I love my Oculus but, some warnings, thoughts and suggestions for users.

[Jackjps]

For me, the Rift is worth the money and wait. Personally, I love getting new technology right away. I just can't wait! It's an affliction I have. After reading many of the discussions in different categories, my thoughts are, if one is considering another VR, I would consider that within 2-3 years, the technology will be so different. Rift will be wireless, the glasses will look like tinted wrap around sunglasses. Our 4K Tv's and monitors will be a thing of the past. You will do all your work on portable sunglasses that learn and understand your plain talk so, no more keyboard. Movie theaters will provide the glasses, enter smells, breezes, and possibly some movement with the seats. Or, imagine a family get-together with everyone choosing a destination to visit and feel like they are there--ok, a little farther out. But, I'm excited and pumped.

I think most of us here love to be on the leading edge. However, I think Oculus overlooked, or ignored, or was ill-advised on how to keep its initial customer base happier by planning a later launch. We consumers here on this board, knew we were getting "experimental" gear and are willing to pay for it. But a word of caution, customer service must be totally overwhelmed, and parts must be woefully understocked or non-existent. This is not a good way to get a great piece of gear to be popular. And it appears the problems are mostly with the cable.

Here are some of the most likely possibilities to happen to you. There are 2 kinds of users. The ones this has happened to already and, the ones it hasn't happened to yet. You will, or have already worked the cord into a tangled mess, broke something that you did not see coming, hurt yourself hitting something or someone else, or worse, damage your cords! If this happens, you may find: 1-wait forever to get a replacement, 2-feel completely ignored after the first 2 auto messages to you, 3-wonder how long the wait times actually turn out to be (Rift, plus then a cable replacement), 4-wonder, is this worth it? Then before you know it, the competition is going to learn from the mistakes, quickly take corrective action, then beat Oculus to the new and improved technology with better staffing. They will ensure adequate inventories with extra supplies, a staff that is not undermanned, and appropriate customer information. That's how you retain customers and extend good will.

Although the engineers did an excellent job of reinforcing these plugs, after careful inspection of the inside of this USB, there is a very tiny circuit board. The wiring is not to standard USB color codes and, they are attached very, very delicately to this miniature circuit board. I assume the HDMI is standard but, the USB is something else. A quick break-away is needed. A magnetic connection or, some type of fail safe connection to save the cord, computer, or anything or anybody around you.

In the meantime, I propose we toss in some ideas to prevent cable (or computer) damage. I gave maybe a 1lb tug on the computer during game play and everything went black. Found a very slight bend in the headset USB at computer. This could have affected the HDMI, not to mention damaging your computer's onboard USB 3.0 hubs. I carefully, under high magnification, shaved down, over 9 hours, the USB Type A plug. I was extremely careful because I did not want to affect the soldering or misalignment of the terminals. I wanted to see them without causing further damage. If interested from enough people, I shall try to post pics for you.

My thought is the whenever I get a cable replacement, I shall invest in a small, high quality pulley in the ceiling over where I'll go into my VR world, maybe set up a Velcro upper arm sleeve to thread the cable to the headset.

I believe OCULUS must have experienced this shortcoming. They should have discussed the frailty of the cable and let us know that no matter what the defined space one has, to be very sure the cable does not get tangled or in a position for a tug on it or, damage to the cable or computer may incur.

Anyone have other ideas or experiences to share?

[Fazz]

I emailed Oculus about repairs if ever the Rift got damaged. They told me to keep an eye on their blog page, but then went on to say they don't repair the devices if damaged or after warranty should a fault occur. I then asked about spare parts like headphones and sensors and heard nothing back.