HowTo: RICOH THETA V and Z1 4K Live Streaming Driver For Windows 10

THETA Media
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Live Streaming using Windows 10 now works great using MPC-HC and OBS with both the THETA V and THETA Z1. Please download the driver below to use live streaming effectively on the broadest range of software.

Update June 2020

Version 2 of Windows Driver Now Available. Single driver for V/Z1. Driver performance is improved.

Update October 18, 2019: Z1 Windows Driver Now available

Login at this site post on this discussion thread and we’ll send you the link. GMAIL is needed for the site login.

The Z1 screen should show the word LIVE as in the screenshot below. The
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Update 10/13/2017: THETA V Driver now on Ricoh Site for Immediate Download

https://theta360.com/en/support/faq/c_06_v/304_1/

Win64： https://theta360.com/en/support/download/liveapp4k/win64
Win32： https://theta360.com/en/support/download/liveapp4k/win32

Update 10/18/2017: Single channel audio now works with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

See this post down in the discussion. Note that Fall Creators update was released on 10/17. This is Windows 10 version 1709, not the older 1703. Audio from the THETA V does not work with Windows 10 1703, but you can mix it with an external microphone.

Using RICOH THETA UVC 4K With OBS

I’m getting excellent results with RICOH THETA UVC 4K. I’m assuming this will be released more widely after the Ricoh team tests it more. I indicated that I would write up my experiences.

Live streaming video quality is excellent, much better than the THETA S. If you do live-streaming, you need to upgrade! This is a massive improvement. It’s a game-changer as the THETA S could not really provide an immersive experience for live streaming due to fuzzy details. With the new resolution, telepresence should be great.

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Using MPC-HC

Using the pre-release software, I found MPC-HC and OBS to both work great. Live streaming quality and smoothness were excellent.

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OBS

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Update: 9/27/2017. I just ran the test again and am now only seeing 10% system load on OBS 19.0.3.

Note that a previous version of this article showed high load on OBS 0.65, which I mistakenly used for my test. This is old software. I’m running the test again for OBS 19.0.3 now. CPU load is now 10%.

  • 16 GB of system RAM
  • CPU: Intel i7 4790K (4 core)
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti

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Note on Using MPC-HC Without UVC 4K Driver

Don’t select Microphone (RICOH THETA V) as Audio. If you set it, MPC-HC does not show the live stream from the RICOH THETA V as a web cam. It’s an issue with the Windows USB driver. If you set as the screen below, you can see the live from the RICOH THETA V on the MPC-HC without UVC4K.

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Update: 11/7/2017 - tested THETA V driver with MPC-HC

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To access the settings, go to View → Options

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Under options, select Capture - > Video

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On my system, I have a multiple webcams and multiple drivers. Select RICOH THETA V.

2 Hour 4K Stream Test

No problems with heat.

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THETA Not Appearing as Webcam

Try disabling anti-virus. Community member Ruben Lazaro reported problems with BitDefender.

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Hello, i would realy love to try the Software, RICOH THETA UVC 4K. Could you send me a Download link?

Thanks, Basti

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Great article, exactly what i’m searching for since a week :wink: Would be great if you can share a downloadlink to the RICOH THETA UVC 4K sofware :wink: Cheers, Alex

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I’ve sent the links to @BastiGK and @alexholzreiter as direct message. I don’t feel comfortable posting the link publicly here as I can’t find it listed on the Ricoh web site. I think this is only because it is still in beta and they want to make sure that people understand it’s beta. if the link is out in public, people may get confused and think it’s production.

People need Windows 10 1703 Creators Update to use the software.

It’s been working great for me.

If you want to test it, put a note here and I’ll send you the pre-release link. I hope Ricoh releases this to the public soon.

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OMG! Thank you so much for working this out - I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to get this to work for the last week.

If you are able to send me the RICOH THETA UVC 4K software you would be a life saver - I’ve been tasked with getting this working for a live demonstration by my manager next Wednesday and it would be simply amazing if this worked.

Really appreciate if you can help out but totally understand your reluctance to post it publically.

