Apple Immersive Video Featuring 2023 MLS Playoffs Coming to Vision Pro

[Skyscraperfan]

Apple might never address the elephant in the room: 3D adult content.

 

[quietstormSD]

I’m not a fan of soccer but I wanna see this now. This may be one of the best uses for this thing.

 

[ice29]

Apple might never address the elephant in the room: 3D adult content.

Haha, yes, the first question of a friend who saw Quest 2 in my house back then was "have you tried the VR pr0n? is it good??? my uncle swears it's the best thing ever!"

Combined with GenAI custom-generated movies, that can fulfil everyones fantasies (and which would actually be pretty ethical use-case for GenAI, as most of these actresses are not really treated well), this thing could be a real money-maker

 

[Jumpthesnark]

And yet there’s superior experiences being developed for Quest….here you go AGAIN with “imagine if..” once again ignoring the outside world of Apple. “Let’s IMAGINE what Apple Vision Pro will be in the…FUTURE.”

Are you ready for an “ESPN-branded experience” in Horizon Worlds?

ESPN will start feeding VR content to the Meta Quest Xtadium app soon. That includes “immersive 180-degree VR” sports highlights from NCAA basketball and football games, interviews, and other content. ESPN also says it will launch a Meta Horizon Worlds experience this summer. Whatever it is...

www.theverge.com

That only says highlights, though. Does that app (or the licensing, which is often the holdup with sports content) allow for entire games?

The Apple press release linked in the story says viewers "will feel every heart-pounding moment" which is pure marketing, and I still don't know whether it means that entire games will be available to watch in immersive video on the AVP.

WAIT - i just reread the press release (and the headline, duh) and the immersive video refers to the 2023 playoffs. Which are over. So they filmed them last year in spatial video, and will be presenting them in the same format on the AVP.

Not so much for the live sports in spatial video on the AVP, not yet. But a first step, I'll give them that.

 

[Zest28]

Here you go:

Trust, it’s impressive as hell. I can only imagine the AVP version.

How much you have to pay for a "virtual front row seat" on the AVP?

 

[swagi]

Apple might never address the elephant in the room: 3D adult content.

I still don't get it. Honestly - I'm not a dev so I don't have a clue on the restrictions, but...

...there has to be an App to watch video. There has to be some sort of access to a file system. So as a matter of fact there has to be a way to open up a video file and watch it on your device.

So basically why shouldn't you and your significant other(s) shoot a video with a sphere camera? Why shouldn't you be able to watch it? What is keeping you from securing that file with a NFT to restrict access and then distribute it?

Is visionOS so closed down that all these basic computer appliance thoughts don't count anymore?

 

[svish]

Good to see more content for Vision Pro but subscription prices for the MLS pass is quite high.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

MLS Season Pass is priced at $14.99 per month during the season or $99. Apple TV+ subscribers can get a discounted price of $12.99 per month or $79 for the season.

PSA:​

For T-Mobile customers expecting to get free MLS Season Pass like last year, unfortunately I got some very very very bad news:

T-Mobile confirms it won't offer free access to Apple's MLS Season Pass service this year - 9to5Mac

If you were hoping to secure free access to MLS Season Pass via T-Mobile this year, you’re unfortunately out of...

9to5mac.com

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

That only says highlights, though. Does that app (or the licensing, which is often the holdup with sports content) allow for entire games?

The Apple press release linked in the story says viewers "will feel every heart-pounding moment" which is pure marketing, and I still don't know whether it means that entire games will be available to watch in immersive video on the AVP.

WAIT - i just reread the press release (and the headline, duh) and the immersive video refers to the 2023 playoffs. Which are over. So they filmed them last year in spatial video, and will be presenting them in the same format on the AVP.

Not so much for the live sports in spatial video on the AVP, not yet. But a first step, I'll give them that.

Nothing quite like spending $100 to watch parts of last years sporting events.

 

[kangyula]

This may be something, but this is a VR feature, not an AR. A simple VR headset could do the same with less weight while being cheaper.

 

[ohthehorror]

The world: football
The US: soccer

SMH🙄

 

[Monsterkill]

And yet there’s superior experiences being developed for Quest….here you go AGAIN with “imagine if..” once again ignoring the outside world of Apple. “Let’s IMAGINE what Apple Vision Pro will be in the…FUTURE.”

Are you ready for an “ESPN-branded experience” in Horizon Worlds?

ESPN will start feeding VR content to the Meta Quest Xtadium app soon. That includes “immersive 180-degree VR” sports highlights from NCAA basketball and football games, interviews, and other content. ESPN also says it will launch a Meta Horizon Worlds experience this summer. Whatever it is...

www.theverge.com

The screen quality of Meta Quest 3 is crap in comparison of Apple Vision Pro. And this is a big difference for the immersion. Mid quality screen isn't a game changer at all for this type of applications.

 

[votdfak]

MLS is like NBA G League of football or worse.

