The Apple Vision Pro will transform video

After using the Vision Pro for two weeks, I’m convinced that it is the future of video. In this article, I’ll focus on how it can transform how we watch videos, with subsequent articles covering different applications.

Vision Pro applies advanced technologies to create new video experiences we couldn’t imagine. Let’s explore these.

New video experiences on the Vision Pro

As its name implies, the Vision Pro introduces new video experiences: a large virtual screen, the ability to watch 3D movies at home, immersive video, and, most impressively, spatial video.

Most people are already familiar with 3D video from movie theaters. This type of video adds depth to movies, creating an illusion of a three-dimensional space. It does this by capturing two slightly offset images to create depth perception, which enhances realism. 3D is primarily used in movie theaters and viewed with special glasses. There have been some limited versions of 3D television, but these have yet to be successful. Vision Pro enables users to watch previously recorded 3D movies at home.

Immersive video provides a full 360-degree panorama. Viewers can see everything around them, turn their heads, and look around themselves as if they are in reality. It provides an enhanced sense of being present in that environment. They do not see their surroundings in 3D or interact with their environment. Immersive video requires special cameras to film a 360-degree view. Applications for immersive video on Vision Pro are exciting.

Spatial video adds depth perception. Viewers perceive the arrangement of what they see and feel like they are part of it. It is more interactive than immersive video. Viewers can move around within the video to some extent. Immersive videos on the Apple Vision Pro are mind-blowing! As will be discussed, a Vision Pro can film spatial video, as can an iPhone 15, which makes it ideal for home videos. The distinctions between 3D, immersive, and spatial video primarily revolve around capturing, recreating, and allowing interaction with environments or scenes, offering different levels of depth, interactivity, and immersion.

New Vision Pro video experiences

Vision Pro introduces entirely new ways to experience video. This includes video entertainment as well as video in the workplace.

The Vision Pro offers four distinct video and movie-watching experiences: enjoying theater-sized screens with surround sound without leaving your home, the novelty of personal 3D viewing, immersive 360-degree video, and the groundbreaking immersive video experience.

Theater-sized screen at home

You can watch movies and television shows on a screen that is as large as that in a theater. You can enlarge it to your entire field of view, filling an entire room or apartment. The quality and clarity are excellent. This will be very popular for those who live in small apartments and don’t have room for a large TV screen on the wall. It’s virtual, so when you are watching it, it's there, but when you stop watching, there is no TV screen on the wall.

For many, Vision Pro, even at $3,500, can be less expensive than a big-screen TV. The giant TVs today can be $4,000 to $8,000 and take up a lot of wall space. You can move your VisionPro TV screen around and increase and decrease its size to fit your needs and field of view. In addition, you can take your Vision Pro with you when you travel.

I watched a movie on my large high-quality TV and then rewatched the ending on my ?pple Vision Pro, and there was no comparison.

3D video at home

An initial application that genuinely impressed me was the ability to watch 3D movies on the Vision Pro. This device transforms the movie and video experience in a way that traditional viewing methods cannot match. The 3D video quality on the Vision Pro is outstanding. Various 3D films, particularly from Disney, are readily accessible on the device. Unlike standard TVs, which cannot support 3D viewing, the Vision Pro brings this cinema-like experience into your home with a quality that surpasses that of movie theaters.

I watched a James Bond 3D movie on the Vision Pro, and it was incredible. There are currently 150 3D movies already available on the Vision Pro. Some families may want to get one Vision Pro to share to keep younger children occupied by watching 3D Disney movies repeatedly.

As the Vision Pro becomes more popular, movie studios will do more 3D movies because they can be sold for home viewing. And as there are more 3D movies, there will be more demand for Vision Pro.

Exploring the next frontier with Immersive video

Immersive video, or 360-degree video, captures every direction simultaneously using omnidirectional cameras. This technology allows viewers to look around in all directions during playback, offering an engaging and dynamic viewing experience that simulates being physically present within the video's environment. When watched through Vision Pro, immersive videos provide a sense of physical presence in the video's setting, marking a significant leap forward in visual content experience.

