Oculus TV is now available: VR has its own streaming-TV hub

Facebook promised to make the RV much more social in May when the $ 199 Oculus Go started, announcing a handle new applications to gather people while goggled in. Oculus, a live event viewing platform that mixes large crowds of virtual avatars and streaming video, was the first.

Oculus TV is the second, and it is now available on Oculus Go (but do not Samsung Gear VR) with a bunch of new video streaming apps. It aims to be a central place to find all streaming videos to watch when you have your VR headset on your face. But it's not yet the most promising feature: social viewing with Oculus's friends will only happen later this year. For now, it's a solo experience.

Do I want that? Well, I tried it on the weekends.

Oculus TV is all about old-fashioned 2D flat-screen entertainment, but seen in your 3D virtual reality glasses otherwise. I've used it during the weekends, and while it's a good way to watch a show, watching 2D VR videos is not something I have to do.

There are already many ways to watch videos and movies in Oculus headsets: Oculus Video, which looks like a giant cinema, was a launch app when the Gear VR arrived in 2014. Standalone Netflix, Hulu , Showtime, Pluto and other apps are browsing streaming video, too.

Oculus TV launches into a sleek little virtual living room screen in front of a sofa, as Hulu, Netflix and other VR apps already do. The browser tries to help discover the content (the first version that I tried only discovered the videos of Facebook, Red Bull TV and Pluto: Netflix, Hulu and Showtime were not there yet) . In addition, each streaming application can be launched from the Oculus TV application.

I start by seeing videos of my neighbors appearing on Facebook (and a colleague whose knives throwing kids, I guess). I end up watching the challenge of roller-coaster Red Bull TV. I find myself broadcasting videos of CNET Roadshow on Pluto, and old episodes of No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain.

To the credit of Oculus TV, watching videos is better than what I've tried on any other VR headset. But I could not try to look at others: Social would be where it could finally be fun. Without this social experience, it is much less convincing.

Oculus Go's streaming video management is much better than most virtual reality headsets, but the quality and resolution of the video are far from being close to a good tablet or d & # 39; 39, a good television. According to Facebook, future video partners like ESPN will come during the year.

If Oculus Venues and Oculus TV met in the middle and Oculus TV ended up being really social, I'd be a little more interested. But if you already have an Oculus Go, your streaming TV hub has finally arrived.