Spatial video vs 3D: Apple LIED to us

What's the difference between spatial video and 3D? Apple says spatial video is a new way to capture your memories and be able to relive them as if you were really there. I got to actually try the Apple Vision Pro and sadly the reality is that spatial video is pretty much just a regular 3D video. In this video, I discuss how Apple lied about spatial videos in several ways.

[ProgrammistMusic]

Apple's strategy was to avoid anything related to VR and 3D, because both terms are very common and at least in parts unpopular. Apple needed to give their fans something new, but in fact they only produced a well made VR headset with limited usecases designed only for their eco system. Nothing really surprising here. Watching 3D videos is pretty common on Quest 2, 3 and Pico 4 with players like Skybox, DeoVR or 4XVR.

[Synthshop]

My Oculus 3 encountered some bug where when in the color pass-through mode the big played back the display memory/buffer in a loop lasting a few seconds long, over and over. At the time I was sitting on the couch with my dogs who were jumping around and playing and it was amazing as I was looking at this loop I realized someday if I could have recordings like this, full-field, it would be the closest I could get to "experience" my memories of them when looking at them in pass-through mode in full 3D detail. It was so compelling I didnt want to turn it off, but it was a bug as far as I know, and hasnt occured since. But it proves the hardware can record and playback in full field, even if for a few seconds. A total immersive experience and someday such a feature could bring our loved pets back to life for a few moments in time far better than a photo or 2D video can. And unlike the ProVision spatial video, not just looking into a small window like the old viewmaster tech. I would like to know if this is already a feature or a hidden feature on the Oculus 3? Seeing my dogs in this mode for a few seconds after they were playing on the couch in realtime was a real mind blower. It was like going back into time. I immediately could see how this could be big with pet owners. Meta, please develop this further.

[lads.]

True 180 VR video cameras are much more immersive than "Spatial Videos" - even if they are not as handy as just carrying around an iPhone.

[oscarcastellanos]

Money buys great reviews.. every industry does it. Sad

[videogamevegas]

360 Vroomers,

I'm glad you came out with this video. I KNEW Apple was using "Word Play" to explain technology that already existed. Luckily, they didn't fool me, I just thought "Spatial Video" was a fancy way to say 3D. The only thing I thought that could've reproduced that parallax expect from their promo videos, is if the video was cropped zoomed in when it opened and only by moving side to side or closer would allow you to peer more into the window to see more of the video.

What I was more interested in was the other type of 3D tech we've been enjoying for years and I've seen you cover on your channel before, 180 3D videos. I've been enjoying that kind of content for years on my Oculus Go of all places. I've been wanting to shoot that type of video myself, but have been waiting for a pretty good 180 3D camera, but haven't been impressed enough with the consumer grade offerings thus far including the one you mentioned in this video. However, that might change this year as I heard Canon is coming out with a consumer level one, point and shoot style, that might be pretty good. Now of course, nothing I shoot will be to the quality of the experiences Apple Vision Pro offers with the 8K 180 3D Videos, but Apple should just call it what it is.

I've ordered an Apple Vision Pro, it's my second upgrade in the world of VR, my first being the Samsung S7 smartphone snapped into a headband and the aforementioned Oculus Go. I think the Apple Vision Pro will be a significant upgrade over those :)

Thanks as always for the content!


vgv

[KevinMacintosh]

I think what people fail to realize when they're doing the Apple Vision Pro demo is that the images Apple chooses to show us are very high resolution images shot under ideal circumstances by professionals in amazing environments. Half of the "wow" factor for me was just seeing stunning photos.

[YGershteyn]

It seems that "everything new is well forgotten old."
Trying to introduce new terms for long-known phenomena is a common marketing principle.
My first stereo photographs date back to 1965. Then I already had a stereo camera and a stereo projector at home.
In general, stereophotography appeared as soon as the photograph itself appeared.
Indeed, stereo 3D video came out of special cinemas to the amateur level only in the era of digital shooting, but already in the late 60s we had an attachment to the 16mm BOLEX movie camera, which allowed us to shoot stereo movies and watch it on the screen with classic polarized glasses.
It's a shame that 3D TVs are now extinct.
So nothing new has appeared yet.
In general, it is difficult to imagine that anything can change in this area while a person has only two eyes and looks with them.
Unless they introduce the total Neurolink interface into use.

[FlyiDCG]

This is a very important video, not because Apple used tricky lingo, but because people need to know its actually 3D, Meta is calling it Spatial as well. They should call it 3D.

