Rotating videos with FFmpeg

Question

I have been trying to figure out how to rotate videos with FFmpeg  I am working with iPhone videos taken in portrait mode  I know how to determine the current degrees of rotation using MediaInfo  excellent library  btw  but I m stuck on FFmpeg now   From what I ve read  what you need to use is a vfilter option  According to what I see  it should look like this   ffmpeg -vfilters  rotate 90  -i input mp4 output mp4   However  I can t get this to work  First  -vfilters doesn t exist anymore  it s now just -vf  Second  I get this error   No such filter   rotate  Error opening filters    As far as I know  I have an all-options-on build of FFmpeg  Running ffmpeg -filters shows this   Filters  anull            Pass the source unchanged to the output  aspect           Set the frame aspect ratio  crop             Crop the input video to x y width height  fifo             Buffer input images and send them when they are requested  format           Convert the input video to one of the specified pixel formats  hflip            Horizontally flip the input video  noformat         Force libavfilter not to use any of the specified pixel formats  for the input to the next filter  null             Pass the source unchanged to the output  pad              Pad input image to width height  x y  color    default x and y   0  default color  black   pixdesctest      Test pixel format definitions  pixelaspect      Set the pixel aspect ratio  scale            Scale the input video to width height size and or convert the i mage format  slicify          Pass the images of input video on to next video filter as multi ple slices  unsharp          Sharpen or blur the input video  vflip            Flip the input video vertically  buffer           Buffer video frames  and make them accessible to the filterchai n  color            Provide an uniformly colored input  syntax is   color  size  ra te    nullsrc          Null video source  never return images  nullsink         Do absolutely nothing with the input video    Having the options for vflip and hflip are great and all  but they just won t get me where I need to go  I need to the ability to rotate videos 90 degrees at the very least  270 degrees would be an excellent option to have as well  Where have the rotate options gone

User · Answer

An additional solution with a different approach from the last mentioned solutions, is to check if your camera driver support the v4l2 camera controls (which is very common).
In the terminal just type:

v4l2-ctl -L

If your camera driver supports the v4l2 camera controls, you should get something like this (the list below depends on the controls that your camera driver supports):

               contrast (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=0 value=0 flags=slider
             saturation (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=64 value=64 flags=slider
                    hue (int)    : min=0 max=359 step=1 default=0 value=0 flags=slider
white_balance_automatic (bool)   : default=1 value=1 flags=update
            red_balance (int)    : min=0 max=4095 step=1 default=0 value=128 flags=inactive, slider
           blue_balance (int)    : min=0 max=4095 step=1 default=0 value=128 flags=inactive, slider
               exposure (int)    : min=0 max=65535 step=1 default=0 value=885 flags=inactive, volatile
         gain_automatic (bool)   : default=1 value=1 flags=update
                   gain (int)    : min=0 max=1023 step=1 default=0 value=32 flags=inactive, volatile
        horizontal_flip (bool)   : default=0 value=0
          vertical_flip (bool)   : default=0 value=0

And if you are lucky it supports horizontal_flip and vertical_flip.
Then all you need to do is to set the horizontal_flip by:

v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl horizontal_flip=1

or the vertical_flip by:

v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl vertical_flip=1

and then you can call your video device to capture a new video (see example below), and the video will be rotated/flipped.

ffmpeg -f v4l2 -video_size 640x480 -i /dev/video0 -vcodec libx264 -f mpegts input.mp4

Of-course that if you need to process an already existing video, than this method is not the solution you are looking for.

The advantage in this approach is that we flip the image in the sensor level, so the sensor of the driver already gives us the image flipped, and that's saves the application (like FFmpeg) any further and unnecessary processing.

User · Answer

Alexy s answer almost worked for me except that I was getting this error      timebase 1 90000 not supported by MPEG 4 standard  the maximum   admitted value for the timebase denominator is 65535   I just had to add a parameter  -r 65535 2733  to the command and it worked  The full command was thus   ffmpeg -i in mp4 -vf  transpose 1  -r 65535 2733 out mp4

User · Answer

If you don t want to re-encode your video AND your player can handle rotation metadata you can just change the rotation in the metadata using ffmpeg  ffmpeg -i input m4v -map metadata 0 -metadata s v rotate  quot 90 quot  -codec copy output m4v

User · Answer

Since ffmpeg transpose command is very slow  use the command below to rotate a video by 90 degrees clockwise  Fast command  Without encoding - ffmpeg -i input mp4 -c copy -metadata s v 0 rotate 270 output mp4  For full video encoding  Slow command  does encoding  ffmpeg -i inputFile -vf  quot transpose 1 quot  -c a copy outputFile

User · Answer

If you re getting a  Codec is experimental but experimental codecs are not enabled  error use this    ffmpeg -i inputFile -vf  transpose 1  -c a copy outputFile   Happened with me for some  mov file with aac audio

User · Answer

ffmpeg -vfilters  rotate 90  -i input mp4 output mp4    won t work  even with latest source     must change the order   ffmpeg -i input mp4 -vf vflip output mp4   works fine

User · Answer

Smartphone  Recored a video in vertical format  Want to send it to a webside it was 90   to the left  anti clockwise  landscape format  hmm   ffmpeg -i input mp4 -vf  rotate 0  output mp4   does it  I got vertical format back again  debian buster  ffmpeg --version ffmpeg version 4 1 4-1 deb10u1 Copyright  c  2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers

User · Answer

To rotate the picture clockwise you can use the rotate filter  indicating a positive angle in radians  With 90 degrees equating with PI 2  you can do it like so   ffmpeg -i in mp4 -vf  rotate PI 2  out mp4   for counter-clockwise the angle must be negative  ffmpeg -i in mp4 -vf  rotate -PI 2  out mp4   The transpose filter will work equally well for 90 degrees  but for other angles this is a faster or only choice

