Downloading xHamster VR Videos
Everywhere else on this site the answer is that 720p is the ceiling. VR is where that stops being true, and by a wide margin.
VR breaks the 720p rule
Standard xHamster videos publish four progressive files and stop at 720p, however sharp the source was. VR titles do not follow that pattern. We measured one that offers 720p, 960p, 1440p and 1920p, and the top rendition is a real 3840 x 1920 file — 487 MB for eight minutes of footage.
That is not an adaptive stream stitched together. Each rendition is a separate signed file, and the sizes are read from the files themselves rather than estimated.
Why the numbers look strange
A VR label describes the height of the whole frame, and a stereoscopic frame carries two eyes side by side. The file we measured reports 3840 x 1920: that is 1920 pixels tall, and its width is split between your left and right eye, so each eye sees roughly 1920 x 1920.
This is why VR files are enormous relative to their apparent sharpness. You are downloading two pictures per frame, and both have to survive being magnified across your field of view.
Expect a large download
Half a gigabyte for eight minutes is normal at the top rendition. A forty-minute VR scene at the same quality runs into several gigabytes.
The size is printed next to every quality before you start, which matters more here than anywhere else on the site. On a phone or a metered connection, 960p is usually the sensible pick.
The file will look wrong at first
Open a downloaded VR file in an ordinary video player and you will see a distorted double image. Nothing is broken — the file is a flat rectangle, and only a player that knows the footage is 180 or 360 degree can project it back onto a sphere.
Most VR players let you set the projection by hand: pick side-by-side for the layout and 180 degree for the field, and the scene resolves. Headset apps that read the metadata will often do it for you; desktop players usually will not.
What is still not possible
Where a progressive file exists it is always the row to take. If a particular VR title exposes only a stream and no progressive rendition, the tool falls back to assembling that stream in your browser — it works, but at VR sizes it takes several minutes and a great deal of memory, so treat it as a desktop job rather than something to start on a phone.
There is also no way to add headset metadata from a browser. If your player needs it baked in, that is a job for a desktop tool after the download.