Apple had several immersive, 360-degree videos and samples for the Vision Pro, and it is unreal when you turn around and see everything behind you.

Spatial video is the future of movies

Spatial video is the most significant new technology in Vision Pro. With the depth perception provided by spatial video, you feel like you are right in the room or next to someone.

Apple's immersive video features 180-degree 3D 8K recordings captured with spatial video to transport viewers to the center of a place, moment, or story. At launch, users can experience several immersive films and series:

• Alicia Keys's Rehearsal Room offers a rare glimpse into the Grammy winner’s creative process with this intimate rehearsal session. You feel like you're right there in the room with her.

• Adventure follows pioneering athletes who take on awe-inspiring challenges in some of the world’s most sensational locations. In the first episode, Highlining, viewers step into thin air with Faith Dickey as she takes on her highest challenge: a daring traverse 3,000 feet above Norway’s breathtaking fjords.

• Wild Life takes viewers up close and personal with some of the most charismatic creatures on the planet to uncover what makes them unique, featuring the experts who know them best. The first episode brings viewers into the world’s largest rhinoceros sanctuary.

• Prehistoric Planet Immersive: The award-winning Apple Original docuseries from Jon Favreau and the producers of Planet Earth returns with an immersive film that transports viewers into the daily lives of dinosaurs.

Spatial video is more accessible to record than immersive video. Although Apple only provides sample videos, it won’t be long before major movies are released with spatial video. I do not doubt that it will become the standard of the future.

Spatial video for home movies

Here is one of the most important applications. Vision Pro introduces the capability to record and view your own spatial video recordings, marking a significant advancement in recording personal home movies and special events. Spatial video places you right into the event you are filming, creating a much better experience than just watching a video. It will be the future of home video for special events like birthdays, weddings, and family gatherings. Wouldn’t you want now to save these special moments for the future in the standard of the future?

Here is where Apple’s ecosystem comes into play. You can record spatial video on an iPhone 15. I've done it, and it works great. However, you can only watch it on a Vision Pro.

A demo of a spatial birthday video showcased this technology's potential, offering an immersive experience that feels like being physically present at the event. While a flat-screen preview of this technology can be viewed, it doesn't fully capture the immersive experience offered by the Vision Pro.

Vision Pro offers an unparalleled way to record and revisit significant life events, providing a far more immersive experience than traditional video. Capturing events like a child's birthday or a wedding in spatial video promises a vivid re-experience of those moments.

To project the adoption of spatial video, it’s helpful to look at how home video recording historically became mainstream with the advent of VHS in the mid-70s to early 80s. ?Eventually, everyone wanted to save many memorable moments and experiences with video instead of photos. Then, they needed to keep them with streaming video when VHS became obsolete and copy old VHS videos. This evolution mirrors the potential trajectory of spatial video recording and viewing, with Apple positioning itself at the forefront of this technological evolution.

When you eventually realize that spatial video is the future, you will want to record your precious moments in the spatial video so they will be the future when the appreciation of spatial video is the standard.

Let’s focus more intensely on one specific market segment as an example. Just as drone video quickly became a standard offering for wedding photography, spatial video has the same potential. It is poised to become the new standard in capturing wedding memories, offering a competitive edge to photographers who adopt this technology. If a photographer demonstrates a wedding video in spatial video, most wedding parties will be convinced they need it.? They will also recognize that this is the future and will want to save these precious memories to that standard.? So, wedding photographers will be incented to be early adaptors of this technology, and then, of course, the wedding party will want to buy a Vision Pro to watch it. Perhaps it will become the new hot wedding gift?

Vision Pro video for sports fans and sports gamblers

Vision Pro can provide a dynamic platform for sports fans and gamblers, enhancing their engagement with sports. It offers an immersive viewing experience, bringing fans virtually closer to the action with large, theater-sized screen projections of games. Major broadcasters like ESPN, Fox, NBC, and CBS have made their applications compatible with Vision OS, providing a wide array of sports content, including major events like the Super Bowl, available on Paramount+.

