Best video player apps for Oculus Quest 2 and Quest Pro: How to watch VR180, VR360 and more

The Meta Quest 2 might be nearing the end of its lifespan, with a much-improved, lighter Quest 3 on the horizon.

However, the Quest 2 is still the most popular VR headset out there, and for good reason – it's simple, capable, and all of the sudden – costs only $299! And with that price, it's still the best VR headset we'd recommend even right now.

But besides gaming, a lot of people may want to use their headset for watching videos and 3D movies. Sure, Netflix, YouTube, and many other apps are available, but what if you want to watch movies and videos you already own? If you move those from your PC to your Quest 2 via a USB cable, how would you go about watching them?

And how can you watch 180-degree VR videos, or 360-degree ones? Well, there are perfectly simple apps for that, and we're here to show you the best one.

Best video player apps for Quest 2

DeoVR

We could end the list right here. DeoVR has been one of the most popular Quest 2 apps for a long time, and yes – it can play pretty much any VR and non-VR video formats you may need to, completely free! It has a built-in file browser, so you simply navigate to wherever your 3D movies or videos are and fire those off.

During video playback, you have the option to set the kind of format you want to watch your video in, with the most common ones being 180VR, which is 180-degree stereo, and 360VR, which is 360-degree video, albeit usually not in stereo, meaning no 3D effect most of the time.

DeoVR also lets you zoom in and position your videos, fiddle with things like brightness and contrast, loop a certain segment, speed them up or slow them down – pretty much all the video playback features you may ever need, all inside of a Quest 2 app!

In addition, DeoVR has a homepage, where creators upload their own VR (and in some cases non-VR) videos, kind of like the YouTube homepage. If you don't have your own videos to play, you may enjoy surfing through those – explore new places in VR, watch VR movie trailers, music videos, and more.

DeoVR has recently started pushing a paid subscription model, with some creators choosing to lock their content behind it, but the good news is that no matter what – playing your own, local VR and non-VR videos on your Quest 2 with DeoVR remains completely free of charge.

YouTube VR

Yes, Google has released a YouTube VR app specifically for the Quest 2, and we're happy that it did. Obviously this app only plays online videos, unlike DeoVR, which can also play local files on your Quest 2, but hey – it's YouTube! The real deal!

You can log into your account and you'll get what you'd expect – a home page with videos from your favorite creators, as well as suggested videos. Obviously many, if not all of those will not be VR videos, but you can still enjoy all the non-VR YouTube videos nonetheless.

Plus, searching for "180VR" on YouTube will quickly find you countless VR videos you can now watch in stereo, so if you're interested – that's an option.

Streaming apps (Netflix, ESPN, Prime Video VR, etc.)

Yes, it's likely that all of your favorite streaming apps you've been enjoying on your laptop, phone, or tablet, are also available natively on the Quest 2. I'm personally particularly fond of the Netflix app for Quest 2, which offers a cozy home environment, reactive to the lighting and colors from the movie or show you're watching, but all the other streaming apps are great.

And you can expect them to function as always – simply log into your account and watch your favorite movies and shows in VR. One thing to note is that those might seem a bit less sharp than you're used to, but that's kind of the inevitable drawback of watching things in VR – it's not that the Quest 2's display isn't high-res, but the virtual screen showing your movie is only taking up a small portion of that, and… well, a small portion of even a high-resolution display can be a bit blurry.

But hey – you're watching movies and shows in VR, and in a virtual environment! And based on the show, you may not even notice that it's a bit blurrier than usual, especially if it's an anime or a cartoon that doesn't rely too much on fine details.

Skybox VR

Like DeoVR, Skybox VR is an impressive online and local video player app for your Quest 2. This one also offers really nice virtual environments to watch your content in, basically transporting you into a new location, as opposed to DeoVR's black void.

However, unlike DeoVR, this app is paid – $9.99. With it, though, you get some significant extra features you may want – such as an optional PC client app you can install on your computer, and stream videos and movies easily from it, right onto your Quest 2, instead of having to slowly transfer those apps from one to the other. Because yes, transfer speeds on the Quest 2 aren't exactly blazing fast, and a single 2GB+ movie alone takes quite a while to move.

This app also lets you tinker with your videos with features like brightness/contrast adjustment, switching between VR modes, or even detecting them automatically (180° / 360° / 2D / 3D).

So if you think you'll find its extra features appealing, Skybox VR is definitely worth paying its humble asking price.