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Konstantinos Tsoukalas

Konstantinos is the founder and administrator of Wintips.org. Since 1995 he works and provides IT support as a computer and network expert to individuals and large companies. He is specialized in solving problems related to Windows or other Microsoft products (Windows Server, Office, Microsoft 365, etc.).

31 Comments

  1. martin
    June 12, 2018 @ 8:53 pm

    Here is my FFMPEG command line to rotate 90° counterclockwise:

    in a map used as a work area:
    1 I downloaded the FFMPEG package.
    2 I copied the mp4 to rotate as IN.MP4
    3 I execute ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf transpose=2 out.mp4

    out.mp4 is the rotated video.
    -vf transpose=1: 90° clockwise
    -vf transpose=2: 90° counterclockwise
    -vf transpose=2,transpose=2: 180°

    Reply

    • Luis
      October 23, 2018 @ 11:43 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply

  2. R4
    February 26, 2018 @ 7:46 pm

    I am using VLC 2.2.4 with Windows 8.1 and this method worked for me.

    Reply

  3. John Pierpoint
    December 6, 2017 @ 1:44 am

    Great article, but. . . the method doesn't work for me. I tried rotating a short *.MPG file by 90 degrees using both the 90 degree transform option and (later) the rotate option, set to 90 degrees. Both methods gave me a file that was roated by possibly 30 or 45 degrees – very bizarre!
    I assume this is yet another example of VLC's inherent flakiness – it quite often just doesn't work right, and an operation can work fine one attempt, then fail for the next few.
    I'm on verion 2.2.8, on 64-bit Win10.
    I'll keep testing and see if there's something else I need to do.

    Reply

  4. john
    September 23, 2017 @ 8:40 am

    Hi,I have tried to rotate my video but I don't find filters option after video codec.

    Reply

  5. Arunkumar G
    April 23, 2017 @ 6:05 pm

    Tq guys….It helps a lot….

    Reply

  6. Petewr Newman
    February 12, 2017 @ 12:58 am

    Thanks a lot for the Rotate tip for this later version I will read up on all the other tips too so welcome :)

    Reply

  7. Henrik
    December 29, 2016 @ 5:36 pm

    Well explained- but the resulting files are smaller and a little paler in their hue. Although the resulting quality isn't bad, I hesitate to go on and replace the tilted originals. Can I retain the exact same quality somehow? I use v. 2.2.4

    Reply

  8. John Smith
    November 22, 2016 @ 10:31 pm

    I followed the above instructions to rotate a short video someone had sent me that was "on its side". Now every other video I have is turned as well and I can't get them back as they were. I can rotate the images to as they should be but they play in a vertical window. I am tearing my hair out trying to put things right, I wish I had never started

    Reply

    • lakonst
      November 23, 2016 @ 9:46 am

      @John Smith: The answer is on instructions: RESET PREFERENCES > (Step 12…).

      Reply

  9. Tony
    November 9, 2016 @ 4:23 am

    That's very cool. I did it.

    Reply

  10. TEDSON
    September 3, 2016 @ 3:04 pm

    VLC 2.2.2 this method does not retain audio track.

    Reply

  11. Florisz
    June 20, 2016 @ 3:28 pm

    Thank you for the clear explenation to do this in VLC, I tried it in version 2.2.4, but did not have the desired result. Will try with the 3.0.0 version later.
    Then I tried with Movie Maker that appears to be a tool on my Windows 10 PC(don't know if this is a default tool or came with MsOffice). Just opened the original 3gp video from my Android Phone that is 270 degrees rotated and clicked in the 'Start tab the button for 'rotate left 90 degrees' and hit File – Save movie. The only option is .mp4. The video is still 1920×1080(no shop off). The origianl video was 219Mb and the rotated mp4 is 308Mb. The quality looks good.

    Reply

  12. SimonSolar2C
    June 9, 2016 @ 11:33 pm

    This is by far the best explanation, and the only place on the internet that has it correct. The most important fact:
    When rotating video 90 degrees, you need to use the transform option not rotate because you need to rotate the frame also and not end up with chopped off edges.
    So when converting for a save, as he says above, make sure to follow step 15,
    14. Click on the "Video codec" tab, then click on the "Filters" tab.
    15. Scroll down the list to find "Video transformation filter".
    you need to tick the transform, NOT the rotate option like they say everywhere else.

