Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Exploring Spatial Video: What It’s Like to View, Shoot 3D iPhone Videos”.
The era of recording 3D video on the iPhone has arrived, but uh you just can’t really do anything with it. Yet Apple released the ability to record spatial video on the iPhone 15 Pro in the iOS 17.2 public beta. So it’s only in the Beta release, but the idea is that going forward, you can record your memories in a format that can be played back on Apple’s Vision, Pro headset when it comes out next year now. Normally, I would not recommend people download a beta version of an iOS update, but if you are going to be seeing distant relatives for the holidays or you want to collect some family videos in 3D for Thanksgiving get togethers, then maybe you want to hop on that.
Beta right now, but it will also be rolling out soon in the official 17.2 release later this year. Apple. Releasing this feature months before the Vision Pro is here. Has me thinking about one more thing: can this little perk on the new iPhone completely change? The conversation around Vision Pro next year, we’ll get some answers from CET Scott Stein, who got a demo with his own eyes. I’M bridet Cary – and this is one more thing. Only the iPhone 15 Pro Models have the cameras that can pull off spatial video, but it has to be horizontal video. It uses the main and the ultrawide cameras side by side in landscape mode, recording two 1080p videos at once, both at 30 frames per second, the file is saved in HC format, ilar to other apple video files, but it doesn’t automatically record everything in this spatial format. You have to toggle this feature on in settings. Go to camera, then click formats.
This is where you turn on the option for spatial video for Apple Vision. Pro it says here. A minute of spatial video is approximately 130 megabytes.
Now, when you go to take a video you’re going to see this little VR goggle symbol with a no slash over it and you just click it to activate it’s going to change your video to the settings needed for spatial video. So it forces you into horizontal mode and my default is to record in 4k, but it’s going to switch it to 1080P and 30 frames per second it’ll go back to 4K. When I turn that off now notice, you have no longer any way to zoom, but you can tap to change the focus. It also warns you if you’re too close to an object. It clearly works best when you are at a certain distance. Otherwise, you just point and video, like you normally would when the file saves, you can watch it on your devices like any other video and if you send it to other people or post it on social media they’re, going to see a normal video. But when the day comes that the Vision Pro is around, you could play back this video in 3D.
At this point, we need to talk to someone who knows what it is like in the headset. Earlier this week I got on a call with CET editor at large Scott Stein, hey Scott good, to talk to you, hey Bridget, good, to talk to you too. Okay, so you tried it in a demo. Can you tell us about what it was like? What did you do in this demo? This was completely focused on the 3D video and it was it was pretty contained.
So what I got to do was record a 3D video spatial video on the iPhone 15 Pro in a very well-lit setting that had some sushi lying out and somebody preparing the sushi and then afterwards. I was led over to the Apple Vision Pro and The Vision Pro. I tried on sitting down again like last time, and then they show these 3D videos spatial videos. So some of them were, you know, they’re, all kind of like family type things people running through a meadow uh relaxing at home bubbles floating in the air and then my Sushi won. They were felt like they were on a big screen in front of me: fuzzy, edged and Vivid. You know they were they were. They were 1080p 30 frames per second and they look Vivid so when you’re over there filming the sushi chef – and our are you moving around – are you giving any guidance on like the best way to shoot this kind of video? What should we know if we’re shooting this at home yeah? I was told to kind of I was kind of guided to keep camera the camera not getting too crazy with movement or anything like that. You know I think people who are used to seeing 3D video there there’s a lot of leeway there. Maybe if you’re looking at in in a future high resolution, spatial computer VR a headset, you might not want to disorient yourself with a lot of Rapid motions, but I was, I was told to keep it.
You know kind of smooth and steady and there’s this guidance on the phone to keep it for between three and eight feet away from the subject which is pretty far, but then I was also encouraged to get close to something and shoot. You know like up close to the sushi. I think that’s, apparently that guidance is so that you don’t get disoriented by seeing someone’s giant head um in 3D if you get close to them and it’s not like life-size, but I I feel like you know, we don’t watch a movie in a cinema and get Surprised by somebody’s giant, head and um, I think I think, over time – that’s not going to be something that you’re going to be concerned by you recently tested meta Quest 3 and in your story about your experience with the Vision Pro, you wrote that Apple’s pass through Cameras and display resolution are on another planet.
Can you tell me more about what you meant by that yeah? So when I first tried the Vision Pro I had this thought. The main thought I had was that this was a headset that I’d want to watch 3D. Avatar in you know, watch movies in and that may not sound that dramatic. But there was no VR headset that I felt has had a display.
