Possible to rotate video shot in portrait to landscape?

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Level 1

137 points

Possible to rotate video shot in portrait to landscape?

So I shot a video holding the camera in portrait orientation (vertical). When I streamed the video to my Apple TV, instead of rotating the image to fit the full screen, the video is a thin strip down the center of the screen (maintaining the portrait orientation). On iOS I am able to lock the screen orientation so I can turn the phone sideways and see the video properly (otherwise the same thing happens in landscape mode), however this has no effect on Apple TV. Perhaps the physical video cable might make a difference but I don't have one to test, nor would that solve the bigger problem of exporting the video into other applications.

This seems incredibly counter-intuitive to the way video cameras have always worked. That is, regardless of how a camera is positioned, the video is always played back in the proper orientation so that it fills the screen. I can not think of a single application where I would want my video displayed as a thin strip down the center of a screen.

Link to Example Image – http://gallery.me.com/woodwyn/100031/IMG_1159/web.jpg?ver=13059966380001

So I imported it into iPhoto, in which i can see the rotate button, but does not appear to allowthea rotate function. I then opened it in QuickTime and again found no way to alter the orientation. Finally I imported it into iMovie, and was surprised there was no way to correct the screen orientation there either. iPhone and Quicktime simply created vertical windows for playback, while iMovie constrained the portrait 1280 height into a vertical 720, and stretched the portrait 720 width across the 1280 horizontal. Completely unacceptable!!

Surely there is a simple way to do this that I am simply overlooking?

MacBook Core Duo 2.0, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 2GB RAM/500GB 7200 HD

Posted on May 22, 2011 3:25 PM

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Answer 1

Woodwyn Author

Level 1

137 points

May 22, 2011 3:39 PM in response to Woodwyn

Sorry, I had used an earlier version of iMovie and discovered that iLife 11 version allows the video source to be rotated.

This is not particularly intuitive and adds the extra step of exporting it into the new orientation and transferring it back to iTunes, and then the mobile device, but I guess this is to be expected given that the video is being changed.

Anybody know if the iMovie app for iOS will rotate video as well? If so, then this can all be handled within the device before it is uploaded to any other places.

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Answer 2

May 22, 2011 3:42 PM in response to Woodwyn

Are you using iMovie '011.

If so, select the clip and then click the Crop icon.

You'll see 2 little rotation arrows appear in the viewer.

Generally speaking you don't shoot with a video camera in the same way you would with a still camera. If you shoot sideways, you'll get a sideways picture. In video there really isn't a portrait mode. Both SD and HD have picture ratios that are wider than they are tall.

Matt

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Answer 3

May 22, 2011 4:10 PM in response to Woodwyn

Anybody know if the iMovie app for iOS will rotate video as well?

I don't think you can.

There are a couple apps out there that will rotate video, though I haven't used them. One is called Rotate Video HD.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rotate-video-hd/id407389744?mt=8

The interesting thing about shooting video with an iPhone or iPad 2 is the the device is smart enough to know which way your holding the camera and therefore knows what the bottom of the picture is supposed to be.

Matt

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Answer 4

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

May 22, 2011 4:25 PM in response to Woodwyn

This seems incredibly counter-intuitive to the way video cameras have always worked. That is, regardless of how a camera is positioned, the video is always played back in the proper orientation so that it fills the screen. I can not think of a single application where I would want my video displayed as a thin strip down the center of a screen.

Agreed.

So I shot a video holding the camera in portrait orientation (vertical).

Why?

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Answer 5

Woodwyn Author

Level 1

137 points

May 24, 2011 11:33 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

I'm not sure how smart that actually is to know where the bottom is – this seems mainly an accommodation for FaceTime. It really would have made things so much simpler if the iPhone mimicked the way traditional cameras work.

As for holding the camera vertically, it is much easier to hold onto the camera vertically in some circumstances, as well as for stability I have found. There are also circumstances where you want to show the vertical height, even if it's horizontal in the end.

However, I did discover something ... the iPhone does not seem to change orientation during filming regardless of how the phone is held. Evidently whatever orientation the camera is in when recording starts, is the orientation the rest of the movie will be in, regardless of whether it changes for the remaining movie or not. So, buy starting out in horizontal mode when pressing record, the iPhone will record in the "traditional" camera perspective, regardless of whichever way the iPhone is otherwise turned during the recording.

So, in order to see the film as I shot it (I did not exclusively hold it in portrait orientation), I will actually have to make clips out of every change in orientation, then change the orientation to landscape if it is not already, flip some 180 as they are upside down depending on the rotation from orientation to orientation.

For the future, I now know how to lock the camera in landscape mode before I start. It's hard to imagine any situation where someone would actually want to record a movie in portrait mode such that it will not fill out a standard monitor, as one would expect, so I'm not sure why Apple did not implement this as a default setting when filming movies.

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Answer 6

May 25, 2011 7:27 AM in response to Woodwyn

However, I did discover something ... the iPhone does not seem to change orientation during filming regardless of how the phone is held. Evidently whatever orientation the camera is in when recording starts, is the orientation the rest of the movie will be in, regardless of whether it changes for the remaining movie or not.

I think that is the key to getting the effects you want.

Matt

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Answer 7

Jun 2, 2012 7:45 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

I found that out too... Quite frustrating I must say...

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Answer 8

Jun 7, 2012 9:44 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

I downloaded the rotate app (0.99c) works like a charm. I tried all sorts of other software to try to fix the problem. Now I just have to convert it to a format I can play on my DVD player!

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Answer 9

Lunarman

Level 1

0 points

Jun 22, 2012 9:04 PM in response to Woodwyn

Hey! im having a problem with my videos being shrunk when i rotate them in imovie for the ipod touch. I will take a video in portrait mode and then i will rotate it to landscape mode in the imovie app, but when i veiw the result it a very small movie that barely fills the very center of my ipod touch screen. Can anyone help me with how to solve this. I would like to rotate the video and keep its correct dimensions, for example if it is 1280x720 then i would want to rotate it to 720x1280 and nothing less. Please Help!

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Answer 10

Dec 20, 2012 12:17 PM in response to Adelaideapple

I downloaded the Rotate Video App but all if does is turn your video up dissed down or sideways without eliminating the annoying black background and border. I want the video to fill the entire screen

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Answer 11

Jun 23, 2013 10:46 PM in response to Woodwyn

Well I'm having the same problem, but I shot my video in landscape mode as I normally would, it looks great on my phone but when I import it the picture is all distorted, and I can't seem to find a way to get it looking right, help anyone?

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Answer 12

Jun 25, 2013 5:55 PM in response to captainfun

Just downloaded the app Rotate N'Flip onto my iPhone and it worked beautifully! The best part is it's FREE!

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Answer 13

Jan 2, 2015 6:04 PM in response to Woodwyn

I shot my videos in landscape mode but they only played in portrait mode after uploading them to DropBox. I got the app Video Rotate and Flip and it fixed them quick.

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Answer 14

Feb 6, 2015 2:52 AM in response to Woodwyn

I Had found a way in which u can watch anything on tv with full screen just u have to do is to turn of your device's mirroring and play your content it will start full screen.Thanks.

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Answer 15

Nov 11, 2015 7:12 AM in response to Woodwyn

Since previous replies to the post, there is a FREE app called "Rotate and Flip". I just downloaded it and used it to rotate my landscape video to portrait orientation so I could load it to Facebook. Worked like a charm! I am assuming it will also work for portrait to landscape.

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