Announced at the F8 2018, Oculus finally brought its own streaming TV hub via its new Oculus TV yesterday, June 25. It is made available on Oculus Go, packing a bundle of video streaming apps.
The objective is to provide one place for all streaming videos to watch via VR headset. Although it does not come with social viewing, for now, the feature is slated to come later this year. It is billed as a VR set-top streaming box and has been designed to be a central hub for all Oculus services.
Now, Oculus TV doesn’t yet provide 3D content capability. It houses 2D entertainment via its flat screen that can be viewed by wearing a 3D VR headset. It is basically like what Netflix, Hulu, and other VR apps offer, launching into a sleek small virtual living room via the Oculus Go app. Oculus claims that it will be equivalent to a 180-inch TV screen on the launch.
The launch of the Oculus TV will get you to a collection of shows aligned in a carousel and a row of video channels at the bottom. Selecting a show will lead you to download the associated app in case you don’t already have it.
The correspondent app of Oculus TV helps in launching all the streaming apps. The browser of Oculus TV puts effort in discovering content across various platforms, including Facebook, Netflix, Pluto TV, Hulu, Red Bull TV, and even subscription-based showtime. But you might miss watching with others and have to wait a bit more to enjoy social viewing.
As for performance, Oculus TV handles streaming of videos pretty well, in fact, surpasses most VR headsets of today. However, video quality and resolution do not offer an experience like a good tablet or TV does.
Facebook said that ESPN is one of the video partners to join Oculus TV by the end of the year. Add that with the social feature, and you are all set with a new world of VR. We do hope that the video quality and resolutions get better by that time.
