Is there a way via software (OBS, etc) for Win/Mac to turn the live mode feed into a live spherical 360 view so that the user can control the rotation (what the receiver sees). Would be good to use the Theta as a face cam but when needed being able to turn the view in other directions in realtime.
You can change the view in Unity if you are writing your own app.
The Amelia Viewer will work better with V, X, Z1. The SC2 is the most limited, though obviously cheaper.
PotPlayer may also be of interest to you.
Please advise on what camera model you are using.
Wow, Craig!
Okay, so I have the Z1.
Pushing the feed via Unity looks crazy good and quite advanced! Great work!
I also watched the demo with PotPlayer (or rather Amelia Viewer for Z1 as you suggested) which is actually the way I would like it to work.
The preferred way would be to have that spherical view in OBS. Also saw the OBS example but that is just showing the squared (?) 360 feed.
Realize that it is as easy as to add the Amelia Viewer window inside OBS and then just crop the window to get rid of the GUI. I mostly use OBS as a advanced virtual camera source and then of course latency is the critical part.
But I will test this for sure!
Thanks a bunch for the guidance!
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if you want to use Unity, this video gives you some idea. The newest driver does not require a driver hack. You can just download the streaming driver and you’re good to go.
This one is run over a network locally and has VR navigation. Note that Ethernet no longer works with the Z1, but you can stream over WiFi.
Just for some basic testing via USB-C I did follow the guide videos to get the live view to work in PotPlayer.
Sorry to ask but when I choose “Open Web cam” I just get the error “Can’t play media file. Unknown video format”. Live view works in OBS (did install the UVC driver).
I also added the OpenCodec as an extras for PotPlayer but did not solve it.
Any suggestion why PotPlayer complains?
RICOH THETA Z1::Capture
==========================
Unknown video format.
==========================
Media Type 0:
--------------------------
Video
[AM_MEDIA_TYPE]
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_H264 {34363248-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_UVCH264Video {2017BE05-6629-4248-AAED-7E1A47BC9B9C}
bFixedSizeSamples: 0
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 1
cbFormat: 84
pbFormat:
0000: 00 0f 80 07 01 00 01 00 40 42 33 00 00 00 00 00 ..ďż˝.....@B3.....
0010: 01 00 07 00 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....%...........
0020: 62 17 05 00 04 00 76 00 00 02 cc 03 00 00 00 00 b.....v...ďż˝.....
0030: 00 00 cc 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 cc 03 00 00 00 00 ..ďż˝.......ďż˝.....
0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0050: 00 00 00 00 ....
==========================
Unknown video format.
==========================
Media Type 1:
--------------------------
Video
[AM_MEDIA_TYPE]
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_H264 {34363248-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_UVCH264Video {2017BE05-6629-4248-AAED-7E1A47BC9B9C}
bFixedSizeSamples: 0
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 1
cbFormat: 84
pbFormat:
0000: 80 07 c0 03 01 00 01 00 40 42 28 00 00 00 00 00 ďż˝.ďż˝.....@B(.....
0010: 01 00 07 00 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....%...........
0020: 63 17 05 00 04 00 76 00 00 02 cc 03 00 00 00 00 c.....v...ďż˝.....
0030: 00 00 cc 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 cc 03 00 00 00 00 ..ďż˝.......ďż˝.....
0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0050: 00 00 00 00
....Solved: Had to go into Preferences and manually change the codec for the Z1 to YUY2.
1 Like
Awesome!
Thank you for sharing the solution. This will help other people. 
I did the earlier review with the older driver.
Thank you yourself!
I am new to the Theta world and quickly realize that you are doing wonders for the community by building in-depth knowledge and conducting rewarding explorations!
Would like to have those skills. 
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Is there a plug-and-play viewer app for MacOS that can show live spherical 360 like PotPlayer via USB? or another solution for MacOS?
I don’t know of one for the Mac. Did you try the GoPro VR Player 3?
Hi Craig!
Sorry for a very late reply but I actually did give up back in March (changed work right after that = did not drive me further for my needs).
Just picked this subject up again to try it out and it finally worked!
Yes, GoPro VR Player 3 was at least the solution for MacOS to get a spherical presentation of the feed + installed the THETA RTSP STREAMING plugin!
And followed the guide how to get hold of the IP name of the Z1.
RTSP always give quite a delay for realtime but for the purpose to demonstrate something without care about lip syncing this is great.
Still a hardwired solution with no latency would be the best solution but this still proofs it works for MacOS! (If there is a way to get hold of the live feed from the camera and bring that one into GoPro VR Player 3 would be great.)
Thanks for the never-ending support! 
Just wanted to reconnect not to be that dude that just stops give thread feedback suddenly.
Mission accomplished!
2 Likes
Is the RTSP plug-in latency around 350ms? You can take a video of a stopwatch on your computer monitor with the THETA Z1 like this:
Even if you use a USB cable, you will not be able to lower the latency beyond that as the camera needs to stitch the two spheres into equirectangular.
Thanks for sharing your solution.