[yabito]

apple: my pronouns are "spatial computing"; everyonel else: "dude, you are VR/AR"

[rsilvers]

I guess I am surprised that you ever thought it was something other than 3D video. Apple only renamed it because 3D and VR was kinda a flop in the past.

[andrecoxa]

This confirms the suspicions I had about Apple's claims, thank you for sharing! As for Apple calling 3D content "spatial", well, that's just Apple giving their own naming to things that have been around for a while. But, based on your review, they definitely could not have claimed this is a completely new form of photography. Regarding the tech reviewers, I've learned the hard way that unfortunately most of them can no longer be trusted.

[RelaxingReality]

I think to the average person, they just aren’t educated on the technology but for those of us that have an understanding it makes the Apple Vision Pro a very expensive toy that doesn’t really add too much value. I also can’t believe this thing is incapable of playing YouTube 360 videos in VR while my old Meta Quest 2 has a dedicated YouTube VR app that also utilizes Spatial Audio. Great video as always, my friend!

3:23 - I also bought an iPhone 15 Pro and it sure looks like the spatial video capture is a useless feature for those that won’t get the Vision Pro. It will be nice if there is some sort of workaround to convert these videos to a 3d video with metadata that YouTube would recognize.

[alanfbrookes]

You make a lot of sense. I've been shooting 3D since 1971, originally using 5-perf and 7-perf stereo cameras, and a Bolex H16 shooting in 16mm with their 3D attachment.
But I've given up any idea of 360° 3D. First of all, I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so why would I bother to record what is going on behind me? Secondly, 360° 3D is impossible. We get that effect by rotating our heads, but, to do that with a camera, you would need two lenses rotating around a common centre, and that would only be okay for stills. Unless they rotate around a common centre, the front and back of the view have their stereo pair reversed. Even VR180 doesn't work. We only see 3D for about 120°, and, as we get closer to the sides of the images the stereo effect disappears. At the extreme sides the two lenses are one behind the other, and record the same image but from a perspective about 3" difference.
By the way, I have a Lume Pad 2, QooCam Ego, several Fuji W3s, a Fuji W1, and a VR180 camera with Daydream. In the days of film I shot many panoramic stereos using a Russian Horizont Swing-lens Panoramic Camera and the sequential exposure method.

[stephenbard]

The extreme parallax between the foreground/background of so-called "spatial videos" in the Apple ads is blatant false advertising. Instead of what is depicted in the ads, the "spatial video" actually produced by the AVP is normal 3D video with a blurry frame-artifact surrounding it, and the only parallax is a false one between the dreamy portal frame and the image. Somehow I had the impression that this annoying blurry format of spatial videos is intended to mitigate the 3D depth so that Apple's hyper-sensetive customers don't suffer motion-sickness and throw up in their ridiculously overpriced headset. The AVP and the iPhone 15 Pro attempt to produce the same dreamy-framed format, but the iPhone has less depth because the lenses are so close together. Can you turn off the blurry frame . . . or maybe customize it it to be flowers or somesuch? The only benefit of Apple coining the term "spatial video" is to popularize the idea of saving and the methods for viewing the same standard 3D photos/videos that have existed for many years. Many of us have routinely used the Quest Skybox app for years to view 3D videos (without the blurry frame). I think the blurry frame detracts from the otherwise crisp normal 3D video, but I am amazed at how some users and even reviewers are so impressed with the word "spatial", with the blurry frame magically conferring some mystical "memory" quality to a common video format that they just were not currently using. Serious scary Apple cult manifestations!

[DavidSan]

They want to take advantage of people who have not experienced anything in VR, making them believe that they have found the black thread and at a high price, taking into account that there are viewers 1/3 of the price that do the same

[nosferathooo]

There was already a cheap VR180 camera - Insta360 Evo - now out of stock everywhere and no Evo 2 on the horizon. I think Insta360 missed the train right here :)

[Instant_Nerf]

The problem is not that we only can watch spacial videos on the Vision Pro. It’s that because of the great quality of the 4k displays.. there is no comparison vs the quest

[kevinrichards]

I thought you needed special software or hacks to take 3D images of videos on the Quest 3...is that true?

[YoungMoneyFuture]

Could the Quest 3 technically take 3d videos? Does Meta just need to add it in an update?

[MobileDecay]

Apple invented 3D video! Actually they invented 3D! 🤯🤯🤯 I can’t beat em. Might well join em. 🤷🏻‍♂️