YouTube 360 Degree Video Filetype

Recently, I saw on YouTube that you can play videos with 360 degree panoramic views. It's on the #360Video channel (sample videos). What type of video files are these?

Also, you don't need anything like the Oculus Rift to watch these sorts of videos, you can just click and move the camera.

A 360-degree video file seems to be a special type of MP4 file.

I used a browser extension to download the YouTube video you mentioned.

When viewed in "VLC media player" the entire 360-degree panorama is shown, rather than a specific view.

(EDIT: As of November 30, 2016, VLC Player now plays 360º videos. )

The "Upload 360 degree videos - YouTube Help" article (link) describes how to upload 360 videos and lists some software references, including Kolor. The Kolor Eyes Free Video Player for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS will play spherical videos both online and offline.

The Linux utility file lists the video as: ISO Media, MP4 v2 [ISO 14496-14]

The Linux utility mediainfo lists the following information:

General
Complete name                            : Time Couch - VR Demo by StressLevelZero.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42
File size                                : 21.3 MiB
Duration                                 : 1mn 39s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 1 805 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2015-03-20 08:41:06
Tagged date                              : UTC 2015-03-20 08:41:06
gsst                                     : 0
gstd                                     : 99125
gssd                                     : B0AFCE0EAHM1434753175604513
gshh                                     : r8---sn-q4f7dnsd.googlevideo.com

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1mn 39s
Bit rate                                 : 1 611 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 5 691 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 640 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.000
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.066
Stream size                              : 19.0 MiB (89%)
Tagged date                              : UTC 2015-03-20 08:41:07

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 1mn 39s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 192 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 201 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 2.27 MiB (11%)
Title                                    : IsoMedia File Produced by Google, 5-11-2011
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2015-03-20 08:41:07
Tagged date                              : UTC 2015-03-20 08:41:07

Finally, the Spherical Video RFC (draft) describes the spherical video format metadata needed for 360 degree videos.

_{[Edit: Updated broken links]}

These 360-degree video files aka spherical or equirectangular videos. As mentioned in the YouTube Creator blog post, you can find the metadata for the file information of 360 degree format video in the GitHub link:

https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/README.md

These special 360 degree video are either MP4 or MKV(Matroska/WebM) (in which a metadata file to represent it as 360 degree video file) is input to a python script 360VideosMetadata.py Edit: Updated instructions here.

This is the setting for uploading a general and also recommended setting for a 360 degree video file in YouTube.

So the file has to have these recommended bitrates, codecs, and resolutions.

File Format Info:

• Container: MP4

• Audio codec: AAC-LC

   - Channels: Stereo or Stereo + 5.1
   - Sample rate 96khz or 48khz
  

• Video codec: H.264

• Frame rate : 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60 frames per second (other frame rates are also acceptable).

• Video bitrate(24, 25, 30) - Varies from 2160pixels(4k) max to 360p min.

• Audio bitrate(48, 50, 60):

   Mono   - 128 kbps
   Stereo - 384kbps
   5.1    - 512kbps
  

• Resolution and aspect ratio:

   2160p: 3840x2160
   1440p: 2560x1440
   1080p: 1920x1080
   720p : 1280x720
   480p : 854x480
   360p : 640x360
   240p : 426x240
  

This is the recommended upload video file encoding settings for a 360 degree video on YouTube. More on the recommendation page.