State of Oculus Rift CV1 Sensors and Controllers worldwide availability

[Imgartn]

Hello,

I owned CV1 for a couple of years now and am really happy with it.
I understand that CV1 was discontinued but now there is a very poor state of its support. Taking into account that there are still a lot of CV1 in use.
A lot of people cannot setup 3 sensor tracking. You can see this by questions in shops, community posts and lack of sensors in retail (there are actually no sensors, at all).
There is a high demand on sensors with no new ones available and used ones sold for double and triple the price. And it will become even worse over time.
With controllers it's even worse. Pair of them costs around 350$ for new and a 200$ for used. Controllers is different kind of issue. They are constantly in use. They tend to break and buttons tend to wear. At some point a lot of people will end up with working headset without possibility to use it.
VR headsets are not cheap. It's not an every day product. It's not a thing that can simply be replaced. Especially considering contemporary demand. Especially if new ones are inferior in some way (Rift S display type, sound, tracking - dependency on lighting, dead zones, battery life).

I personally am frustrated and I think a lot of people share this feeling.
It feels that we were dumped. It gives Oculus a bad image.
If I were pro Oculus all the time and really wanted for company to bloom - frustration from different parts (desktop client usability, how shop and sales are organized, hardware support) will make me think when following generation of headset appears.

[Imgartn]

RuneSR2 said

I've heard of one dude having both the CV1 and Index connected to the same rig - he seems to love that solution, best of both worlds or close  B)

I can understand him.
CV1 has awesome screen and sound. Though it's worse in clarity due to resolution of pentile matrix.
Index has awesome controllers and higher refresh rate. And no issue with setting 360 tracking. 😄
I also heard that Index controller buttons tend to break.

[RuneSR2]

Imgartn said:

RuneSR2 said

I've heard of one dude having both the CV1 and Index connected to the same rig - he seems to love that solution, best of both worlds or close  B)

I can understand him.
CV1 has awesome screen and sound. Though it's worse in clarity due to resolution of pentile matrix.
Index has awesome controllers and higher refresh rate. And no issue with setting 360 tracking. 😄
I also heard that Index controller buttons tend to break.

I was referring to myself, see my sig 😉 Index buttons do not tend to break, but some didn't register clicks, and some thumbsticks developed drifting over time. Had one controller replaced due to drifting, but the other one still works perfectly - now after more then 1 year of frequent use. The replaced controller has gotten a revised thumbstick and still works perfectly - had it for 9 months now. Posts about controller problems are becoming quite rare on Index Reddit - or are deleted by the mods, who knows, lol. 

[Imgartn]

New "Oculus Touch" on Amazon.com for just 735$. :smiley:

[JohnnyDioxin]

Amazon marketplace traders always charge ludicrous amounts for items no longer manufactured - you see it all the time. I saw a used book on the Bodenplatte campaign (Battle of the Bulge) for £150 on Amazon - the one I ended up buying on ebay was £6. There are very many such examples.

I recently needed to buy a right hand Touch for CV1 and ended up looking on ebay. They were available new on Oculus' webshop at the time, but I didn't want to pay £99 when I only needed one controller and didn't know how long I'd need it for - good job I didn't spend that as well, as the headset died soon after.

The one I bought from ebay was £40 and was in excellent condition. There were many available and all at a similar price - so I would suggest staying well away from Amazon marketplace for discontinued items. If the one you get from ebay is no good, just send it back and get a refund - ebay will step in if the seller gets shirty. In my case the seller was great - a little seller research goes a long way 🙂

edit - here's some examples:

Amazon lists (£139 & £150!)

ebay just now (£50 for one)

ebay - sensor and two controllers (£100)

ebay - (two Touch for £40)

ebay again  (two controllers for £69)

I do agree that they screwed up by not supporting it after they dropped it, I was frustrated myself - and it's a retail profuct so there is no excuse, really, but your quoted prices are from the expensive sources.

[Imgartn]

@JD-UK
Thanks for the hint.
These are used ones. 😞
I feel kind of uncomfortable to buy used stuff. For one it's used. For other you never know what to expect. E.g. my friend bought used GPU. It lasted 1 month and died. Turned our there is a trick to heat up GPU in oven to make it last a bit longer which seller probably used.

Btw. There was 350$ controller on Amazon and it got bought. Knowing how much of an issue was to find 3rd sensor I feel I lost a good deal.

[Imgartn]

Interesting fact. Even though Oculus not supporting CV1 accessories manufacturers do.
Lenses, grips, etc. - you can find anything.

There was an interesting story with AMVR controller grips. They ran out of stock on Amazon. But after a while unexpectedly were replenished.
Why?
Because there is a demand on it and they fulfilled it.
I understand for large business it's a different story. They operate in bigger numbers. They look at any actions broader (e.g. if CV1 will make competition to newer headsets).
Though I'm sure - there is a percentage of VR users that still use CV1 and will be using it for some time. VR headsets are not everyday buy.

[Imgartn]

P.S.:
Heck. There is even DK1 headsets that still in play.
You can see by steam statistics.
CV1 has 13%. If we consider that total is 1 million (though I think this number is bigger today). That means there are 130 000 active CV1 users. 130 000!
Not all of them will migrate to new hardware. Even if unrealistically 50% of people will move to new Quest that still going to be 65 000 people.

[Maxxgold]

ourthelmawillgomad said:

I stumbled upon this thread by chance and i am astonished by the prices of CV1 controllers/sensors,i parked my CV1`s up when we re-decorated and the Wife was adamant that there was no chance of having sensors and cables running round the ceilings anymore,so theres 3 CV1`s (1 unopened) 8 sensors and 3 sets of controllers in my attic,i may have to go and blow the cobwebs off them.Seriously Guys if i can help to keep the Cv1`s going let me know if i can help with spares etc as there just gathering dust .
Regards, Dave.

Hopefully, you don’t really have those items in the attic. Just some friendly advice, don’t store electronics in the attic, unless it’s temperature controlled. The heat will destroy electronics, and if you have anything that has batterie in it, I would get those out ASAP. 

[RuneSR2]

Imgartn said:

P.S.:
Heck. There is even DK1 headsets that still in play.
You can see by steam statistics.
CV1 has 13%. If we consider that total is 1 million (though I think this number is bigger today). That means there are 130 000 active CV1 users. 130 000!
Not all of them will migrate to new hardware. Even if unrealistically 50% of people will move to new Quest that still going to be 65 000 people.

That number is probably much closer to at least 260,000 CV1 users - not counting the many who might not use Steam. I think we estimated like 1.5 - 2 mill sold CV1s last year. 

[RuneSR2]

4 new bundles here - actually not very expensive:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oculus-Rift-Touch-Controllers-Bundle/dp/B073X8N1YW/