Watching movies in virtual reality

So last year my cell phone died and I finally had to upgrade to a smartphone. Ever since I saw The Lawnmower Man in 1992 I wanted to do virtual reality. I waited 24 years to do it. Now I only have mobile VR at this time. I can't afford a Vive or Oculus but just running Google Cardboard apps is impressive. But one of the coolest things I can do, which I never thought possible, is to watch your favorite videos and movies on a simulated movie theater screen.

I have a few different VR theaters now. With one of them, I can choose my seat, the size of the screen, even the color of the dim lights. Put on bluetooth headphones and you've got your own private movie theater.

As I keep stating like a broken record, I'm a huge fan of Event Horizon and saw it theatrically twelve times during it's original run. When it finally left theaters I felt bummed out. But now twenty years later I can re-experience that same jaw dropping awesomeness, with amazing sound. It's ironic that I'm watching a movie on what appears to be a giant screen, yet I'm actually watching it on probably the smallest screen yet.

It really is a good simulation of the experience and the novelty has yet to wear off. I've also gotten the chance to see other favorite movies that I missed the first time around. Nightbreed was impressive as hell.

In the future, we'll have VR theaters where you can invite friends to watch with you, regardless of where they actually are in the world.

Oh gee I have the plastic thing based on the google cardboard I have to check this out.

Looking for an MMO 1st person that supports Oculus Rift and Omni to get into so I never have to leave the house again but at the same time can travel to different worlds.

Sounds really cool. Is it hard on the eyes after a long period of time?

dogboy said:

Sounds really cool. Is it hard on the eyes after a long period of time?

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Not with my goggles. I have an off-brand Android phone but it came with a set of goggles and is made for mobile VR. The only real issue it gives is the lenses can fog up if you're head is warmer the surrounding environment but apparently you can solve that by hitting the goggles with a hair dryer for a few seconds to warm them up.

I'm really not familiar with Oculus or Vive as of yet. Samsung Gear is closer to what I'm using. My goggles give what seems to be about 100% of vision. You get a slight binocular vision effect. In other words, no peripheral vision. But if you're just looking straight ahead anyways it really doesn't matter.

I don't find it hard on my eyes at all. There have been a few games that gave me temporary double-vision but so far, my theaters haven't done that. I also wear glasses but find I don't need them in VR. I'm near-sighted so maybe I don't need the glasses for looking at a screen two inches away.

Thanks Tommycombs for the info. I never know what I may get into next...haha.

dogboy said:

Thanks Tommycombs for the info. I never know what I may get into next...haha.

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Well, that's why I started the thread. I was under the assumption that VR was far more mainstream than it really is. When I found out about the whole simulated movie theater thing, that was the point where the idea was sold. I was bugging my family to get a projector but this is actually somewhat better. You can have your own private theater on the go. Might be good for long trips, etc. With many of the apps you can also lock the screen so it stays centered in your vision. That way, you can lie down in bed, or otherwise move around and it won't spin the screen away from you. It also works if your phone's gyro causes slow drift.

I took the liberty of taking a couple pics with my other camera. Keep in mind that the fisheye distortion is corrected with the goggle's lenses so this isn't exactly what it looks like. The first pic is from Go Show 217. I picked a seat near the edge so you could see what the theater looks like.

The second pic, with Rugrats is VU Cinema Pro. This is the optional IMAX screen. You also get a regular theater screen, plus a home theater environment.

Optional Imax sounds cool. My wife and I saw "Jungle Book" in Imax, 3-D and it was awesome. Having something similar at home would be amazing. It would be cool if they eventually have it in 3-D. I didn't think I would like 3-D until I saw the new 3-D. They've made a lot of improvements over the years. The new Disney "Jungle Book" movie is a great movie to see, especially for us "littles".

dogboy said:

Optional Imax sounds cool. My wife and I saw "Jungle Book" in Imax, 3-D and it was awesome. Having something similar at home would be amazing. It would be cool if they eventually have it in 3-D. I didn't think I would like 3-D until I saw the new 3-D. They've made a lot of improvements over the years. The new Disney "Jungle Book" movie is a great movie to see, especially for us "littles".

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You can watch 3D movies. Any kind. Even 360 degree videos. Side by side, over and under, even anaglyph 3D can be done with ease. Why not? It simulates the image for each eye. The pics I shared were only single images, not stereo.

Tommycombs said:

You can watch 3D movies. Any kind. Even 360 degree videos. Side by side, over and under, even anaglyph 3D can be done with ease. Why not? It simulates the image for each eye. The pics I shared were only single images, not stereo.

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Thanks for the info. It definitely sounds awesome.

In 2011, we got a small influx of money when my father-in-law passed away. We bought a 3D TV and Blu ray player plus the fancy-shmancy expensive glasses. Very cool set up. We've got a good amount of 3D blu rays. Then about a year ago, the expensive TV crapped out on us. So we can't do that anymore. This is a neat option for the time being.