LOS ANGELES — Discovery is unleashing the first videos for its virtual reality network, Discovery VR, a fledgling service that is testing the limits and capabilities of the immersive format.
The videos debuting Thursday on , YouTube and on Android and iPhone apps, reveal some of the promise of the medium, which covers every angle you could possibly look and is navigable by moving a smartphone around you or even clicking and dragging the viewing angle around with a mouse.
Conal Byrne, Discovery Communication Inc.’s senior vice president of digital media, says the point of the project is to determine what works in the emerging format, including finding out what could make someone feel ill or disoriented.
“It needs to be repeated that we’re experimenting a lot,” Byrne said. “There are borders and boundaries that we’re really going to try to push.”
In addition to computers and mobile devices, the Discovery VR content also can be viewed using virtual reality headset devices, such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR, which are on sale now, as well as Facebook’s Oculus Rift, which is expected early next year.
