Is No One Talking about the Gear VR2?

D

Ducman69

[H]F Junkie
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Jul 12, 2007
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Did a search and nothing comes up.

http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/wearables/samsung-gear-vr-s6-1286670/review

qantas-samsung-vr2.jpg


Q: Wot m8, da fug is dad booshid?
A: A second generation plastic cradle/dock designed for the Galaxy S6/S6-Edge that houses focus-able lenses and a small fan to avoid lens fogging that you strap on your head. It has a port that you can charge it from, and I have one of those lithium packs I plug in that goes in my shirt pocket and works great, otherwise it drains the phone battery fast. Best to use with wired headphones/buds.

Pros:
1) Shitballs is VR amazing! So much better than my really crappy first experience back in the day. My first question of course was "ya ya, but is there porn for it", and the answer is yes and 3D boobs up in your grill is pretty awesome (virtual real porn is a big content provider). Brings new meaning to first-person-shooter.

2) I feared the headtracking would be like TrackIR5 for the PC which I have, and no way Jose it is about a kajillionx10^zillion times better. It just WORKS... period. And yes, in the theater mode if you set it to "blank" or whatever its called theater, if you lay down or recline in an airplane seat or whatever it automatically asks you if you want to reorient the screen.

3) I hate mobile gaming... hate. Like Hitler/Jew relationship status. But with VR... k, yeah, that's pretty cool. Daddy like.

4) Watching your own content in theater mode, its not going to rival my projector/home theater setup at home, but for my super long flight to Thailand I can see this being a KILLER way to waste time as it really does kinda feel like you're sitting in a movie theater with some popcorn, or on the surface of the moon looking down at Earth (all kinds of weird modes that are actually pretty awesome, considering how the light from the screen reflects off the environment).

5) Good seal with memory foam stuff on there and zero light leakage on even my Edge model which I was worried about.

Cons:
1) Resolution: The screen door effect is supposedly reduced on the Galaxy S6 version compared to the VR1, but its still definitely there. You really notice the hit in resolution when watching TV shows and people are walking from the distance and I can't even make out who they are as there just isn't enough resolution there. It does help to re-encode your own video (and you may have to, that's another con) with really high bitrate 720p footage. Its not horrible, but its definitely a step backwards like going from BluRay back to DVD.

2) It won't play back DTS audio, just stereo (or some other proprietary surround sound thing, forget the name) because they didn't want to pay the license... cheap bastards! Playing back 1080p is a waste, and the S6 has no SD card, so best to keep high bitrate 720p encoding stereo sound with handbrake.

3) OVERHEATING! My phone was overheating after about 20 mins, but I was able to resolve it by completely wiping my phone (and phone cache), setting it up as a new device, and also directing a desk fan at my head. No heat issues have occurred yet, but googling I found I'm not alone. That works at home and maybe even on a flight since you can direct those fan things at your head, but maybe not everywhere. I also wasn't using the external battery pack before which supplies the power, and that may also have helped reduce temps.

4) BULKY/Hard to keep clean! Its a bigass device (although 15% ligher and with more/better straps than VR1 model), and I have two cats and you really need a compressed can of air because not only do you have to worry about the inside part like on a Oculus, but because the phone unclicks and exposes the other side of the lenses, that's another surface to keep debris off. A single hair magnified is very noticeable. It does come with a nice microfiber thingy, but expect you'll have to wipe the lenses on both sides, blow compressed air, and of course any fingerprints off your phone every time before you use it.

5) Overpriced... its $200 for what isn't all that fancy of tech. It should really be half that as a reasonable street price.
 
I think that everything you wrote in red is why nobody really cares much. Still too new and impractical imo.
 
What lloose said.

And I'm not paying $200 for something that requires me to have a specific (Samsung at that) phone that changes every year or so. I don't anticipate wanting to own a Samsung phone in the foreseeable future in the first place either though. Even if I had a Samsung phone and planned on buying them, I wouldn't buy one at that price, maayyybe if it was $100.
 