 

[doelcm82]

I still don't get it. Honestly - I'm not a dev so I don't have a clue on the restrictions, but...

...there has to be an App to watch video. There has to be some sort of access to a file system. So as a matter of fact there has to be a way to open up a video file and watch it on your device.

So basically why shouldn't you and your significant other(s) shoot a video with a sphere camera? Why shouldn't you be able to watch it? What is keeping you from securing that file with a NFT to restrict access and then distribute it?

Is visionOS so closed down that all these basic computer appliance thoughts don't count anymore?

There are a few apps on the App Store that will play back such files. They're all by small developers, and judging by their comments, they are not reliable or full-featured enough to be useful. But there will be. These will get updated, and others will enter the App Store.

The Apple TV+ app will play back Immersive Videos, but I don't know if it can play from the file system (or better yet from a local media server).

Quest 3 has apps that will play VR180 and 360 videos from media servers.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

How much you have to pay for a "virtual front row seat" on the AVP?

This is a great question. While it could be ‘too much,” consider that the very same virtual seat could be sold to a million fans… a volume play… unlike the scarcity-driven actual seat for an actual bod… which can drive pricing to the moon (see my earlier post for an actual court-side seat price).

The worst actual seats at the Super Bowl were $9K. There was a hard cap on how many actual people could attend the big game in person. However, allocate a spot or two for next best thing virtual attendance and the NFL could sell those tickets to all buyers not able to scratch up at least $9K or not able to be there for whatever reason. Yes, most wil prob choose to watch on the TV they already own and a few will pay up to be there in person… but then there’s this evolving middle option for anyone interested.

If 50-yardline, front row, VR Super Bowl was priced at say $100, how much more money do they make from those that might opt to “attend” in this way? What if that is $50 instead? What if it is $200? Any such PPV-like pricing is far below worst seat $9K, even if one factors in $3500 for Vpro or less for Oculus or Xreal.

Up to $3500 + $50-$200 is a lot less than $9K or much more. Oh and the up to $3500 part of that purchase does a bunch of other things too… usable long after the big game is played.

Here comes NCAA March Madness. Will it have some such options? MLB is right behind that. NBA & NHL playoffs are right behind that. NCAA and NFL football season comes next. How much do people PPV for Wrestlemania? UFC matches? The Taylor Swift concert event? NASCAR/Grand Prix? A Great seat to the big Broadway show? To travel to, stay, and attend an event(s) at the Olympics? Etc.

 

[ph001bi]

Apple today announced plans to introduce an Apple Immersive Video that features the best of the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs. Apple says that this will be the first-ever sports film captured in Apple Immersive Video, and it will be viewable on the Vision Pro headset.

According to Apple, the MLS Playoffs were recorded in 8K 3D with a 180-degree field of view and Spatial Audio.

The MLS Apple Immersive Video will be coming in the near future, and its upcoming launch was included in an announcement about the kickoff of the 2024 MLS season.

MLS Season Pass subscribers can watch Inter Miami CF and Real Salt Lake tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with a special 90-minute version of MLS Countdown premiering at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

MLS Season Pass is priced at $14.99 per month during the season or $99. Apple TV+ subscribers can get a discounted price of $12.99 per month or $79 for the season.

Article Link: Apple Immersive Video Featuring 2023 MLS Playoffs Coming to Vision Pro

This sounds awesome, any chance the quality of the football improve too?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

This may be something, but this is a VR feature, not an AR. A simple VR headset could do the same with less weight while being cheaper.

…at lower resolution.

A 720p TV is cheaper than a 1080p TV, which is cheaper than a 4K TV but I bet your primary TV is not a 720p one.

An Android smart phone can be had for a fraction of the cost of an iPhone. What’s in your pocket? And if iPhone, why if Android is basically the same and “cheaper”?

A PC or Chromebook can be had for much cheaper than a Mac. What computer do you favor?

You are certainly right that there are cheaper ways to do this… but- in the implied pessimism for either this product or its pricing- don’t leave out perhaps the most crucial detail of what makes the other options cheaper.

 

[amartinez1660]

Is this actually 3D though? Most 360 content is just like panoramas, not 3D.

It is my understanding that what Apple is proposing is more than “just” a panorama 360?
The example of the family birthday video (shown at the WWDC) was “3D” in the sense that the people in the image in there had volume, zooming in had perspective.
Same for the sideways spatial video capture using iPhone’s dual cameras.

So I’m hoping this is not a marketing stance and that the whole thing “looks” 3D. Nothing against 360 panorama video, it looks great and for far away people/objects it does the job perfectly… just like video games do by rendering a “skybox” for all the background unreachable parts of it.

But if an actual 3D feel is given for all near enough players and objects, that will be even better. Maybe they are that in postproduction, hence why it’s the 2023 games as spotted above by another commenter.

