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How to display Kodak SP360 4K movies on Gear VR correctly ?

Banzai
Explorer
Hi,

Since i have the Gear VR, i want to make VR movie content and share it online and offline to experience all kinds of places in VR. So i just recently bought the Kodak SP360 4K, went on an City trip and filmed a lot of interesting things which is suitable for VR viewing.

It's an 4K action cam which films in half-sphere in front, ground or ceiling view of point. I think that some situations or places filming in full 360 isn't necessary. It's also saves resources (video size, battery usage and other video time consuming processes)

The most used viewpoint i am using is the frontview with the display of the unit pointed above. The video settings that i am using is full 360x180 degrees on an resolution of (1:1) 8MP: 2880x2880. The raw output is an global viewpoint file (Example file : Berliner Dome_RAW_2880x2880_SP360_4K.MP4)

Kodak has an free downloadable Video Conversion tool available on there website called Kodak PixPro SP360 4K. With this tool i can unfold the video with they called an ''Youtube'' compatible óutput resolution. I am using the frontview mode and the resolution 3840x1920. This converted file can be uploaded to YouTube and plays fine in 360 view. Only the other side of the half-sphere is black and the side where the camera was pointed to is freely visible in 360x180.

But in Gear VR (with an Samsung Note 4 in my case) al those output files doesn't play well. The video is black, but you can hear the sound !

So i tried a couple of options :

1. i have loaded the folded and unfold files in an Video Editor (Pinnacle Studio 18 for example) and exported it to their standaard 4K mp4 template. (Example (unfolded) file : Berliner Dome_PixPro_Encoded_3840x1920.mp4 or in the resolution that is given as advice : Berliner Dome_software_encoded_2880x1440.MP4

This file plays well in Gear VR and you can look around like the YouTube version, but there's one annoying difference. In the above and below middle section of the video on the good side of the half-sphere, you will see small black Circles. It looks very strange because around this circle, the video is still visible until the border of the black half sphere, which has no video content. It's like an black moon in the sky :twisted: and an black hole in the ground :?



Does somebody has any tips to convert these Kodak RAW or YouTube converted files to usable Gear VR files ? I tried the Photoshop, resize Canvas 200% method, but it's already limited in frames. Any help will be appreciated !

I have also tried to convert the Berliner Dome_RAW_2880x2880_SP360_4K.MP4 file to the same resolution (no unfolding) to another MP4 file with an other codec. This files plays well in the adroid app VR player in Dome modus. It shows that unfolding is not necessary if the app supports this video file. It this possible with Oculus 360 Video ?

Thanks !

Wai

ps : i have uploaded the files, if somebody wants to give it an try, please feel free to try 🙂

http://we.tl/03j95bHkwP

Berliner Dome_RAW_2880x2880_SP360_4K.MP4 (raw format)
Berliner Dome_PixPro_Encoded_3840x1920.mp4 (converted from Pixpro to 4K MP4 in Pinnacle Studio 18)
Berliner Dome_software_encoded_2880x1440.MP4 (converted from Pixpro to MP4 in Pinnacle Studio 18)
5 REPLIES 5

scottoculus
Protege
Haven't had a chance to test a single Kodak yet (2 back to back make full 360 at decent resolution) but you might try to MilkVR player (available in U.S.)

You can set dome or 180 degrees and other special formats that the Oculus 360 app does not.

https://milkvr.com/#/content/faq

Banzai
Explorer
"scottoculus" wrote:
Haven't had a chance to test a single Kodak yet (2 back to back make full 360 at decent resolution) but you might try to MilkVR player (available in U.S.)

You can set dome or 180 degrees and other special formats that the Oculus 360 app does not.

https://milkvr.com/#/content/faq


Thanks for the tip, i will try it out. In the meantime i also tried the following :

After unfolding the raw video file (Berliner Dome_RAW_2880x2880_SP360_4K.MP4) into an 3840x1920 resolution mp4 file (the Youtube output option from Pixpro) again to an manual choosen 3840x1920 resolution mp4 file (codec H264, normal) with the program VidCoder-1.5.32-x64 (open source) i can play the file within Oculus Cinema without the dark circles !?

But this workflow takes too much times if i have to encode so many files 😞 and this output file which has been re-encoded 3 times, i still have to use them in an video editor and export that to an final movies.

There must be an easier solution i hope. The PIXPRO_SP360_4K convert program has 3 ''Youtube'' output resolution options :



Only 1920x960 works direcly on the Gear VR, the other two resolutions doesn't work in the Samsung S serie phones. Only sounds is available.

The strange thing is if i edit the 3840x1920 Kodak Pixpro generated file into Pinnacle Studio to 3840x1920 (h264), i get the black circles. If i convert the 3840x1920 Kodak Pixpro generated file into 3840x1920 (h264) with VidCoder-1.5.32-x64, it plays perfectly on the Gear VR.

I am going to ask it to Kodak too.

Expt626
Protege
Hi @Banzai,

Any updates?
I'm facing the same problem with my kodak sp360 too.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hey,
I recommend you to use Adobe Media Encoder CC 2015.
1- Import your Kodak 360 MP4 video. 
2- Set Format: H264
3- Set Resolution: 3920x1980
4- Set frame rate to 30fps
5- Set target bit rate to 20
6- Set maximum bit rate to 20
7- Encode! The resulting file size should be about a third of the original kodak one
8- Copy to the video file to your phone \Oculus\360Videos
9- Then just play it with Oculus Video with your GearVR

SamD360
Honored Guest
I encounter the same problem. Reason is, that the Kodak SP360 4K stitch software output uses another codec that can be played by Oculus only for resolutions up to 1920x980. If you stitch (or export) in higher resolutions in the Kodak software, the files won't play on Oculus. In fact, they don't play on Android at all (except for with VLC).

Reason for that is, that the Kodak software (in any resolution) outputs files with Codec MPEG-4 Video (mp4v) while the Oculus want's H264-MPEG4 AVC (part 10, avc1)

So far I have not found a solution to convince the Kodak Software to use another codec unfortunately.
I am re-encoding my 3840x1920 files with H264 after being exported by the Kodak software.
Having to re-encode is probably not-so-good for the output quality though 😞

Sam