Youtube VR now supports 8K playback on Quest 3
If you own a Meta Quest 3, you can now enjoy 8K resolution video at 60 frames per second in the Youtube VR app.
Version 1.54 of YouTube VR introduces support for 8K video playback, but only on Quest 3.
If you have version 1.54 or higher installed, you can select the "4320p" or "4320p60" option for videos that support that resolution. The playback of 8K HDR material is not supported, writes YouTube.
You can download YouTube VR from the Quest Store.
Finding 8K videos on YouTube
I tried out 8K playback and found a handful of videos that support the resolution.
The YouTube channel 8K Videos Ultra HD offers nature and landscape videos in 8K, and I also found 8K trailers for Top Gun: Maverick and Transformers: The Last Knight.
If you want to find similar videos, I recommend typing "4320p" in the search box. Note that many YouTube videos claim to be in 8K, but only support 4K / 2160p. The best thing to do is to go to the playback options and check.
I'm not sure if and how immersive video formats benefit from the higher resolution, but I have asked two experts and will update this article when I get a response (see update below).
Since the launch of Quest 3, YouTube VR has seen more active development again, possibly due to the increased usage of the VR app that came with the color passthrough of the new VR headset. Some time after the launch of Quest 3, Google introduced the ability to seamlessly switch between immersive mode (YouTube VR as a VR app) and panel mode (YouTube VR as a 2D app). I described the benefits of this in an earlier article.
Thomas Hübner, who is known for his high-quality stereoscopic 180-degree videos, confirmed to MIXED that the VR180 format benefits from the higher resolution. Hübner prefers to upload his videos to Meta Quest TV and the DeoVR platform, but also maintains a YouTube channel.
Hübner uploaded some VR180 videos there last week, but according to him, it will take a while for Youtube to make all the videos streamable in 8K instead of just 4K. "With the 8K functionality for the Quest 3, YouTube VR is back. I had already written it off and hardly uploaded anything," says Hübner.
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