My Running Review of the Official US Version of the Samsung Gear 360

This 360 video combines clips from the Gear 360 and the Dual Kodaks, shot within minutes of each other. The WB was set at Cloudy for the Gear 360, but was Auto WB for the Kodaks. That is mainly why the colors are different. This was a dark ,cloudy afternoon.

The Gear 360 stitched 3840x1920 clip was created in the Samsung S7, so it is the highest quality version.

[Note: the Samsung S6 cannot stitch a 4K video. So anyone who has uploaded a Gear 360 4K video and has an S6 has created the low-bitrate version from the PC software. This is because the S6 has a less powerful processor than the S7; it is not an upgrade marketing ploy - remember the program must both stitch and convert from H265 to H264.]

The Kodak 360 4K version was stitched using the Kodak software. Peculiarly, although the camera clips are H264 at 60 Mbps (and full 4K at 2880x2880), the software produces an MP4 (not H264) clip at 60 Mbps (in 3840x1920).

So both produced videos are 3840x1920, at 60 Mbps, but using different codecs. The two clips were combined and rendered at 60 Mbps H264, at 3840x1920.

Here is the link to the video, where you can watch in 360. Note - you must select 4K resolution no matter what you are viewing the video on to see the highest quality. You do not need a 4K screen.

https://youtu.be/KVE2cvW3Ppo

These are frame grabs from the original equirectangular version of the videos.

First, the grab from the Gear 360 video:

Next, the grab from the dual Kodak 360 4Ks:

Of course, the original 360 Gear jpeg still, at 7776x3888, available in the first post is much better. These 3840x1920 jpegs are here just so you get some idea of video quality.

And, you can see there is still a slight difference in color at the stitch line in the Samsung clip. Zero difference in the Kodak one (about the middle of the fence).