    Reply

    • Simon 2 :)
      August 2, 2016 @ 1:35 pm

      True! The rotate option is for the rotate filter, but as in this tutorial decribed, the transform filter is the one needed! Important for 90 degrees or 270 degrees

      Also you can check the "keep original audio track" instead of converting it to mp3.

      Reply

  13. Chris from Belgium
    November 24, 2015 @ 11:31 pm

    Perfect! Thank you!!!!

    Reply

  14. osman
    February 6, 2015 @ 2:33 pm

    thanks,
    a very accurate & helpful article.

    Reply

  15. jimbo1qaz
    January 19, 2015 @ 8:51 pm

    All you have to do for perfect, glitch free zooming is check the "transform" option above. This creates exact 90 degree zooming without cutting off.

    Reply

  16. KirkH
    November 30, 2014 @ 9:53 pm

    Here's a simpler way, someone created a mod for FFMPEG.

    Step 1:
    Download UnwarpVR and extract all files to a folder https://github.com/eVRydayVR/ffmpeg-unwarpvr/releases/tag/v0.2

    Step 2:
    Create an empty batch file (videoconvert.bat)

    Step 3:
    Paste in the following text and save the batch file:

    ffmpeg-unwarpvr -i InputFile.mp4 -vf "transpose=1, unwarpvr=1280:720:left_eye_only=1:scale_width=1.2:scale_height=1.2" -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -crf 9 -pix_fmt yuv420p OutputFile.mp4

    Step 4:
    Change the text in the batch file to match your files. Also, rename your input files so they don't have spaces. This will keep the original audio, rotate the video 90 degrees clockwise, convert the left eye to 720p @60/30fps, and un-warp the video.

    Here's a sample video I uploaded (60FPS on chrome): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1viutHsZzU

    Reply

  17. Harold K
    October 31, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

    Thanks, that works nicely. To get the original bitrate in windows you can simply right click the video, select PROPERTIES, select DETAILS, and there is bit rate, frame size and rate, etc

    Reply

  18. Frutchy
    August 29, 2014 @ 4:26 pm

    Hi,

    I start all over again.
    I figured out WHAT works and what doesn't.

    In fact, in the current version 2.1.5 and previous version 2.1.3, there is NO RELIABLE WAY to get a rotation other than 180°.
    So, if you want to rotate 90° clockwise or counterclockwise, it just won't give the expected result. Either VLC crashes or you get double images side-by-side or it shows OK in VLC but not in other players or on television screen.
    180° rotation (or horizontal or vertical transposition/flip) works fine.

    The GOOD news is that a solution is on the way!

    I produced quite some text to read here but once you read that you will find that the reading took longer than the actuel solution.

    I have tested a development version of VLC and it works great!
    As VLC states, there is NO GUARANTEE whatsoever on the behavior of this version 3.0.0 which is still under development. You use it at your own risk.
    I am not an expert and certainly did not test ALL functions of VLC but I did play quite some videos and tried at least ALL transform options available for conversion and all work flawlessly.

    You might experience other behavior, perhaps also depending on your operating system or types of videos.
    My system is a 36-bit Windows 8.1. (The 36-bit is NOT a typo: It is a 32-bit system patched for Address Extension so that I can exploit my 8 GBytes of memory while still running some 32-bit only applications. Google for "PAE Patch" if you are interested. It installs in 1 minute on any existing system. I run this for over a year now without any problems but others reported some tricky things with drivers. BTW, it is an official Microsoft patch and you can always revert back if it doesn't work for you.)

    As to my videos, they come from my HTC One S smartphone. They are full HD (1920 x 1080). Their length is only a couple of minutes in general, so I can't tell yet how this new VLC performs with longer videos.

    IF YOU WANT TO CORRECTLY ROTATE YOUR VIDEOS RIGHT NOW, pick up the development version of VLC 3.0.0 for your OS here:
    http://nightlies.videolan.org/

    With this version, every kind of rotation works fine and I even found an easier method to use it.

