The Meta Quest Pro has a 10-bit screen making it capable of displaying 10-bit VR video and this is set to be possible via the next generation of headsets too. 10-bit visuals can display up to 1.07 billion colors, offering 64 times more than the 16.7 million of 8-bit video. We have uploaded some sample footage and we'd like to know your thoughts! [Updated August 2023]
Here are the links to the footage to try out (each clip is 5 seconds duration):
- 8-bit Main (8-bit / main / 4.2.0 / 80mbs CBR bitrate / rec709 / level 6.1 / fps 59.94 / 8000x4000)
- 10-bit 4:2:2 (10-bit / 4.2.2 / 80mbs CBR bitrate / rec709 / level 6.1 / fps 59.94 / 8000x4000)
- 10-bit Main (10-bit / main 10 / 4.2.0 / 80mbs CBR bitrate / rec709 / level 6.1 / fps 59.94 / 8000x4000)
The footage was recorded on the Canon R5C camera in 8K.
Please download each clip and compare on your Quest Pro headset, or click through on the DeoVR browser in the app.
From our experience, we didn't find any notable visual difference. We don't believe that the typical user will spot the difference between 8 and 10 bits for a regular video, only some gradient surfaces, for example:
However, we'd like to hear your thoughts and experiences. Feel free to experiment with those samples, and try various settings on your VR headset and let us know. Contact us directly or join the discussion on the SLR forum.
More info about 10-bit video (from original blog posted in late 2020):
The ZCam K2 Pro is also capable of filming 180° VR in 10-bit color. The Quest 2 and Nvidia 10xx/20xx/30xx decode 10-bit h.265 video.
However, 10-bit VR video looks brilliant on an HDR 10-bit display, but it looks the same as 8-bit on a non-HDR screen. It's only possible to see the 10-bit effect on an HDR 10-bit screen. It doesn't work like resolution, where you get better visuals when watching flat 4K video on an HD screen.
Also, 10-bit videos have a much bigger file size due to the much higher bitrate required. For practical reasons, it's better to render the 10-bit video as 8-bit as that's what the current generation of VR headsets can do.
For example, look at this 10-bit vs 8-bit image comparison on the HDR screen of your desktop. You might also like to check 8-bit video vs 10-bit in VR.
From the perspective of a producer, it's still beneficial to have a 10-bit camera due to the huge advantage it has on color grading which is then downscaled to 8-bit. The 8-bit Zcam K1 Pro camera has much less potential when it comes to color grading.