T4rd said:
And I'm not paying $200 for something that requires me to have a specific (Samsung at that) phone that changes every year or so. I don't anticipate wanting to own a Samsung phone in the foreseeable future in the first place either though. Even if I had a Samsung phone and planned on buying them, I wouldn't buy one at that price, maayyybe if it was $100.
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This. I'm willing to wait a year or two until these either work with all major flagship phones or the headset is standalone like the HTC Vive.
 
Grandma was right all these years after all. If you sit too close to the screen, you'll go blind.
 
CHANG3D said:
I'd rather wait for the oculus rift for that money.
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I'm probably going to get a Rift too, but I don't think they compete. Granted you could use a laptop, but for the most part the Rift is usually going to be something you keep at home by your main rig wired into your computer.

This uses a phone, so is something you could more reasonably use on the go.

Regarding the Galaxy S6 Edge, I was given the option between a regular S6, Edge, iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, and the LG G4, and while none were horrible, personally I thought the S6 Edge was the nicest of them. Not sure why the hate... *shrugs*

Regarding a headset that can use any phone in the future, I don't see that as feasible. The optics, cradle, and software really need to be designed in a unified way to get the most out of them, and if you like Apple products, they will be the absolute last player to the table years late so don't hold your breath.

I don't change my phone every year though as was suggested, and when I do change it in probably three years, there will probably be more advanced VR headsets as well, so the VR2 will be sold along with the S6 Edge (perhaps together). To be perfectly honest, I'm far more worried about the resale value of my expensive ass $1000 computer monitor, TV, projector, etc., as five years from now with the pace of LCD and VR tech that they will be pretty much obsolete, and that's way more invested than a little $200 headset.

Regarding my cons though, most peeps here know that you could present me a super model and I will point out all her imperfections as I'm not easy to impress and will gladly point out flaws, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't ride her rotten or deter you from the same, so you owe it to yourself to try one of these out if they have a demo unit available somewhere. :)

PS: Speaking of demos, the only thing horribly disappointing are the built in landscape 360o demos. Apparently they didn't want to use up too much memory for just samples, so they are horribly compressed and ugly. The 360o 3D Photos are a better example of the maximum quality the unit can do if testing one.
 
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Skripka said:
And...wrecks your eyesight...
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If I believed that, I'd return it right now, as I'm still in the two week Amazon period. I researched and found no evidence it has any negative effect. I haven't experienced any eye strain, although like I do with anything I usually take a break once an hour to take a wizz and stretch and what not.
 
BTW, it looks like some Best Buys may have demo units available, so you can decide for yourself. I'm more critical than most, like this reviewer that said its hands down the best VR experience currently available: http://www.roadtovr.com/samsung-gear-vr-for-s6-hands-on-the-best-picture-quality-weve-ever-seen/
I have to say that it delivers the best picture quality we’ve ever seen in a VR headset. The 577 PPI pixel density of the S6’s 2560×1440 display is fantastic, removing the screendoor effect that has plagued headsets for years (the Note 4 used in the original Gear VR has a larger display of the same resolution, resulting in a lower pixel density).
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I disagree, but certainly everyone says it has LESS screen door effect. The lighter a scene, the more obvious the screen door is for obvious reasons, since you'll see the fine black mesh. Personally, I don't think we'll see the mesh disappear entirely until the new 4K 5" displays come out.

The 577 PPI of the S6 is the highest on the market right now though, and higher resolution is going to need even more than the 3GB of RAM and a more powerful chip.
 
This is another reason I don't like the gear VR. The phone's display is still a bit low in resolution to do VR properly and is way too high to matter on a small phone display. I think 577 PPI is extremely excessive for a phone display, where power efficiency and battery life should take much more precedence over an imperceivable PPI bump (because there is definitely a trade off there), esp. when Samsung is using these smaller batteries (compared to their previous gen phones and their competitors) as well. These VR units should be standalone units with their own super high res display, battery packs/power supplies, software, and hardware. Esp. when it burns your phone up so bad you have to point a fan at your face to keep it from overheating, lol. I'd imagine this kills the battery pretty fast in both its short and long term charge capacity due to the heat alone. So if you do actually keep your phone for 2-3 years and use this VR frequently, I'd be pretty concerned about that battery wearing out somewhat prematurely. Fortunately, the battery in the S6 looks somewhat easy to replace from what I've seen on Youtube, you just have to get some new adhesive strips to put the backing back on. Not nearly as easy as the iPhone 6 is though.
 
