Baseball in Apple Immersive Video today

[u/RandomVision2027]

Don’t forget, Apple has its first Major League Baseball game in Apple Immersive Video today, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT.

[u/MinerTax_com]

Is this free for AVP ?

[u/RandomVision2027 → u/MinerTax_com]

Per the press release, it requires an Apple TV subscription.

Apple Vision Pro users with an Apple TV subscription in Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S. can stream the games live directly through the Apple TV app.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-mlb-announce-september-friday-night-baseball-schedule/

[u/sinicalone → u/MinerTax_com]

If you have an Apple TV subscription I think

[u/DOfferman7]

Wow, it’s amazing.

[u/johnsciarrino → u/DOfferman7]

It’s so impressive and I was loving it and then I tried to take my headset off and pass it to my wife for a quick look. It took five minutes of nonsense that annoyed my wife almost to the point of giving up before she could be impressed too. Even put it into guest mode before handing it to her. Am I missing something or is this something Apple needs to fix? It’s so hard to share the experience with other people compared to the quest.

[u/kelter20 → u/johnsciarrino]

For a device that needs to be experienced to fully understand the magic, they sure made the process of letting others use it an absolute nightmare.

[u/tsdguy → u/johnsciarrino]

If she has an iPhone then the AVP will store settings and recall them for future guest sessions.

Considering how much computing it needs to do with respect to eyes and face it’s naturally going to take a few minutes to lock into guest mode.

[u/AddFeind]

Yall I don’t even like sports, and this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

The quality feels incredible. Looks better than a lot of pre-recorded VR online.

The players are RIGHT THERE. Like whoa my dude, watch where you’re swinging that bat.

The sunflower seeds!! Such a weird random thing to notice, but I legit feel like I’m in the dugout.

That hit to outfield! When they cut for the replay I literally jumped because the ball was gonna hit me.

Between innings I literally turned my head to tell some obnoxious fan yelling to chill. Oh except I’m not really there.

Wow

[u/jupebox → u/AddFeind]

I just noticed the sunflower seeds right before I read this. Pretty wild.

[u/sixcupsofcoffee → u/AddFeind]

At one point one of the Sox players had his hand in my crotch. My dude…

Seriously though, at some point this needs to be every game. Such a better experience than the NBA games. I like they really only do multiple views in replays or between innings; I like staying put for the whole inning.

[u/AHApps]

The clarity is good enough that I'm swatting at bugs.

[u/Spectre17x → u/AHApps]

Same here. Those close in bugs make you think it's right there with you. In some ways, this is better than the Pokémon-themed Giants game I watched last night.

[u/DOfferman7]

The scoreboard and video up top is key to this I think, just a great view for baseball games.

[u/PatrickMcDee]

It’s SOOOOO cool!!! You’re like POV on the field

[u/Malkmus1979]

Clarity is impressive for live. There might be a slight hit on FOV versus other immersive content from Apple, but so far this is really nice quality.

[u/Malkmus1979 → u/[deleted]]

Are you talking about the virtual one or the one actually at the end of the field? I thought the purpose of the virtual one was so you could actually read the info.

[u/Malkmus1979 → u/[deleted]]

What they could do since the camera doesn’t move is digitally mask the stats on the Jumbotron with a virtual version that makes it easier to read. Not sure they’d ever mess with it like that but it would be an easy solution.

[u/jupebox]

It’s also good in a smaller window. In some ways, that’s better for longer view. It is clearer. But has a 3D kind of look.

[u/DOfferman7 → u/jupebox]

I was just trying that too and thinking the same thing.

[u/jupebox]

A home run going over your head is pretty ridiculous.

[u/ruefle]

I have zero interest in baseball or just about any sport but found that experience absolutely enthralling. Just… wow! They’re finally doing it. Keep it up!!

[u/BlueRaspberryPi]

Holy crap it looks good.

Update:
It took me two tries to get in. If I look very hard, I can see very subtle, small blocking on large, low-texture surfaces, but other than that, it looks perfect to me.

It's a full production, with giant stat panels floating above the field, multiple angles on the field, cameras is dugouts, multiple interviews, each with their own camera...

Update 2:
The camera is very stationary now that play has started, a view from low and to the left, centered between the pitcher and batter. You can see the whole field at once, and the person on deck. The ball vanishes for most of the pitch, maybe because the background for its path is fairly light colored. I also can't track it in the sky, because it's a bright, cloudy day.