    While we are downloading, you might as well get another utility called MediaInfo here:
    http://mediaarea.net/fr/MediaInfo

    I noticed that with my videos 180° or flip rotations in VLC produce an output file that has roughly the same size as the input file.
    But as soon as I try another angle, say 90° or 270°, the output file size loses roughly one third of the original.
    This may have to do with a non square pixel shape, I have no idea.
    Apparently, 90° or 270° rotations are more complicated than 180° rotation and perhaps even use a quite different algorithm. My guess was that if the file size is one third smaller, than there is either a better compression or I lose some quality.

    Since I just want to rotate and stick as close as possible to the original video quality, I wanted to keep the output file as similar as possible to the input one.

    I found out that the files that VLC shrinked down had a lower bitrate than the original ones.

    That is where Mediainfo comes in. Mediainfo is a small utility which, once installed, adds itself to the right-click menue in the Windows Explorer.
    In Windows Explorer, right-click on the video you like to rotate and select Mediainfo.
    A pop up window will appear giving details about Video and Audio codecs used, resolution of the image and more. Look for the Bit rate specified in the video section. VLC might be able to show that information as well but I couldn't find it (it does not appear in Ctrl/J).

    You will need this Bitrate info for a lossless conversion. That said, if you don't set a specific bitrate and let VLC handle your video, thus resulting in a file which is roughly one third smaller, the result is still good. I only spotted some minor artefacts in the "VLC automatic" output videos compared to the "bitrate optimized" ones.

    Let's go to work now:

    1. Download, install and launch this 3.0.0 development version of VLC.
    2. Go to "Tools", "Preferences" and – at the bottom of that window – click "All".
    3. Scroll down to the "Filters" section underneath the "Video" section.
    4. Click on the white triangle in front of "Filters" to open the list.
    5. Click on "Transformation" (the last filter in this list).
    6. In the right pane, chose the wanted transform type, they ALL work flawlessly !
    Transpose and Anti-transpose (at the bottom of the list) do the same as 90° clockwise and 270° clockwise,
    but also flip the image horizontally.
    7. Click "Save" in the lower right corner.

    You now have permanently established transformation settings for all future video conversion jobs in which you include this filter. You can of course change this setting to another option at any moment.
    As long as you don't explicitly include this filter in a conversion job, you can just leave it set as it is, it just won't be used.
    This setting is not used either for video playback.
    If you play your original video which has the wrong rotation, it will still show up wrong.

    You can still use the functionalities activated by checking the "Transform" or "Rotate" check boxes in "Tools", "Effects and Filters", "Video Effects" tab, "Geometry" tab to properly play your video without definitely transforming it. These functionalities just allow you to properly play your video within VLC. VLC remembers your playback preferences for every video, so you don't have to set these settings the next time you play the same video again. But these settings do not influence the way the video is played in other players like Windows Media Player, nor do they influence the permanent conversion.

    Let's continue with the conversion:

    8. Do Ctrl/R or click "Media", "Convert / Save…" in the VLC main menue.
    9. Click on the "Add…" button at the right and navigate to the folder containing the video you want to convert.
    10. Select the video. VLC allows you to select multiple files here with Ctrl/click and/or do a "From-To" selection
    with Shift/click but VLC only converts the first one in the list… (Is this a bug?)
    11. Click on "Convert / Save" at the bottom of the window.
    12. Click on the "Tools" symbol at the right of "Video H.264 + MP3 (MP4)".
    13. Click on the "Audio codec" tab.To keep the original audio track, just hit the appropriate checkbox.
    14. Click on the "Video codec" tab, then click on the "Filters" tab.
    15. Scroll down the list to find "Video transformation filter". Check the box in front of it.
    16. If you are not interested in keeping the video file size and supposedly the exact quality, skip the next step.
    17. Click on "Encoding parameters" tab.
    At "Bitrate", select and delete the text "Not used": The unit "kb/s" will appear.
    Type in the bitrate you found in Mediainfo in front of "kb/s".
    With this parameter set, your video output file will have a file size close to the original and overall image
    quality should be as close as possible to the original video. In my case, this bitrate varies from video to video.
    but it was always around 9700 kb/s.
    18. Click "Save" in the lower right corner.

