HN Explorer

Ask HN: Can VR substitute for a big screen?

2 points by flukus ↗ HN
Currently the biggest screen in my house is 17", so I'm interested in how it could substitute for a number of devices, from TV to laptop. I'm not so interested in the VR aspect, but more as a way of having virtual screens.

Can I lie in bed and use a headset as a giant screen projector?

Do any of them work well for work related activities (coding etc).

4 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] thread
bigiain
Yes and no - I quite like using my GearVR/S6Edge in Cinema mode in bed. It's not full HD resolution, since its sharing it's 2560 horizontal pixels between each eye (and I suspect losing some to the optics as well), but it's a different (and nicer) experience to watching the full 2048 pixels across my iPad screen... It's not a direct replacement for a full HD projector and a 16foot wide silver screen on your loungeroom wall, but it's definitely not unusable.

(I wouldn't want to code on it though. It's around 1280px horizontal resolution (per eye), but it's spread across a much wider field of view than a typical laptop or external monitor screen, and it's either going to move with your head or lag slightly behind your head movement - depending on the mode you've set it to - and you quite likely aren't going to be comfortable with that for hours on end...)

flukus
> Yes and no - I quite like using my GearVR/S6Edge in Cinema mode in bed.

Can you comfortably lay back and fall asleep with it on?

bigiain
I tend to not fall asleep with it on - I wake myself up as soon as I turn my head (I'll have headphones on as well as the GearVR, so it's a fair bit of "stuff" strapped to your head). It's comfortable enough to watch full length movies with though.