Why does this exist... Vive Pro Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,691 words · ~8 min read
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i love vr so as soon as i heard we were getting a bigger batter vive the sequel
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i got really excited which might be why
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i'm feeling pretty effing
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let down right about now spoiler alert not only will i not be
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spending a thousand canadian pesos for
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an upgrade i don't plan to swap out my
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original vive for this vive pro that i
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got for free though not for the reasons you might expect
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let's unpack the htc vive pro
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after this message from today's video sponsor thermaltake thermaltake's core
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p90 tempered glass case is an angled open frame design featuring five
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millimeter thick glass three-way placement layout options vertical GPU
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mounting with a riser cable included and more check it out at the link below
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so here's everything that comes with it we've got the headset itself we've got
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the new proprietary cable
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for some reason we've got a new link box
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that now has a power button that mostly actually just ended up annoying me and
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if you're finding yourself going like
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what the hell where are the base stations
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where are the controllers then
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you are not the only one the community
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is understandably pretty upset about
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htc's decision to sell the vive pro
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only as a standalone headset without
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other hardware that you will need in order to use it as anything other than a
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stereo 3d movie theater that you strap
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to your head now the good news is that as htc pr pointed out to me if you
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already have a vive the vive pro supports both the upcoming scheme vr
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tracking 2.0 lighthouse sensors that are rumored to enable play spaces of up to a
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thousand square feet and the original ones so you can reuse what
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you have until new controllers and base stations arrive sometime later this year
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the bad news is that if you don't already have a vive the aforementioned
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controllers and base stations ones that you're probably going to want to replace
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at some point down the road to get the most out of your vive pro are going to
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cost you over 500
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to buy after the fact which is actually 30 dollars more
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than buying an original vive which includes those uh tether cable a link
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box and oh by the way
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a freaking dive what
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so this thing better be pretty freaking amazing now
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one of the biggest differences outwardly
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is this new mounting system and this is going to be a bit of a mixed bag for me
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my wife likes it a lot better especially
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as someone who anyway used to wear glasses because it's just got a single
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adjustable strap here at the top and what you can do is you can just put the
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headset on pull out these headphone pieces and
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lower the whole thing onto your head then tighten it from the back
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it's also got an improvement that's been made to the nose seal down here it's
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like a flower petal inspired design that
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blocks excess light leakage and the headphones are now integrated into the
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headset and they actually have a pretty wide degree of adjustability so they sit
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on your ears pretty nicely just like that now the
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only problem with all of this is that i find it really uncomfortable
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now htc acknowledges that it is heavier
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and bulkier but the idea was that it would make up for this with the better
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more even distribution of weight around your head and like i said before for my
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wife it works really well but most of the games that i play in vr are pretty
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fast paced with a lot of side to side movement so i want the lightest possible
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hmd with a tight fit against my face
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and for me this one i found i was getting a little bit of
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side to side movement whipping my head in games like space pirate trainer audio
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shield and box vr especially when
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following through on a punch or especially on a hook
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not to mention that it leaves a wicked pressure point
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on my king-sized nose something that right now i don't have a
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solution for so it was at this point in my testing
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that i realized that htc's use of the pro moniker to describe this product
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might be an actual indication of the market that they're targeting with it
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and not just a transparent attempt to make their
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higher end consumer product sound really really cool because if you think about
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it a commercial entity one that stands to make money off of its vr headsets is
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less likely to be concerned with little things like a few hundred dollars of
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extra cost at the outset the lack of included accessories and the cheaper
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packaging and
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the beefier build quality of this unit combined with the quicker in and out is
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going to make it a no-brainer for trade shows vr arcades and other such
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endeavors but i don't run a lot of arcades so i kind of have to focus on
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the living room gaming experience for consumers
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and for that like the big improvement
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was the move to dual 1440 by 1600 OLED
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displays but is that enough of a game changer
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oh man i don't know how like how do i put this
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gently not really like it's an improvement
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motion blur basically not a thing here
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which is fantastic i mean vr headsets are a great use case for OLED since they
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benefit from those quick response times and they typically don't get used enough
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at least on a static object to risk burn
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in but the improvement to the screen door
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effect only puts the vive pro
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subjectively a little better than the oculus rift it's still noticeable and
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the resolution while higher and while it does improve the readability of text
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is still low enough that there are obvious aliasing jaggies
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everywhere it's nothing like when i tried the pimax 8k
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though it should be noted that i'm not recommending that thing either it may
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boast high resolution and a massive field of view but the version that i
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tried anyway was a steaming pile of garbage when it came to tracking latency
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and lens distortion both total non-issues for the vive pro
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but that's not actually the end of my issues with it
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one htc doesn't have any plans that they
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could share with me anyway to offer a lightweight replacement strap and i
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don't see an easy way to diy something more similar to gen one
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two the killer apps a low latency wireless
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adapter using 60 gigahertz and those base stations that will allow much
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larger play areas they aren't available until sometime later this year and three
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while the built-in headphones are well isolated and sound good enough for like
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you know in-game pew pew pew sound effects they're a little tinny and
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soulless for games that let you import your own high quality music files
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so some people will find themselves wanting to take them off which is supported so
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that's good but those same people are probably going to be at least a little
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ticked off to find out that htc removed the three and a half millimeter jack
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so that if you want to plug in your own iems you'll actually need a type c to
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three and a half millimeter adapter why like i get that bluetooth is the
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future but for crying out loud there's already a wire running
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so bottom line then for the target market the pro market
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this is a great choice
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all things considered it's probably the best vr experience that you can get
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i mean that inside out tracking approach that's used by Windows mixed reality
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products like the samsung odyssey vr really does hurt accuracy but for anyone
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else it really is a bad buy i would take a rift or a vanilla vive over it in a
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minute i didn't even pay for this thing and i'm still packing it back up putting
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it in the warehouse and patiently waiting for a more consumer-oriented
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vive 2 to arrive that hopefully doesn't include any of
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my issues with this one optima's nuforce b freight wireless
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earphones support aac aptx low latency technology providing high fidelity audio
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to any device they're built with a dynamic micro driver with new forces
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sonic coating and they feature near field magnetic induction technology
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meaning that there is no need to receive and re-send bluetooth signals or
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maintain two separate bluetooth connections between the source and the
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earpieces in addition the left earpiece can be used alone in case you don't want
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to use both earphones and both of them are ipx5 water and weather resistant
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with up to 16 hours of battery life led
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lights on the charging case indicate when the earphones are charging and how
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many full charges are left and they include two types of spin fit ear tips
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to provide better noise isolation and maximize usability among all users
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finally they've got a built-in cvc noise cancelling microphone for calls and a
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button on the left earpiece to activate siri and the google assistant the b38 is
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available on amazon for about 150 bucks so check it out now at the link below
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so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked or you work for htc you
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know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or
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check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also link down there is our
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merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which
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you should totally join