Exploring Spatial Video: What It's Like to View, Shoot 3D iPhone Videos

Speaker 1: The era of recording three D video on the iPhone has arrived but 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. Normally I would not recommend people download a beta version of [00:00:30] 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 three D 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. Speaker 1: Can this little perk on the new iPhone completely changed the conversation around Vision Pro? Next [00:01:00] year we'll get some answers from cnet Scott Stein who got a demo with his own eyes. I'm Brit Carey, 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 ultra wide cameras side by side in landscape mode recording 2 10 80 P videos at once, both at 30 frames per second. The file is saved in HEVC format similar [00:01:30] 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. Speaker 1: 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. [00:02:00] 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 four K, but it's going to switch it to 10 80 p and 30 frames per second. It'll go back to four K 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 shoot video [00:02:30] 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 three D. 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 CNET editor at large, Scott Stein. Hey Scott. Good to talk to you. Speaker 2: Hey, Bridget, good to talk to you. Speaker 1: Okay, [00:03:00] so you tried it in a demo. Can you tell us about what it was like? What did you do in this demo? Speaker 2: This was completely focused on the three D video and it was pretty contained. So what I got to do was record a three D 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 VIS Pro and the Vision Pro. I tried on [00:03:30] sitting down again like last time, and then they showed these three D videos, spatial videos, so some of them were, they were all kind of like family type things, people running through a meadow, relaxing at home, bubbles, floating in the air. And then my sushi one, it felt like they were on a big screen in front of me. Fuzzy edged and vivid were 10 80 p 30 frames per second and they look vivid. Speaker 1: So when you're over there filming the sushi chef and are you [00:04:00] moving around, are you giving any guidance on the best way to shoot this kind of video? What should we know if we're shooting this at home? Speaker 2: Yeah, I was told, I kind of guided to keep the camera not getting too crazy with movement or anything like that. I think people who are used to seeing three D video, there's a lot of leeway there. Maybe if you're looking at it in a future high resolution spatial computer vr, ar headset, you might not want to disorient yourself with a lot of rapid motions, but I was told to keep it [00:04:30] kind of smooth and steady and there's this guidance on the phone to keep it 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 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 in three D if you get close to them. And it's not like life size, but I feel like we don't watch a movie in a cinema and get surprised by somebody's giant head. And [00:05:00] I think over time that's not going to be something that you're going to be concerned by. You Speaker 1: Recently tested Medis Quest three 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? Speaker 2: 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 three D avatar in watch movies, and that may not sound that dramatic, [00:05:30] but there was no VR headset that I felt had a display that's as good or better than my TV or even an iPad or a laptop. Just in terms of pixel density 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 a big LCD tv, so when you look at photos, they just really pop on these demos. They look fantastic and everything looks rich and beautiful. That's the big difference [00:06:00] between the VR headsets. I've tried even the Quest three, which is a high resolution for text. It looks great gaming, it looks really good. Speaker 2: 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 what I mean. Another planet, it's another fidelity level, 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 three. The Quest three is like a fuzzier [00:06:30] but crisper than the Quest two experience. Fine for checking a quick message, fine for finding your way around a room. Apple's is more in these well-lit rooms feels more like something that I would be able to really see details in. Speaker 1: Now the display inside is four K, but you're not able to record yet on the iPhone. This spatial video in four K. So what's your take here on that? Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a bit of a bummer, but I think it's a foot in the door. So the first thing you'd think [00:07:00] is, wow, why can't I watch this really great four K video? And people who are VR nerds and spatial think about what spatial means. They might be thinking if this is a real three D capture that you could lean forward and move around and have full six stops, six degrees of freedom motion. It's nothing like that. This is standard 2 10 80 P video recordings, one per eye stereoscopic video, and while that looks nice, I'd want it to do even more. [00:07:30] My feeling was that it looked good and it particularly looked good in the headset. So what blew me away was seeing this three D video in such a high quality headset that was already shot pretty well, but I feel like there's an opening for this to become higher fidelity and something that you could really lean into in the future. That's a whole different level of video recording technology. Speaker 1: What does it look like in the whole space of what you can see? Is this a small box you've mentioned in the article that had this ghostly [00:08:00] look about it? Can you tell me about can you make it, how big can you make it? Are you watching it from a distance? What's that? Speaker 2: All the other videos that are played back in headset or photos are like regular windows. 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 fuzzy border where it just kind of dissipates. It almost feels a little bit like Minority Report when you're watching the holographic memory. I think that's by design, but it [00:08:30] doesn't look holographic like it's truly popping out. I think they're trying to make the frame seem less obvious. Speaker 1: Makes sense, and obviously there's still a lot to discover as we get closer to the launch of this. Speaker 2: Yeah, Speaker 1: 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? Speaker 2: I'm just going to keep it on flipped on and record stuff like that, and I'm just going to treat it like a box of chocolates. [00:09:00] I don't know what I'm going to get. Speaker 1: We have seen three D video and three D 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 anything at any [00:09:30] time, but three D 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 three D, but those sentimental moments could they make us feel like it's worth the cost [00:10:00] of entry. Speaker 1: The phone alone starts at a thousand dollars, 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 Zappar is saying they have a headset called the Zap [00:10:30] 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 lure 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 four K for now. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week.