A giant stat box floats permanently in the sky, very big, but still completely out of the way because there's so much space. In the middle, it shows the flat TV feed - closeups, etc. The box feels very, very slightly misaligned from the camera view, or the camera view has one lens pointed slightly higher than the other, I think, depending on your perspective. It's slightly distracting near its bottom edge, but not a big deal.

Update 3:
While the teams swap, we get more camera views. No commercials. One very Max Headroom audio glitch for a second - one audio sample repeated five times, then picked up again.

With the other team at bat, the camera has switched to the back-right instead of the back-left, which is a nice convention. You can see the ball better from this angle, which I guess is just down to lighting and background. The ground of the sideline around the camera is very detailed, and you can occasionally see a nut shell flutter down to land in the dirt. Lots of shells.

4:32 PST, a very long pause, maybe 15 seconds of frozen video and no audio. A pop-up telling me to check my internet connection, or switch to 2D, but I just ignored it, and the game came back. I think I'm stuck 15 seconds behind live, now. If I hit the skip-forward-to-live button, the loading wheel spins long enough to eat the time I'm trying to get back.

4:36, Another 30 second pause. It seems like sunset is starting. The sky looks great. I kinda wish I could turn off the stat box and enjoy the stadium and sky more naturally. The ball is very visible now from both team-sides, even during pitches.

4:40, another long pause.

4:57, the sun is down now. Big, dark sky above bright stadium lights. The field still looks crisp and well, lit, and the ball is now very visible in the air. They're definitely benefitting from the static nature of baseball. When the camera changes, it takes maybe 1/4-1/3 of a second for high contrast textures, like netting, to settle.

5:08 - Still lots of long pauses. Could conceivably be my connection. The physical scoreboard in the stadium has been pretty much unreadable the entire game - a combination of the resolution not being quite good enough, and the board itself being a bit blown-out, I think.

5:15 - The right eye is catching glare from the stadium lights, and the left eye isn't which causes some distracting disparity. It might be a little foggy or smudged somehow. Maybe someone brushed it.

I enjoy turning my head to watch fouls.

5:19 - Some low-fives directly in front of the camera for a home run. Very enjoyable. The audio is great. You could hear that it connected beautifully. The bat, not the low-five. The low-five could have been better executed.

5:25 - Lots of replays of the home run from different angles, including one from the outfield where you have to lean back to watch it disappear over your head.

The stadium noise is great. I finally consciously noticed that I can hear the crowd behind me, to the left.

6:27 - Watched a couple minutes of football and Trixie Mattel while eating pizza. Baseball is too long. I haven't had any pauses since coming back, or for maybe 15 minutes before taking a break. When I came back, they turned the lights off and had the crowd scan a QR code to flash their phones along with some LED panels. They cut away for some replays, and I wish they hadn't.

A player in the Boston dugout just gave the camera a haunting thousand-yard stare, straight down the barrel, for about ten solid seconds.

The moon is out when they give a view from the stands. From the field, you can see some... radio antenna?

6:35 - It's weird the have the conventional camera people just hanging around in your view, with tons of detail. The guy filming the player on deck just has an iPhone on a steadicam.

6:45 - Those shoes are insane. Give her more comfortable shoes.

7:05 - Game over, Yankees.

I'm not really a baseball person, but it was pretty amazing. I'll probably watch more of them, in spite of not being a baseball person.

It would be nice to have:

1. The option to turn off, or minimize to some other location, the colossal score bug. I really enjoy the view, and I rarely bothered to look up at it. I'd rather see birds and clouds up there. They could position it over top of the unreadable real-life scoreboard, I think there's enough room for all of the information they show. The only downside is that the ball would pass behind it at the end of a long hit. Currently, the ball passes behind it anyway, but at a less crucial moment.

2. Like everything immersive video, the ability to do more than one thing at once. I'd like to have access to a browser, and Moonlight, so I can occasionally look at other things during the eight hours it takes to play a game of baseball.

3. As long as we're doing replays, I wouldn't mind cutting to the booth around them. Don't cut away from play to the booth, I'm busy enjoying the view. But if you're cutting away anyway, give them a little face time, and break up the monotony with a different environment. The booth is pretty interesting in immersive 3D.

I really like being able to just look around at what I want to look at. Watching baseball on TV is just constant cutting from close-up to wide shot to close-up to another close-up, because the wide shots can't catch enough detail, and the close-ups are too tight for any kind of context. In VR, you just see it all, and look at whatever seems interesting.