The heat issue is not specific to VR gaming but rather gaming in general on the s6. It should have been made thicker with a metal heat sink back plate instead of glass.

The problem with a standalone device is obviously going to be cost as these phones have many hundreds of dollars of high end hardware in them unsubsidized, or you're tethered to a computer. Higher resolution phones are already being talked about, especially with phablets.

And if those devices don't get higher resolution LCDs I don't think VR market can afford the needed economy of scale to not cost a fortune. VR headsets are always going to be using mainstream phone or phablets lcd one WY or another.
 
Ducman69 said:
And if those devices don't get higher resolution LCDs I don't think VR market can afford the needed economy of scale to not cost a fortune. VR headsets are always going to be using mainstream phone or phablets lcd one WY or another.
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Not really. It's not that expensive to make custom spec LCDs at high enough scale. If these devices take off, they'll be standalone units with custom LCD panels (likely individual panels for each eye with curvature). These ones that either use the panels from phones or actually require you to slot a phone into them are just a stopgap while the tech gets worked out.
 
CEpeep said:
Not really. It's not that expensive to make custom spec LCDs at high enough scale.
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I'm glad you think so. List three VR headsets that don't use LCDs from smartphones.
CEpeep said:
If these devices take off, they'll be standalone units with custom LCD panels (likely individual panels for each eye with curvature). These ones that either use the panels from phones or actually require you to slot a phone into them are just a stopgap while the tech gets worked out.
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So VR headsets are going to take off by using tech that is non-existent in the market place. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I think it kinda needs to take off first before non-existent tech can be manufactured in sufficient quantity to be worthwhile, and that means using existing technology, like, smartphone screens!

And again, so now you have an LCD panel, great! Now what? What processor are you going to use to run it? How about the most powerful mobile processor currently on the market, like the Exynos 7420. Now what? You need some kind of battery right, something that isn't too heavy since you're wearing it on your face, so lets throw on say a 2,550mAh internal battery, with a port to hook up a AC-powered charger or an external battery pack for extended usage. Now what? Oh, you need sound right, so some like earbuds some like over the ear and everyone has different preferences so just stick a regular mini-stereo out on there. Now what? OK so it needs an operating system so lets run it on say Android. Now what? Oh yeah, well I guess its going to need say 3GB of memory and at least 32GB of storage for the OS and files and what not.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, we've basically just assembled a Galaxy S6, except in really low production numbers so we have no economy of scale. If an S6 has a street price of $550 or so but you're manufacturing at maybe 1/100th the units so it will probably cost you $750 to make any profit, and you need some quality optics and a fan and memory foam and all that good stuff so say another $100 for that... how many people are going to buy a $850 VR headset? $100-200 extra on something you already own anyway, sure, but $850? I wouldn't buy that, and I'm a big VR convert.

Now headsets like the Oculus are tethered to a computer for pretty much everything, but even that is $350 and while most of us already have an expensive gaming rig to power that high resolution, if you aren't going to factor in an existing smartphone cost then you can't factor in an existing high end computer so add another $1000+ to that price.

And this is somehow going to take off again in a chicken/egg scenario using custom designed LCDs and what not specifically made for VR headsets and nothing else?

Doesn't add up, which is why the Oculus Rift relies on a LG G2 LCD and the Gear VR2 a Samsung S6 LCD, and there's really only two ways forward; phone docks and PC tethered devices and those aren't really directly competitive. And 4K phones/phablets are coming 2016 or 2017 latest anyway, mark my word. Bump this and say "hah hah" then, but I'm pretty sure I'll be right.
 
Ducman69 said:
I'm glad you think so. List three VR headsets that don't use LCDs from smartphones.

So VR headsets are going to take off by using tech that is non-existent in the market place. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I think it kinda needs to take off first before non-existent tech can be manufactured in sufficient quantity to be worthwhile, and that means using existing technology, like, smartphone screens!
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Isn't that exactly what I said? If you want to be an early adopter and use a model based on smartphone parts, go for it. I'll wait until the market shakes them out.

