Guide Tools How to properly Watch VR videos in 2D : VLC + Metadata Injector

colin58

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2D Conversion Issues
I see many posts of VR videos converted to 2D, and in many cases the result is pretty bad, with a lot of deformation on our heroines bodies and faces.
2D Conversion deformation example:
6014575b-e062-41d8-b816-5addb2f4b71f.png

As you can see, Matty here looks like an alien and not very good (for most terrestrians at least, martians may have a different opinion).
The Solution: Inject metadata
We can watch VR videos in 2D in VLC after doing the following.
In most cases "VR videos" are actually 360-degree videos, and there is a tool by google that allow us to tell media players like VLC that our videos are 360° injecting metadata in the file.
2D watching of a 360 video the proper way (exact same shot as before):
9cfb9495-1b9c-4fc0-8358-6fb452ea9cff.png

Watching a 360° video in VLC we can move the angle around to fit the scene so we don't get any weird distortions. Its still a curved video but much better.
Also we don't need to convert the video to 2D which takes time and we either expend more in storage or we delete the original VR, in this case we just insert metadata to the "VR" video, which is pretty fast. Also people could share videos with the metadata already inserted as it does not make the video any bigger.
Video Demo
Here is a short video of me moving a 360 video around with VLC.
Steps
1. Install python for example from https://www.python.org/downloads/
2. Download Spatial Media Metadata Injector v2.1 from google's github repository https://github.com/google/spatial-media/releases/tag/v2.1
3. Extract and run Spatial Media Metadata Injector.exe
4. Click on Open and choose the VR video which we wanna consume in 2d.
0e65f0e5-4d37-4dd5-9972-b0142b0eb0b5.png

5. Check the first box :"My video is spherical(360)"
6. Click "Inject metadata" and choose the path where the video with the metadata is gonna be saved. Usually i save it in the same path as the original VR video as i delete the original afterwards.
7. Click Save
8. Delete the original VR video, there is no reason to keep that copy as it is almost the same as the one with the injected metadata, the new metadata being the only difference.
9. Play the video in VLC. Using the metadata VLC is gonna play it properly now, letting you move the video around like some porn pages do with "VR" videos.
10. Goon away
Source:https://discuss.eroscripts.com/t/play-vr-360-videos-on-2d-screen-using-vlc/97564
Extra request
There are many posters who convert videos to 2D and post them, i believe it would be better if they just inserted the metadata and share them like that, so people would be easily able to consume them that way. Also injecting the metadata is much faster than converting VR to 2D (i've done it before).
Let me know if anything wasn't very clear.
 
VRConversionWizard , hello, forgive me for tagging you, i tried to sent you an email but the filter wouldn't let me. i would like you to read this thread and share your thoughts about it if you could. Ive seen you post a lot of 2D converted videos, and it would be great if you would considered switching to inserting the metadata to the VR videos instead of converting them (also is faster), so that people could enjoy it in a better manner (in my opinion).
Thank you for all your post, let me know what you think.
 
Is there anyway to do it for mac? mac cannot open exe files
 
Yes, the Spatial Media Metadata Injector v2.1 has a release for mac, its right there in the github i provided.
 
Linux Users
If someone is wondering how to get this to work on Linux:
Here is a link with a way to make this work on Ubuntu based distros.
I am using CachyOS (Arch based), so it works a bit different.
This is what worked for me:
1. sudo pacman -S tk
2. git clone https://github.com/google/spatial-media
3. cd spatial-media/spatialmedia
4. python3 gui.py
Note that "python-tk" is only called "tk" on Arch and python2 doesn't work (I guess it is outdated?), so you have to type python3.
After the first time you will only need steps 3 and 4 every time you want to use the app.
 
Thank you, I just tested it in WSL Ubuntu, if i could edit my post i would add this, but i'm not allow to edit it.
How to run on linux
Linux general steps

1. Install Python Tkinter
2. Clone the github repo or download-extract on your machine
3. Run spatial-media/spatialmedia/gui.py with python3
Ubuntu specifics
Code:
sudo apt install python3-tk
git clone https://github.com/google/spatial-media
cd spatial-media/spatialmedia
python3 gui.py
How to run on Mac newer Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) chips
1. Install python on your system
2. Clone the github repo or download-extract on your machine
3. Run spatial-media/spatialmedia/gui.py in your terminal
Here is short video on how to run it by somebody
Run Inject Spatial Metadata on Mac
Notes: if you installed python with homebrew you might have to also install python tinker:
Verify if tinker if installed:
Code:
python3 -m tkinter
Install tinker
Code:
brew install python-tk
Disclaimer: i haven't tested this, i don't own a mac.
DaHashSlinging maybe you can test on mac for us and share your results, pm me if you need help.
 
Thank you for sharing this guide! I followed each step, but when I right click on the injected file and select open with VLC media player, I only get the audio with flashing black and white screen. I have the latest version of VLC. Any idea what's wrong?
 
I downloaded two of them but they couldn't be loaded into the metadata injector because they were m4v files even though on Fileditch it said they were mp4 files
 
they are already injected
what? they're .mp4 clearly, somethings massively wrong on your end
 
The latest VLC version its working in my end in which OS are you having this issue? Windows?
Please make sure you downloaded the correct tool, from the correct tag, double check just in case:
Download Spatial Media Metadata Injector v2.1 from google's github repository https://github.com/google/spatial-media/releases/tag/v2.1
The files were working fine for you before injecting?
 
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