change the size of your screen, change your viewing angle, and stream video from your desktop straight to your headset. It’s a very versatile app that is ideal in many different scenarios.
These are just a handful of the different apps available for using your Oculus Quest for movies or other entertainment, either alone or with friends. As the pandemic has shown us, these kinds of experiences have more of a place than ever before, so the movie viewing experience through VR is only set to improve and become more widespread in the next few years. Whether you want to watch a movie alone, or hit the virtual cinema with a friend, Oculus Quest is the answer.