As sports broadcasting evolves, it's expected that significant events will be captured in spatial video, offering viewers the sensation of being right on the sidelines or amidst the action on the field. The recent announcement of a joint venture sports streaming service by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros/Discovery hints at possible increased investment to develop immersive sports content tailored for Vision Pro.

For those passionate about watching multiple sports events, Vision Pro allows simultaneous viewing of multiple games without switching channels or visiting a sports bar. You can have all the games in your field of view and turn your focus to any one of them if you want.

The NBA's Vision Pro app has become notably popular, enabling users to watch up to five games simultaneously or access live stats alongside game broadcasts. Similarly, PGA Tour Vision, an app for Vision Pro, shows viewers live shot trails and ShotLink data at certain events.

“PGA TOUR Vision, the first golf app developed for Apple Vision Pro, takes fans inside the ropes and directly onto the greens of the world’s most iconic courses, from Pebble Beach to TPC Sawgrass, no matter where they are,” PGA Tour SVP of digital operations Scott Gutterman said in a statement.

MLB’s app, meanwhile, offers three-dimensional data visualizations, such as a view from behind the home plate to pair with streaming video. Users will also have the option to sit in a virtual environment that looks like a ballpark, with games displayed on the stadium video board. Apple's Vision Pro demonstrations highlight the potential of immersive sports videos, placing viewers in prime positions at soccer matches or along the baseline at Fenway Park.

With sports gambling expanding rapidly in the U.S., Vision Pro offers unique advantages for active gamblers. It allows them to view multiple live games and manage gambling applications simultaneously. They can easily track bet changes in odds and their bets, access advice, and place bets within their virtual environment. This capability positions Vision Pro as potentially an indispensable tool for the growing community of serious sports gamblers, and $3,500 is a small investment for many compared to the money they bet if it improves their productivity.

Vision Pros expected adoption rate for video

Various markets and applications will dictate Vision Pro’s adoption rate. In the video market, a few factors will initially slow adoption. The first is its price. At $3,500, Vision Pro is expensive and will appeal initially to technology advocates, video enthusiasts, event photographers, and sports enthusiasts. Some families may purchase one for shared use.

Limited video content will also delay adoption. However, adoption will accelerate when movies and live sporting events are available in spatial video. Vision Pro is also complicated to explain and demonstrate. You can only appreciate its potential when you use it, and this requires a guest setup mode and simple orientation.

Finally, Vision Pro is a solitary experience. It can’t be shared or watched together. This limits its application, but when you look at today’s younger generation, they always seem to be watching their video on their own devices.

Conclusion

For those who have used it, as I have, Vision Pro is remarkable. Here is a fascinating reaction from Nick Bilton (“Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro,” Vanity Fair February 1, 2024:

When I take it off, every other device feels flat and boring: My 75-inch OLED TV feels like a CRT from the ’90s; my iPhone feels like a flip phone from yesteryear, and even the real world around me feels surprisingly flat. And this is the problem. In the same way that I can’t imagine driving a car without a stereo, in the same way I can’t imagine not having a phone to communicate with people or take pictures of my children, in the same way I can’t imagine trying to work without a computer, I can see a day when we all can’t imagine living without an augmented reality. When we’re enveloped more and more by technology, to the point that we crave these glasses like a drug, like we crave our iPhones today but with more desire for the dopamine hit this resolution of AR can deliver.

Vision Pro can change how we watch and engage in video experiences. Virtual theater-sized video screens are better than even large home TVs. They may even displace going to the theater for movies. 3D movies at home open a new home video experience. Immersive video with 360-degree surround video will provide entirely new video experiences. Spatial video will be the future in both movies and home videos.

The adoption rate for Vision Pro in consumer video will be slow, but this is only one market for the revolutionary new device, and I think Apple will be production-constrained for the first two years because of the technological complexity of Vision Pro.