How do you play your 360 videos? PC Version

You’ve gone out and shot some 360 video at a really nice event with your 360Penguin and you want to review it. Your computer’s standard player isn’t recognizing the format or not opening the file. What now?

Well, when we open a 360 video at 360Rize, we do have a go-to player that does a really nice job. It isn’t something we created. It isn’t a company we work with, but the VLC player is one of the best to come around. One of the best things about this player is that, once it is loaded onto your computer, all of the media encoders are in your system. That means you can go back to using your favorite player and it will have those encoders active as well.

VLC not only plays 360 videos but will also play DVDs and audio and video CDs. The free player is a quick download from the VideoLAN Organization, a non-profit organization and is an open source project that works across all platforms, from Windows to MacOS, even Android, Linux, and iOS.

Getting VLC Player on your computer is an easy process

1. 1. Go to https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
   2. Click on the orange “Download VLC” button
   3. On a Windows computer, a “Save As” window will open with the application name listed. Click “Save.”
   4. A traffic cone icon will be on your desktop. Click it.
   5. Select your language.
   6. The “VLC media player Setup” window will open. Click “Next.”
   7. The next window will include your user agreement. Read through it if you’d like, and click “Next.”
   8. The next window will allow you to choose the components of the program to install. We recommend leaving it as it is and clicking “Next.”
   9. Now, you can choose where to establish the destination folder. Again, we recommend to simply allow it to create a new folder. All you need to do is click “Install.”
   10. Once it completes the process, you will see a window that will ask you if you would like to run the VLC media player. Leave this box checked to make sure the program installed properly. Click “Finish.”

To view a 360 video in the player, simply go to the folder where the video resides. Right click on the video and hover over “Open With.” You will see the traffic cone with VLC next to it. Select that and the video will start playing in the VLC player.

You can make the VLC media player your default video player as well

1. Right click on the file name.
2. Go to the bottom of the list and click on “Properties.”
3. Where you see “Opens with,” there will be a box that says “Change.” Click that.
4. Now you have the option of selecting what program opens your videos.
5. Click on the VLC traffic cone in the new window.
6. Click “OK.” The window will close.
7. Now click “Apply” at the bottom of the properties panel.

Your default player will now be the VLC media player. If your video will not play, you may be missing metadata. That can be injecte by following the instructions in this link: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6395969?hl=en&ref_topic=2888648 or this one https://github.com/google/spatial-media

Now, you can enjoy all of your 360 video content as it was intended.

Learn more about the 360Penguin HERE