    Now your conversion parameters are set. They will stay permanently until you change them or Reset all your préférences. From now on, for subsequent conversions using the same settings, you just need to specify the source file and destination.

    19. Specify the destination file and folder. Click on "Browse" in the lower right corner, navigate to the destination
    folder and type in the output file name. Click "Save".

    20. Back in the main "Convert" window, check the name specified as the "Destination file:":
    The file extension name must be speciified (for instance, .mp4 or .avi) and it is recommended to specify
    an output file name different then the input one, for instance "VIDEO0072rotated.MP4".
    You can also put in the path and file name right here at "Destination file:" without going through the "Browse"
    button, for instance by highlighting, copying and pasting the name from the "Source:" line at the top of this
    window (you must skip the "file:///" prefix).

    21. DONE. Click the "Start" Button to have VLC do the job.
    if nothing happens, it might be that the Destination file name is wrong (no file extension specified) or that the
    Destination file already exists. In the latter case, awkwardly, VLC sees the existing file and will ask you if you
    want to replace it but will NOT start your conversion!

    If everything is OK, you should see the blue progression bar underneath the main VLC window grow to the
    right. I have seen former versions where the "Display the output" checkbox allowed you to see the actual
    converted video but that doesn't seem to work anymore. I only got a still image but the sound evolved as
    the conversion progressed.

    That's it! Thank you for reading all along until here. It is worth while to give it a try!

    Frutchy

    Reply

    • Bruce
      October 6, 2015 @ 7:04 am

      VLC 3.0.0 would not work on my XP machine, but your instructions worked exactly as you described with v 2.2.1, except that the bitrate was not preserved, even though I entered it as you described. Still, I got a properly-oriented movie, uncropped, and of comparable quality to the original. I especially appreciated your observation that the conversion would not occur if the target file exists. I would have given up at that point. Thanks!

      Reply

  19. dude
    August 15, 2014 @ 6:04 am

    if u upload it on dropbox it's still inverted. but the thumbnail is not! KEWL
    dafuq is this shitty video coding all about? seriously. what am i changing actually? how is it possible that after uploading it's like before again? i dont get it…
    i'm sure on youtbe it would be the same problem. cause there is already a video about the same issue.

    Reply

  20. bojidan
    July 31, 2014 @ 9:57 pm

    My image was cropped too with it leaving a square video. If you click the "transform" button and select rotate 90 degrees it will easily rotate the whole image. Everything else is the same. Thanks for the tutorial.

    Reply

  21. Catherine
    July 31, 2014 @ 6:19 pm

    Hello,
    Thanks for the tutorial. However, I have another question. I would like to keep the same configurations of the video (e.g. keep it as a avi. video). Is it possible?
    I need to use the video in another software, but after rotaring the video, my softerware did not recognize it.
    Thanks

    Reply

    • lakonst
      August 2, 2014 @ 10:05 am

      I haven't tried that. But you can give it a try and share the results.

      Reply

  22. Pierre H
    April 12, 2014 @ 7:28 pm

    Thank you very much for your tutorial but I have the same problem than Amos : the video is cropped at top and bottom (2.1.3).

    Any solution ?

    Reply

  23. jon dough
    February 26, 2014 @ 9:26 am

    Note that in 2.1.3, to create a mirror image, it is necessary to select the "Transform" filter.

    Reply

  24. Amos Ko
    February 2, 2014 @ 4:52 am

    Hi,
    Thank you indeed for the article, it just come in time for me to solve the problem when rotating video using ver 2.1.2. It works almost perfectly, except the converted video is now 'smaller' with the top and bottom view no more visible – the image is reduced now!

    Any way of solving this matter.

    Thanks again for the great job that you have been doing so far. Much appreciated!

    Reply

    • martin
      June 12, 2018 @ 8:57 pm

      use ffmpeg yourself (don't let VLC create the options list):

      in some map download ffmpeg , copy the video to in.mp4 and execute ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf transpose=2 out.mp4
      2 = 90° counterclock, 1 = 90° clockwise, 2 times: transpose=2,transpose=2 rotates 180°

      Reply

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