360 Video Viewers for Different Devices (Software + Hardware)

In general, you can view your 360° videos on a desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, VR (virtual reality) headset either with a video player app or using a web browser. Actually, if you are the creator of the 360-degree videos, you can directly preview your clips while capturing with a 360 video recorder or editing them with a 360 video editor.

How to Watch a 360 Video?

Before learning the 360 video viewers, let’s talk about how to fully watch a 360-degree video on different devices.

If you are using a desktop PC, you can pan and look around the scenes in the 360 video using your mouse.

If you are watching a 360 video on a mobile phone, you can either rely on your finger to pan or directly point the device to where you want to view.

If you are wearing a VR headset, it is extremely easy to watch every corner of the video. Since you are “surrounded” by the video, you can simply look around just like in real life.

Next, let’s introduce some popular 360 video players for different devices.

Windows Built-in 360 Video Viewers

The system built-in application Movies & TV (for Windows 10 and Windows 11) can play 360 videos. When you open your 360-degree video with this software, make sure the Play as 360° video option is enabled.

Once you are playing as 360° video, you can see that a compass-like widget will appear in the upper right of the player window. Then, you can switch the direction of the video by clicking on the arrows pointing to different directions (up, down, left, and right). Or you can directly drag the picture around.

VLC 360 Video Viewer

As the most popular video player, VLC media player is all-mighty for its wide compatibility. It can be used on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Apple TV, ChromeOS, Xbox, and so on. However, only version 3.0 and higher supports the playback of 360 videos.

360 Video Player Online

It seems that there isn’t any online video player that can handle 360 videos currently. Yet, if you have some knowledge about programming, you can refer to the following websites which provide self-hosted HTML5 open-source 360 video players:

• https://flimshaw.github.io/Valiant360/
• https://github.com/littlstar/axis360
• https://github.com/little-core-labs/axis3d
• https://jeromeetienne.github.io/webvr-experiments/viewer360.html
• https://github.com/BIVROST/360WebPlayer

Or you can rely on Bitmovin to watch your 360-degree video clips following its instructions.

Another indirect way to watch 360-degree videos online is on YouTube. You can upload your 360 videos to YouTube and watch them there. If you are using a YouTube app on a mobile, you can easily look around the 360 video by tilting the phone around.

360 Video Viewer for Android

VR Player Vr Videos 360 Videos

VR Player has a Vr Videos player, with which you can view many VR videos and enter the virtual reality world. Besides 360 videos, you can also view 360 photos with this app. Moreover, VR Player has a glass mode that enables you to watch regular videos in VR.

360 Video Player Hardware

In addition to the above software viewer, you can still rely on hardware VR headsets to enjoy your 360 videos. Although it will cost much more preparation and money to get a VR headset. However, you will get a more immersive experience using the headset. Also, viewing the 360 videos will be much easier by simply turn your head around.

There are several types of VR headsets:

• PC VR headsets: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, etc.
• Smartphone based VR headsets: Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR
• Standalone VR devices: Oculus Quest and Oculus Go

How to View GoPro 360 Videos on PC?

Finally, let’s have a look at the official GoPro 360 video player – HyperSmooth Pro, which can take your GoPro footage to the next level. With it, you can play, trim, and export your GoPro videos easily; reframe 360 max media into sharable videos or photos; as well as give the traditional hero clip next-level stabilization.

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