Thanks in advance, Brian

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Hi Codetricity… as with all the others, I would love to try the Beta driver if you could provide a link in PM. I wrote to Ricoh Japan but as they’re timezones ahead they’re probably enjoying the weekend.
many thanks,
M

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Hi Codetricity,

I’d love to try the RICOH THETA UVC 4K Software. Have been trying to find a solution to this problem all day and am yet to have any luck. I have to do a lifestream next week and am in desperate need to sort this out. If you could send it over in a private link it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Harry

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I’ve sent the download links to @Brian_Gilmour, @MarkTheCaz, @harryosborne21

If anyone has time, please post test results here.

I’m going to ask Ricoh tech support if they’ll let me post the public links here in this forum. Otherwise, I’ll use DM until they release it. I believe the only reason they’re not releasing it publicly is because they’re still doing quality assurance on it and they appear to be sending the driver link only to people with some experience with the camera, which would include anyone reading this forum.

IMO, the current distribution process is a good strategy by Ricoh as the 4K live streaming documentation still needs to be built up and it would be good if people had some experience with tools like OBS, MPC-HC or Wirecast prior to trying the streaming with a 4K 360 stream for the first time.

If you want to try the driver, just post a note here and I’ll DM you the link.

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@codetricity and I talking on Google Hangouts- in 360 with the THETA V.

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Interesting visual effects if you put your face really close to the camera.

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My upstream bandwidth is 1.3Mbps, which is below the recommended 10Mbps. I need more bandwidth.

Also, Skype did not display the video stream.

Testing from macOS 10.12.5 shows lower CPU usage on same hardware. 5.9% at 30fps.

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My first tests with OBS and Facebook Live went well…any suggestions how to handle the sound input from the Theta V? i only get the laptopmic working.

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Hi codetricity,

Got my Theta V just few days ago… been trying so hard to get live stream working. I only got as far as seeing the equirectangular view live in MPC-HC software, using the instructions on Ricoh’s website. However, I could never get OBS to recognize or capture 360 video frames from the Theta V. Now that I know there is a “RICOH THETA UVC 4K” driver, that all makes sense… I guess there was no way I could ever get it to work without this piece of software.

(That said, how come MPC-HC is able to grab Theta V camera frames and display that on the computer, even without the driver?)

Can you please give me access/link to the Beta driver for THETA UVC 4K? I’d really like to try it out.

There’s an event I’d like to record for posterity (tomorrow!). The Theta V seems to be capable of recording limited amount (40 minutes?) due to storage. Is there a way to record a 2-hour event by connecting Theta V to a computer, and then have the recording done on the computer? Will OBS be capable of this? Or will MPC-HC be able to do this?

Thanks in advance.
Abigail

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Sent link by DM. Let me know if you have any problems getting it.

THETA V has 25 minute limit for recording videos internal to the camera.

You should be able to OBS to record a live stream to file. See the article below. Saving to file is at the bottom of the first article. Please test before your event.

NOTE The live stream has mono audio. The video saved inside the camera has spatial audio. Depending on your event, it may be important.

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I had some problems with the sound on Windows 10 and need to test it more. I also sent a question about this to another guy that is testing the THETA V with live streaming.

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You, sir, are incredible. Thank you so much.
I am playing with it now.

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See the note above about sound. If you record to file, you may need to use an external microphone connected to your laptop.

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Hi Codetricity,
I would love to also test the 4K Live Streaming with the Theta V.
Could you send me the link for the driver(s) dor Win 10 and (if available for may MacOS?)
Thank you so much in advance,
Janosch

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Sent you the links to the 32bit and 64bit Windows versions.

You don’t need a separate driver for Mac. Just select RICOH THETA V in OBS or the encoder software you want to use.

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Perfect - thats even easier on my Mac :wink:
I will try both!!! Tomorrow morning - its already 2:45am :sleeping::sleeping::sleeping:

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@alexholzreiter and everyone else using the pre-release RICOH THETA V 4K driver, it appears that audio from the THETA V does not work from Win10. I’ve submitted this bug report to Ricoh customer support.

In the meantime, I think that the driver is still usable for 4K video if you use a microphone connected to your laptop and mix it with something like OBS. The video quality is good and stable in my tests so far. Still worthwhile to use the pre-release software in this setup in my opinion.

1 Like