"What devices support the Virtual Theater?"
As we explained in July 2021, the Virtual Theater is only available using web browsers, and not through the Gizmoplex apps. For best results, we suggest using Google Chrome or Firefox.
For the best possible experience of the Gizmoplex Virtual Theater, please make sure that you are using the Google Chrome web browser on a desktop or laptop computer.
While some aspects of the Virtual Theater may work in other computer web browsers, as well as browsers on other devices – like phones, tablets, and game consoles – none of these are officially supported yet. In addition, our upcoming "watch parties" feature will require the use of a free Google Chrome extension called "Scener," and may be unavailable outside of Google Chrome.
In addition, please note that the Virtual Theater is only designed for web browsers, and cannot be accessed using our MST3K/Gizmoplex apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Google TV, Roku or Amazon FireTV. (Those apps are developed for us by Vimeo OTT, and do not allow for custom interfaces. They are offered entirely as a dedicated solution for accessing your Gizmoplex videos and livestreams on other devices. We wish the apps could include the Virtual Theater, but – at least for now – that's not possible.)
If you want to visit the Virtual Theater on iOS or Android devices, we suggest using Google Chrome (for iOS and Android devices).
If you want to visit the Virtual Theater on your television, we suggest streaming it from your web browser using Google Chromecast or Apple AirPlay, or connecting your computer to the television with an HDMI cable. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Here's what we said in our Kickstarter Backer Update on July 30, 2021:
As we said during the Kickstarter, our goal for the Gizmoplex was to accomplish it with the smallest (initial) budget possible, so that most of what we raised could be used to make new episodes of MST3K.
So, while we’ve seen in the forum conversations that there are a lot of ambitious ideas and hopes about what the Gizmoplex apps will include – at least in their first incarnation – we want to manage everyone’s expectations a bit, so that you won’t be disappointed by our actual plans.
While we have a lot of ambitious, interactive plans for the web-based version of the Gizmoplex, including a virtual space that you can explore, watch parties, and more, our current budget will not make it possible to put a lot of that advanced functionality into the Apple, Android, Roku and Amazon apps that we’re developing.
Those device-specific apps are being developed through a partnership with Vimeo OTT (the same platform that we’re building the Gizmoplex site on top of), but there are definite limits to how much we can customize the interface or content of those apps.
Right now, our top priorities are to make sure that the apps are able to:
- Stream any episodes you’ve bought from the Gizmoplex Video Store.
- Stream any episodes you’ve gotten as Kickstarter rewards.
- Browse, rent/buy and stream more content from the Video Store.
- Download those episodes on phones/tablets for offline viewing.
- Stream the livestream events and premieres we host each month.
- Stream the monthly Gizmoplex Pass “featured selection” episodes.
In order to add more advanced features to the MOBILE AND TV APPS — like watch parties, navigation around a virtual theater, chat and message boards, etc — we’d have to dedicate a much larger budget to developing and maintaining completely custom apps. Again: we're still aiming to launch those features in the web-based version, but as of now, have no way to include them in the stand-alone apps.
While we’re definitely interested in exploring all of those features — and more! — in the future, our immediate goal is to make sure that we deliver what we promised during the Kickstarter: the ability to access all of your Gizmoplex content on device-specific apps.