I appreciate your ongoing pessimism (though I'm confused why you waste valuable time in threads about products in which you are apparently completely uninterested). I have no interest in Watch. I spend virtually no time at all in any Watch thread since I don't perceive there is anything there of interest to me... but glad Watch exists for those who are interested in it. And I won't bother poking at it or putting it down just because I don't happen to have interest in it. Others certainly do LOVE it. And good for them.

Nevertheless, let me point out that the majority of the world does not own an iPhone. Even fewer own an iPad. Even fewer own a Mac. Apple products in general might be called "niche."

This product doesn't have to be on nearly everyone's face, just as an iPhone doesn't have to be at everyone's ear. It's simply an optional piece of tech for anyone interested in this kind of tech... like iPhone, iPad, Macs vs. say much more popular (based on total sales volume) Android, Fire tablets and PCs/Chromebooks.

Whether it's $4K for this one or $500 for a Quest or $300 for XReal or $40 for Viewmaster, people interested in paying for it will own it and use it. Those who are not can put their money towards other things or just save it for whatever they may ever want to buy with it.

Yeah man, I don’t get it, the internet and especially Macrumors (being Apple centric) attracts this… first comments tend to be a one liner snarky Apple basher, all for the “likes” drug. (Yours is an exception for early comments, bold entrance).

I’m tired of suggesting that most of us here don’t wake up every morning going to the AndroidRumors.com equivalent site asking for them to change their open source Android OS to a more closed and cohesive ecosystem just because I want it. On a phone/system I don’t really care about and will probably won’t be buying any time soon if ever.

I certainly don’t go to MetaQuest rumors bashing the product and its users for not being what it isn’t and what isn’t meant to be. Something I had never had an interest in.
Nor NvidiaRumors and bash them because they should change and fit their leg-sized power hungry cards into a power efficient 20W nano sized package.

I don’t go to LamborghiniRumors or FerrariRumors hating on them for not making a $20K saloon car either.

But maybe us addressing this is exactly what they want, overly narcissistic people looking for their supply of reactions: whether a positive one or a negative (one due to driving everyone around into their madness) it counts, it’s a reaction.

 

[StuBeck]

For people like me who don’t have a Vision Pro so I don’t know, what does this mean? Like does it look 3-D or what?

Its more immersive. Its also already been done before. The biggest problem I see here is we're 4 months after the playoffs finished, so saying you have this great video of something people don't care about anymore is pretty silly. I'll be more interested in these services when they're live.

 

[JippaLippa]

I'm not interested in sports, but this is very cool!

 

[nfl46]

This may be something, but this is a VR feature, not an AR. A simple VR headset could do the same with less weight while being cheaper.

We already do. I use Xtadium with my Quest 3 and the AVP quality will be miles better. That’s the massive difference.

 

[kangyula]

…at lower resolution.

A 720p TV is cheaper than a 1080p TV, which is cheaper than a 4K TV but I bet your primary TV is not a 720p one.

An Android smart phone can be had for a fraction of the cost of an iPhone. What’s in your pocket? And if iPhone, why if Android is basically the same and “cheaper”?

A PC or Chromebook can be had for much cheaper than a Mac. What computer do you favor?

You are certainly right that there are cheaper ways to do this… but- in the implied pessimism for either this product or its pricing- don’t leave out perhaps the most crucial detail of what makes the other options cheaper.

By simple VR I mean not an AR. A VR can have the same resolution as the Vision Pro, without the 12 or however much external cameras and the external display. And probably even without being a separate computer, and deliver the same result for sport events without feeling so heavy. Every use case so far that makes sense in the long run for the Vision Pro is VR, not AR.

Your analogy is utterly wrong, because AR and VR are different product categories, not different products within the same category.

 

[apparatchik]

First we're going to need a device that is comfortable enough to wear for a three hour game.

A football match lasts 90 minutes with a 15 minute break between the two periods, which is perfect for a VR experience.

You can even switch batteries on the 15 minute break.

My only complain with this is that MLS is such a let down league in the world of football, being around third in the Americas (behind the Brasileirão and Liga MX in terms of subjective quailty, even perhaps behind Argentina's Primera División) and certainly miles behind Europe's first tier leagues.

 

[doelcm82]

By simple VR I mean not an AR. A VR can have the same resolution as the Vision Pro, without the 12 or however much external cameras and the external display. And probably even without being a separate computer, and deliver the same result for sport events without feeling so heavy. Every use case so far that makes sense in the long run for the Vision Pro is VR, not AR.

Your analogy is utterly wrong, because AR and VR are different product categories, not different products within the same category.

Perhaps every use case that makes sense FOR YOU is VR. I think spatial computing is the future. Meta and other competitors will lean in for their slice of that pie.

 

[fithian]

For people like me who don’t have a Vision Pro so I don’t know, what does this mean? Like does it look 3-D or what?

Go to an Apple Store; do not pass GO; Try the demo; Be Blown Away!