Ducman69 said:
And again, so now you have an LCD panel, great! Now what? What processor are you going to use to run it?
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a Core i5 with an R290 is about the bare minimum for actually building real immersive 3D experiences, that's why it's the bottom spec for the Oculus. No mobile processor comes close, it might be half a decade or more. The rest of your post kind of waxes on about phones that I don't care about and will never own, but are vastly underpowered for this sort of tech. As I said before, it's cool that you are an early adopter, but the market right now isn't backing up your enthusiasm. You could have made a post just like this one about Google Glass 2 years ago, or even one like this about the Apple Watch 4 months ago. This tech needs time, and even if an early model seems to hit it out of the park, it pales in comparison to what it will be when it eventually gains traction and real market penetration.
 
I demo'd this a couple weeks back in Dallas. I have to say it was amazing. To the point were I was getting vertigo from the demo I was watching. It felt that real. Everything was very fluid. Looking around by moving my head or turning my body was instant with no lag.

I'd buy one.
 
CEpeep said:
Isn't that exactly what I said? If you want to be an early adopter and use a model based on smartphone parts, go for it. I'll wait until the market shakes them out.
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Only way that happens is if the smartphone screen based headsets are a huge success in the first place, so much so to warrant independent manufacturing.
CEpeep said:
a Core i5 with an R290 is about the bare minimum for actually building real immersive 3D experiences, that's why it's the bottom spec for the Oculus.
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Right, so you're either tethered to a PC, and still using a smartphone screen, or you're using a smartphone in the first place if you don't want to be tethered. Certainly there's an appeal to having a totally wireless VR headset, I know I'm enjoying that at least, and will surely get an Oculus too eventually at release.

But remember that "immersive" 3D doesn't mean realistic. A cartoonish super mario world that you're jumping around in is still immersive. But S6 graphics actually aren't as horrific as you might think, as you can see on Gunjack which is launching soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2aruO5jAY

More realistically though, its going to be less about gaming and more about content consumption with 3D 180o or 360o movies, pictures, live streaming events, etc. How much more fun for example would it be to watch a boxing match in 3D as if you were standing holding the ropes and can look around as if you're right there, compared to say just watching it on TV. :)

Big market for pure content consumption, and I think mobile processors can handle that.
 
I have an Oculus DK2. 1080p is definitely not enough. You can see the pixels clearly. Despite this, playing Skyrim gives you an pretty good immersive experience. You'd want to reach out to touch what you see... .

Also tried 1440p VR on the LG G3 with its VR goggle - http://www.lg.com/us/mobile-phones/g3/vr
Was pleasantly surprised how much less grainy VR looks, but 60Hz refresh rate can't keep it smooth.

1440p @ 75Hz is the minimum imo. 4K @ 75Hz should blow our minds. :D
 
4K will definitely be a game changer, but for those with a Galaxy S6, it is currently the highest PPI display of its size on the market. Nothing else that I know of is higher. I also don't know of any phone that has a more powerful processor, so its a good match for this as of right now.

And remember how I was saying I thought this is really sweet technology, but it needs to be $100 instead of $200.

Its $100: http://slickdeals.net/f/8071952-sam...99-after-100-ir-shipped-at-samsung-com-w-code

:D

I just processed my Amazon return and ordered a replacement from there for half the price. Woot!
 
^^^ looks like that's the older version. Says nothing about "VR2" or are you just saying it's the version that goes with the s6 and note4.
 
kirbyrj said:
^^^ looks like that's the older version. Says nothing about "VR2" or are you just saying it's the version that goes with the s6 and note4.
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VR1 = first model that came out, works only with the note 4
VR2 = second model that came out with upgrades learned from the VR1, works only with the S6

So the VR1 and the VR2 are the same price, $99.

There is word that a consumer edition, aka VR3, will be coming out when Samsung releases a 4K smartphone to market, but will note likely work with any previous phones. The reason is that you really need to tailor the optics to match the screen precisely for best performance. And of course you don't want any wasted screen size or light bleed, and different phones are different shapes.
 
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