Compatibility with Samsung Gear 360

[loggyboy]

Has anyone had any success using footage from a Samsung Gear 360?
Ive tried starting a project with both raw and 'stitched' footage, both come up with warning saying the file is the 'wrong type.
Ive also tried adding the file to an existing project and the file is added an audio file only.

[Weston@HPTuners]

In addition to supporting raw video files directly from 360fly cameras, RaceRender should also be able to import most other 360 videos once they are in the typical .MP4 format that's used for uploading to YouTube 360, Facebook 360, etc. This format is known as equirectangular or "flattened" projection, typically with a 2:1 aspect ratio (ie 360:180 degrees), and its .MP4 (or .MOV) file container should include the usual Google format 360 metadata. That's what I'd expect from the output of most stitching operations or 360 camera software.

It sounds as though the particular stitched video file you're using here is having trouble just being opened in RaceRender on your system, so that's the main problem in this case...

My first thought is that if you're still on Windows 7, then its decoders sometimes have issues with these .MP4/.MOV files, especially when they exceed 1080p in vertical resolution or more than about 2000 pixels in width. One potential solution for that case is to install Apple's QuickTime 7 Player for Windows, which tends to have better success at opening these files, and its decoders should then automatically be available to RaceRender. This is not an ideal solution, as both QuickTime 7 and Windows 7 are obsolete now, but it has been know to work in many similar situations. Ultimately, upgrading to Windows 10 should do a much better job in media compatibility, performance, and output quality.

Otherwise, it may be possible that the stitched video file you're being given isn't a compatible video file format for RaceRender (ie not .MP4 or another supported type). There's also a thought that extreme video resolutions (more than 17:9 4K) may have an issue in some cases, but I've not actually encountered that situation yet. I'm not sure what Samsung's software is actually providing here though, as i haven't seen a stitched sample from it. Media format support can vary a bit depending on which operating system you're using, and even some variances deeper than that, so its hard to say more on that without a little more information about your particular system and video files.