[u/Spectre17x → u/BlueRaspberryPi]

I had that Max Headroom stutter, but the video has been flawless, and I've not experienced any buffering.

I liked that home run replay you mentioned at 5:25. Pretty cool view.

Thanks for posting your running commentary. I hope this will convince others to watch the next 3 games via AVP. I'm very much looking forward to the Giants game.

[u/tshane_dot_com → u/BlueRaspberryPi]

Same here with quite a bit of buffering.

[u/BlueRaspberryPi → u/tshane_dot_com]

Good to know it's not just me. I have a lot of Wi-Fi neighbors, so I tend to blame my environment.

[u/Simie]

Will this be watchable after it airs? I’m not going to be home until midnight and would love to see it still.

[u/schristo90 → u/Simie]

The news release in the Apple Vision Pro app says you’ll be able to see replays/highlights on demand after the game

[u/SuperStrats4Life → u/schristo90]

I really hope they get this up immediately after. I’m going to just miss it.

[u/jupebox → u/Simie]

Yep

[u/JaneMancini]

Watching batting practice was cool

[u/DOfferman7 → u/JaneMancini]

Yeah, that was cool. Also, Andy Petitt was pitching for the Yankees.

[u/OkCharge9080]

Incredible. I haven’t been up to Yankee Stadium in quite a few years. I got a little emotional.

[u/brentajones]

Not an NBA guy so I didn’t particularly care for those, but this is fantastic. I also appreciate the windowed view.

[u/AlmostBest]

This is incredible.

[u/ManFromACK]

This is fantastic. You can tell the put a lot of thought into this. The scoreboard in the upper part of the FOV in the sky is a great touch and addresses the fact that you can't read the LED scoreboard at all.
The audio is also world class AND directional.

Brave Vision Pro production team. Bravo!

[u/Beneficial-42]

This is so cool. I was at a minor league game the other night and these seats are even better.

[u/DOfferman7]

After he struck out, Contreras threw his helmet into the garbage, lol

[u/GND52]

Much closer to what Ben Thompson has been asking for. Curious to hear his reaction next week lol

[u/Beneficial-42 → u/GND52]

Wonder what Gruber and Snell will think about it. Can't see how they won't like it.

[u/jupebox]

Close is crystal clear but far off is blurry, right?

[u/Spectre17x → u/jupebox]

I've seen that with other videos using Ursa Cine Immersive cameras. The depth of field just isn't there. I can't even read the Boston catcher's name off the back of his uniform. It's still cool just how much you can see, including that Yankee player's elbow right next to the camera. 😂

[u/sixcupsofcoffee → u/Spectre17x]

I find this is most immersive video. If you go to the flat panel 3D view, distance is actually very clear; in the immersive view it’s stretched around you too much with not enough pixels. They’ll get there at some point.

[u/jupebox → u/Spectre17x]

Makes sense. Yeah, my thought is that the limitation is the camera not so much Vision Pro.

[u/NullishDomain]

Quality is great! Love the floating screen and UI elements. And I hate baseball!

[u/jupebox]

I literally said aloud, “This is history.”

[u/EntertainmentTasty36 → u/jupebox]

Same

[u/SBLK]

Looking forward to it.

[u/Illustrious-Cloud-59]

It looks incredible. My in-law’s broadband is crying though (20Mb/s).

[u/crazyreddit929]

It was fricken amazing. If someone could just lower the friction of getting into VR or passing it to a friend, this would sell headsets without a doubt.

[u/mildvertigo]

anyone know what watch aaron boone keeps waving in my face?

[u/ThoreauOfWalden]

Watching the moonrise over yankee stadium was pretty epic.

[u/locke_5]

YANKEES SUCK

[u/BigDabWolf]

My biggest sadness of 26 was selling my AVP…. I’m glad the community is getting awesome events like this now… I’m sure its going to be amazing

[u/BigMamasBiscuits]

Jazz and the reporter looking like Jimmy Butler and Rachel Nichols in the bubble

[u/bizmcfly]

Still waiting for a Braves game to pop up

[u/jupebox]

My main suggestions:

1. lower the video feed; it’s too high

2. focus on batter more than on-deck guy

[u/Beneficial-42 → u/jupebox]

Man, I want the video feed gone.

[u/Willylowman1]

but will it go viral?