You just got a shiny new Oculus Go headset to play games and watch VR movies, but how do you get those movies onto the VR headset in the first place? Here’s how to move videos from your PC or Mac to your Oculus Go.
It’s not just full VR movies that you can play on your Oculus headset—it can be any movie that you’ve got stored as a local file. If you want to watch a regular movie on your Oculus, you just have to copy the files over and launch them from the Oculus gallery. You’ll be presented with a virtual movie theater for your viewing enjoyment.
So, let’s take a look at how to copying videos from Windows, how to do it on a Mac, and then how to actually find and enjoy those videos on your Oculus.
Copying VR Videos to Oculus Go from Windows
Windows makes it really easy to connect to your Oculus headset—just connect the Oculus, and you’ll see a bunch of popup messages telling you that Windows is thinking about something. Eventually, it’ll say “Device is ready” and that’s your cue to go open up File Explorer. Note that you might have to approve the USB connection from the Oculus side.
In File Explorer, head to This PC and you’ll see “VR-Headset” listed as an attached device. Open that up, open the Internal Shared Folder inside, and inside that, you’ll see a Movies folder.
Simply copy your videos into the Movies folder, and you’re good to go.
Copying VR Videos to Oculus Go from Mac
If you’re using a Mac, you’ve got an extra step before you can copy movies over—head to the official Android website and download their File Transfer tool. Install that on your Mac, connect to the Oculus with the USB cable, and then you can find it listed under Applications as “Android File Transfer.” Note that you might have to approve the USB connection from the Oculus side.
Once you’ve got that open, just drag and drop your VR or other movie files straight into the Movies folder. It’s really just that easy.
Playing VR Videos (or Any Videos) from the Local Storage on Oculus Go
Now that you’ve got the files transferred over, let’s look at how to play them. Open the home screen by pressing the Oculus button, and then look down at the toolbar. Head to Navigate > Gallery to open up the Oculus Gallery.
In the gallery, head to the “Internal Storage” option. That’s where local media is stored.
You’ll find any movies you copied over in the list.
Just launch the movie and enjoy!
Making a VR Movie Play in VR Mode
If you launch a VR video from local storage, the video is initially presented in the “theater” view, which is going to look really weird for a VR movie. You’ll want to click to bring up the menu, and then click the “2D” option on that menu.
From there, you can click and change the settings from 2D to 180 or 360 degrees, depending on the video format. When you choose a different format, Oculus launches the video again in full screen with the correct VR setting. You might have to try a couple of different options to get it working right.
Happy movie watching! The experience of watching 2D movies in VR isn’t that interesting, but watching a VR movie can be really captivating.