That’S as good or better than my TV, or you know, even like an iPad or a laptop or just in terms of um, like pixel density and and how crisp things look. This looks better than any display that I currently have in my home. I don’t have a big OLED TV.
I have you know big. I have a big LCD TV, so when you look at photos they just really pop on these demos. They look fantastic and everything looks really rich and beautiful.
That’S the big difference between the VR headsets. I’Ve tried even the quest 3, which has a high resolution for text. It looks great gaming. It looks really good.
I think, for videos there’s always something a little bit lacking for me watching videos in a VR headset and not on the Vision Pro. That’S that’s what I mean like another planet like it’s another Fidelity level, um kind of like a retina resolution, and then the pass through cameras look not as good as my regular Vision, but they look a lot closer to that than the quest 3. The quest 3 is like a fuzzier but crisper than the Quest 2 experience. Fine for checking a quick message. Fine for finding your way around a room. Apples is more uh in these well-lit rooms. You know feels more like something that I would uh be able to really see details. In now the display inside is 4K, but you’re not able to record yet on the iPhone this spatial video in 4k.
So, what’s your take here on that yeah, I think it’s a bit of a bummer, but I think it’s a foot in the door. You know so the first thing you think is wow. Why can’t I watch this like really great 4K video and people who are um, you know VR, nerds and spatial.
You know think about what spatial means they might be thinking. This is a real 3D capture that you could lean forward and move around and have full six stop six degrees of freedom motion um. It’S nothing like that.
This is um. You know standard two 1080p video recordings, one pery, stereoscopic video and while that looks nice, I want it to do even more. My feeling was that it looked good and it particularly looked good in the headset. So what what blew me away was seeing this 3D video in such a high quality headset.
That was already shot pretty well, but I I feel like there’s an opening for this to become higher Fidelity and something that you could really lean into in the future. I mean that’s a whole different level of video recording technology. What does it look like in the whole Space of what you can see? Is this a small box you mentioned in the article that had this ghostly kind of look about it? Can you tell me about like, can you make it, how big can you make it? Are you kind of watching it from a distance? What’S that, like all the other videos that are play back in headset or photos, are like regular Windows, you can, you can actually stretch them out, you can pinch to expand them and things like that, but it looked like the spatial videos have this like fuzzy border, Where it just kind of like dissipates it, it almost feels a little bit like Minority Report, like you know, when you’re sort of watching the the the holographic memory, I think that’s by Design, but it doesn’t look holographic like it’s. It’S truly popping out, but think I think they’re trying to make the the frame seem less obvious, makes sense and obviously there’s still a lot to discover as we get closer to the launch of this yeah yeah thanks for joining me.
So I assume you’re going to be taking a lot of spatial video now any plans for what you want to shoot. I’M just going to keep it on flipped on and record stuff like that and um, and I’m just going to treat it like a box of chocolate. You know I I don’t know what I’m going to get. We have seen 3D video and 3D movies.
Try to take off for years, but having this tool on the iPhone is a very different Factor. This time it is about making the content easy to create. I remember my parents would get out the big VHS camcorder and swing it over their shoulder for Gatherings. At Christmas, parties or birthdays or the school plays, and it wasn’t easy, but it was something people remembered to do for big moments, and now this lets us record any anything at any time, but 3D video it could feel different to watch.
It might invoke other emotions in us when we see the memories in three dimensions, especially when we’re feeling sentimental and nostalgic. If you missed a big life moment like at a wedding, someone could share that video with you through iCloud. Assuming someone at the party has the latest Pro iPhone and we live in a world where it is easy to see things in 3D, but those sentimental moments could they make us feel like it’s. It’S worth the cost of Entry. The phone alone starts at $ 1,000, but to watch the videos you need the $ 3,500 headset which could get cheaper in time. But you know what no matter what I am going to be recording some of these spatial videos with the kids and the grandparents. I’M going to build up that Vision, Pro library to have it someday, because even if I don’t get a Vision Pro right away, the format could be shared in other ways. Axios is reporting that one company, a startup called zapar, is saying they have a head set called the zap box that can play these videos. I already get sappy looking back at old videos from my kids just a year ago with how fast they grow up. So, let’s see if what I shoot this year helps me understand the lur for a Vision Pro next year. Please sound off in the comments on what you think about this feature and, if you’re going to try it or if you rather just keep recording videos in 4k for now, thanks for watching and I’ll see you next week, .