Introduction

VR Theater for Cardboard provides a virtual movie theater for 2D and 3D videos.

Many other apps claim to be VR, but just show a static side by side image of the movie: VR Theater allows you to move the head around, for a more immersive experience.

To better enjoy VR Theater and any other VR app make sure to have:

I develop the app on my Nexus 5 with a Homido virtual reality headset, you should expect a sub-par experience with older phones (older than the S4), or cheap headsets.

VR Theater has at the moment a limited video compatibilty: stick to mp4 files and all will be fine (a complete list of compatible formats can be found here).

If you have a movie that's not a mp4, you can convert it with Handbrake video transcoder beforehand.

Play a Ordinary Movie in the Phone

Make sure to have at least one mp4 file on your device to play.

Tap on the top left button to open the side menu and select My Videos.

Navigate the directories until you find the mp4 file you want to play, and tap on it.

Keep the default "2D" and "16:9" selections for the 3D type and screen ratio respectively. Don't select a 3D format "just because": it doesnt' work that way!!!

You can select a .srt subtitle for the movie if you have one with the top right button.

Press the play button and insert the phone into the headset.

Enjoy!

Play a Movie From an External Source

Select a mp4 file from an external browser (like Solid File Explorer) or the link of a mp4 file on a web page (try "Sample mp4 file" on on this page if you need a sample.

Select "VR Theater" as the app to open the movie with

Follow the instructions for normal movies for the format selection

Play a 3D movies

First make sure to actually have a 3D movie: VR Theater doesn't convert 2D movies into 3D ones!

Find out what kind of 3D format your movie is: SBS, TB or ToB or Anaglyph Red/Cyan.

Open the file as explained in the instructions for normal movies and select the 3D format to match the name of the file.

A Short Survey of 3D Movie Formats

This is a table of the movies supported by VR Theater, and a short description of how they look when played with the 2D setting in VR Theater (or when opened with a non-3D video player):

2D standard movies, they play correctly with "2D".
Side by Side or SBS/HSBS with "2D" you see the same image duplicated (side by side, hence the name).
Top/Bottom, Over/Under or ToB with "2D" you see the same image duplicated (one on top of the other).
Anaglyph or Red/Cyan with "2D" you see the correct picture, but the colors on the image look "wrong", with bluish or reddish borders.

Select the right 3D format with VR Theater, or you will see a corrupted picture.

If the picture looks right instead, but the depth looks "weird", try inverting the 3D (see VR Controls).

Play a Panoramic Movie

Movies shot with 360° cameras like the Gear 360 can be watched with VR Theater.

Look at the name of the file: panoramic movies have usually the "panoramic" word and 180 or 360 in the filename.

Open the file as explained in the instructions for normal movies and select the screen ratio to match the type of panoramic movie you have (360 or 180 degrees).

Some panoramic movies are 3D as well: make sure to adapt the 3D format accordingly! The movies on this site for instance are both panoramic 360° and Top over bottom 3D!

Presets

VR Theater has some configuration presets to address the most common issues.

Open the side menu and select "Options" to see the presets menu.

Some of the options can be combined (e.g. you can have overheating/power consumption problems and a drifting problem: you can select first a fix, and then select another), other can't (the preset for the best performances and the one for reduced drain cancel each other).

Check the effects of your choices by selecting the bottom right buttons.

All options changes are saved automatically: if you are unhappy with your selection, the last preset button allows to restore the factory settings.

Advanced Configuration

Almost all aspects of VR Theater can be configured: the top bar in the "presets" menu allows to select one of several options menu.

Things you can do in the advanced configuration menus:

VR Controls

The controls in the VR Scene can be activated by looking at them for a set time (configurable).

If you have a Cardboard V2 trigger, it will work with the app: in such case, you probably want to disable the visual controls through the options.

Most controls in the theater are hidden: to open the control panel, search a semi-transparent red circle and look at it.

Inside the panel that will open you can find the most used controls there (fast forward/backward, next/previous track, volume, pause, etc).

Less used options can be found in a second page of the panel. You can open it by looking at the small more button on the top left of the panel.

The red semi-transparent circle you use to open the controls can be configured in position, size, and opacity.

List of Controls

First Panel
pause pause/resume the playback
skip_backward skip_forward skip forward and backward a set configurable time
volume-up-down raise or lower the volume
align start a countdown: at the end the view will be aligned
fast_backward fast_forward fast backward and forward. Use the play icon on the screen to stop.
next_track prev_track previous and next video in the folder

Second panel
lock lock the view on the screen: only the controls will move with your head. Use again to restore the default behavior
invert invert the dept. Useful only with some 3D movies
pano_screen theater_screen switch to a theater for panoramic 360°/180° movies, or to a normal theater
2d sbs tab red_cyan switch 3D mode (2D, Side by Side, Top over Bottom, Anaglyph red/cyan)
Only for non-panoramic movies
up-down backward-forward move forward/backward and up/down
4_3 16_9 16_10 239_1 change the aspect ratio of the screen
Only for panoramic movies
zoom-in-out reset_zoom zoom in or out, and restore the default zoom level
180 360 switch between 180° and 360°

Extra controls
Screen pause/resume playback (trigger/keyboard only)
Right Bar allows to seek to a specific time (may not work for some video sources)
Empty Space align the view (trigger/keyboard only)

Keyboards and Game Pads

External devices (USB or Bluetooth keyboards and gamepads) work too

If you have an external controller, like a keyboard or gamepad, you can use it to select the controls in the VR Scene.

The supported keys are:

Other keys/buttons behave like the cardboard trigger: you can use other devices - like selfie triggers - to control the app.

License

Personal non-commercial use of this app is granted free of charge: there are no ads, no data mining, no payments of sort.

Contacts

For feedback, support or to report a bug contact me:

Google+ Email Google+ Google+ site