Mobile VR headsets offer a easy and affordable means of showing 360 video’s. Managing and playing the content can be a real hassle. Especially if you want to show your 360 content to multiple people a the same time. In this article we’ll discuss how you can easily Sync 360 video’s on mobile VR headsets.  The following will be covered.

Choosing the right mobile VR headsets
How to prepare your 360 video and headsets
Software for syncing of 360 video’s
Playing 360 video’s on mobile VR headsets

Choosing the right mobile VR headsets

Mobile headsets are VR devices which require no additional, external hardware or input to play virtual reality content. They are ideal for content like 360 video’s and simple games. For events and synchronized VR experiences they are also recommended.

At the moment the best mobile VR headsets is the Oculus GO. All necessary hardware is included and it offers the best experience in terms of quality, comfort and handling. It also the most affordable mobile VR headsets at just 220 euro’s. If you would like to know more, read our piece about what Oculus Go means for large VR events.

The second best choice is the Gear VR. It offers a good experience with a screen resolution similar to the Oculus GO and comparable level of comfort and battery life. It costs twice as much has issues with overheating and can handle a lower FPS and bitrate.  Below you’ll find a comparison of the two.

Oculus GO Gear VR

  • Resolution 4096 x 2048 3840 x 1920
  • Codecs H.264 en h.265 H.264 en h.265
  • Filesize 9,4 GB 700 mb
  • Length no limit 10 minutes
  • Bitrate 40 Mb/s 16 Mb/s
  • FPS 60 30

If you already have access to Android devices you can also use a generic VR headset like a Google Cardboard or one of the many plastics VR devices. These offer a cheap solution but the quality of the video playback, comfort and general experience also feels less high end.

How to prepare your 360 video and headsets

Once you’ve selected your mobile VR headset it’s time to prepare them for synchronization. The first step is downloading the VR Sync app on each device, it can be found on the relevant app stores. Assuming you’ve choose 360 video the second step is checking if the content matches the recommended settings, featured above. You can check the specs of your content by right clicking it and selecting ‘properties’.

The second step is uploading the content to your devices. We advise using special software like our VR Sync solution. This allows you to upload the content to our online content manager. From here you can automatically push the content to each device which has our app installed. This is done automatically and wirelessly. Just need to upload and push once, no matter how many mobile VR headsets you want to sync,

Testing your 360 video on mobile headsets.

Once all you content is on the devices we strongly recommend testing to see if the devices playback the content properly. Simply use our web remote to start and stop playback. You can loop the content with our web remote and monitor if there is no issue with playback or the battery levels of each device. We suggest running the content for at least four times as long. Thus making sure there are no issues at the moment supreme.  

Using VR Syncing software to sync mobile VR headsets
Using synchronization software to prepare and testis a real time (and trouble) saver. However, the software really shines at an event or presentation. With just a push of a button you can start playback to an unlimited amount of devices at exact the same time. Using the grouping function you can even play specific content to groups of devices.  You can even monitor playback and create a playlist for smooth experience.

Conclusion
Mobile headsets are the way to go to sync 360 video’s with Oculus GO being on top.  Using dedicated software like VR Sync is really helpful when preparing, testing and syncing the experience. If you would like more information or a trial license please go to our website.