Video rotation assistance needed...

S1CEM

So my wife shot a video of our 2 year-old daughter last night in panorama but, once it saved, it played back as though it had been taken in portrait. Now, I know how to rotate a video in Windows Movie Maker (very simple), but here's the issue: It plays perfectly, wide angle, in Windows Media Player. In all other players (including Smugmug), it plays sideways in portrait. I even tried rotating it in Movie Maker and then uploading that new file (even though it was portrait on Media Player) just to see if it would be different in Smugmug.....no dice. It still plays sideways.

I really would like to get this video fixed. Does anyone have any advice for how to do that?

Thanks!:help

ziggy53

If I understand you correctly you have a video which was shot using a smart phone, or similar device, in a vertical/portrait orientation, which does not correctly rotate when you post the video to SmugMug? If this is a correct understanding of the problem then I believe what you need is an advanced video editor which can rotate and letterbox the video into a standard horizontal/landscape aspect ratio.

The least expensive video editor which I'm fairly certain can do this is Corel VideoStudio Pro (VSP). The current version is VSP X6 and it's available for $69USD.

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?1=1&trkid=USsemKWS&storeKey=us&pid=prod4900075

Here is a tutorial for an older version, but the new version should be very similar.

http://youtu.be/-0NsFBM4pck

You basically create a new project in a popular standard video aspect ratio, then import your video into VSP, rotate the video (using the tutorial methodology), then save the resulting standard aspect letterboxed video as a new video in a format compatible with SmugMug.

Then upload this new letterboxed video to your SmugMug account and you're all set.

S1CEM

Hi Ziggy! Thanks for the response!

The video was shot on an iphone 5, but it was NOT shot in portrait. For whatever reason, though, it saved that way. Oddly, the issue is that it plays fine in WMP, but in anything else, it plays the way it saved, in portrait (which is sideways). I have tried rotating it in Movie Maker and then the file plays sideways in WMP, but STILL plays sideways in anything else.

So there is no free way to do this? I hate to pay for something to edit this one thing, especially if it turns out that it can't be done.

Thoughts?

ziggy53 wrote: »

If I understand you correctly you have a video which was shot using a smart phone, or similar device, in a vertical/portrait orientation, which does not correctly rotate when you post the video to SmugMug? If this is a correct understanding of the problem then I believe what you need is an advanced video editor which can rotate and letterbox the video into a standard horizontal/landscape aspect ratio.

The least expensive video editor which I'm fairly certain can do this is Corel VideoStudio Pro (VSP). The current version is VSP X6 and it's available for $69USD.

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?1=1&trkid=USsemKWS&storeKey=us&pid=prod4900075

Here is a tutorial for an older version, but the new version should be very similar.

http://youtu.be/-0NsFBM4pck

You basically create a new project in a popular standard video aspect ratio, then import your video into VSP, rotate the video (using the tutorial methodology), then save the resulting standard aspect letterboxed video as a new video in a format compatible with SmugMug.

Then upload this new letterboxed video to your SmugMug account and you're all set.

ziggy53

Since you're on a Windows machine, there are many freeware/open source applications designed for video format conversion, which might also reset the orientation flag of the video file. I haven't tested any for this specific problem, but they might be worth a try.

Do be careful as many of these free video conversion utilities may try to do nasty things to your browser home page, etc.

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-video-converter-12-on-test-1059245

As for the problem of iPhone locked orientation, here is a possible solution:

http://www.todaysiphone.com/2011/10/tips-tricks-lock-iphone-orientation-in-landscape/

You may also wish to check the Apple forums for more specific solutions since this seems to be a rather iPhone specific issue. You may even wish to check with Apple to see if they have a simple way to reset the orientation flag for their videos.

S1CEM

Awesome! I'll definitely check these out and post back here I still can't find a fix.

Thanks!

ziggy53 wrote: »

Since you're on a Windows machine, there are many freeware/open source applications designed for video format conversion, which might also reset the orientation flag of the video file. I haven't tested any for this specific problem, but they might be worth a try.

Do be careful as many of these free video conversion utilities may try to do nasty things to your browser home page, etc.

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-video-converter-12-on-test-1059245

As for the problem of iPhone locked orientation, here is a possible solution:

http://www.todaysiphone.com/2011/10/tips-tricks-lock-iphone-orientation-in-landscape/

You may also wish to check the Apple forums for more specific solutions since this seems to be a rather iPhone specific issue. You may even wish to check with Apple to see if they have a simple way to reset the orientation flag for their videos.

tsk1979

Try Avidemux. This software is open source, and you can also re-encode into xvid etc.,
You would need to install some codecs though if you want to do fancy encoding (h264 etc.,)
Check out codecs on videohelp forums
Basically you would need
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/x264-Encoder : The codec for re-encoding
Software
Go to avidemux home page

And you are done. Its a powerful software and you can even replace audio track. Its all free