User · Answer

Unfortunately  the Ubuntu version of ffmpeg does support videofilters   You need to use avidemux or some other editor to achieve the same effect   In the programmatic way  mencoder has been recommended

User · Answer

Rotate 90 clockwise   ffmpeg -i in mov -vf  transpose 1  out mov   For the transpose parameter you can pass   0   90CounterCLockwise and Vertical Flip  default  1   90Clockwise 2   90CounterClockwise 3   90Clockwise and Vertical Flip   Use -vf  transpose 2 transpose 2  for 180 degrees   Make sure you use a recent ffmpeg version from here  a static build will work fine    Note that this will re-encode the audio and video parts  You can usually copy the audio without touching it  by using -c a copy  To change the video quality  set the bitrate  for example with -b v 1M  or have a look at the H 264 encoding guide if you want VBR options   A solution is also to use this convenience script

User · Answer

Have you tried transpose yet  Like  from the other answer    ffmpeg -i input -vf transpose 2 output   If you are using an old version  you have to update ffmpeg if you want to use the transpose feature  as it was added in October 2011   The FFmpeg download page offers static builds that you can directly execute without having to compile them

User · Answer

This script that will output the files with the directory structure under  fixedFiles   At the moment is fixed to MOV files and will execute a number of transformations depending on the original  rotation  of the video  Works with iOS captured videos on a Mac running Mavericks  but should be easily exportable  Relies on having installed both exiftool and ffmpeg      bin bash    rotation of 90 degrees  Will have to concatenate   ffmpeg -i  lt originalfile gt  -metadata s v 0 rotate 0 -vf  transpose 1   lt destinationfile gt    VLC -I dummy -vvv  lt originalfile gt  --sout   transcode width 1280 vcodec mp4v vb 16384 vfilter  canvas width 1280 height 1280  rotate angle -90    std access file mux mp4 dst  lt outputfile gt     vlc   quit   Allowing blanks in file names SAVEIFS  IFS IFS   echo -en   n b     Bit Rate BR 16384   where to store fixed files FIXED FILES DIR  fixedFiles   rm -rf  FIXED FILES DIR mkdir  FIXED FILES DIR    VLC VLC START   Applications VLC app Contents MacOS VLC -I dummy -vvv  VLC END  vlc   quit                                                    Processing of MOV in the wrong orientation for f in  find   -regex         MOV    do   ROTATION  exiftool   f   grep Rotation cut -c 35-38    SHORT DIMENSION  exiftool   f   grep  Image Size  cut -c 39-43 sed  s x       BITRATE INT  exiftool   f   grep  Avg Bitrate  cut -c 35-38 sed  s            echo Short dimension   SHORT DIMENSION   BITRATE INT    if test   ROTATION         then     DEST   dirname   f       echo  Processing  f with rotation  ROTATION in directory  DEST      mkdir -p  FIXED FILES DIR   DEST       if test   ROTATION      0   then       cp   f    FIXED FILES DIR  f       elif test   ROTATION      180   then          eval  VLC START    f    --sout      transcode vfilter  rotate angle -  ROTATION    vcodec mp4v vb  BR  std access file mux mp4 dst     FIXED FILES DIR  f        VLC END           eval ffmpeg -i    f   -vf hflip vflip -r 30 -metadata s v 0 rotate 0 -b v   BITRATE INT M -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy    FIXED FILES DIR  f         elif test   ROTATION      270   then         eval ffmpeg -i    f   -vf  scale  SHORT DIMENSION -1 transpose 2 pad  SHORT DIMENSION  SHORT DIMENSION   ow-iw   2 0  -r 30 -s   SHORT DIMENSION x  SHORT DIMENSION  -metadata s v 0 rotate 0 -b v   BITRATE INT M -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy    FIXED FILES DIR  f          else          eval  VLC START    f    --sout      transcode scale 1 width  SHORT DIMENSION vcodec mp4v vb  BR vfilter  canvas width  SHORT DIMENSION height  SHORT DIMENSION  rotate angle -  ROTATION     std access file mux mp4 dst     FIXED FILES DIR  f        VLC END         echo ffmpeg -i    f   -vf  scale  SHORT DIMENSION -1 transpose 1 pad  SHORT DIMENSION  SHORT DIMENSION   ow-iw   2 0  -r 30 -s   SHORT DIMENSION x  SHORT DIMENSION  -metadata s v 0 rotate 0 -b v   BITRATE INT M -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy    FIXED FILES DIR  f            eval ffmpeg -i    f   -vf  scale  SHORT DIMENSION -1 transpose 1 pad  SHORT DIMENSION  SHORT DIMENSION   ow-iw   2 0  -r 30 -s   SHORT DIMENSION x  SHORT DIMENSION  -metadata s v 0 rotate 0 -b v   BITRATE INT M -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy    FIXED FILES DIR  f          fi    fi  echo  echo                                                                    sleep 1 done                                                  Processing of AVI files for my Panasonic TV   Use ffmpegX   QuickBatch  Bitrate at 16384  Camera res 640x424 for f in  find   -regex         AVI    do   DEST   dirname   f     DEST FILE  echo   f    sed  s  AVI  MOV      mkdir -p  FIXED FILES DIR   DEST    echo  Processing  f in directory  DEST      eval ffmpeg -i    f   -r 20 -acodec libvo aacenc -b a 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -b v 8M -flags  aic mv4    FIXED FILES DIR  DEST FILE     echo  echo                                                                     done  IFS  SAVEIFS

User · Answer

For me it works like this Rotate clockwise  ffmpeg -i  quot path source video mp4 quot  -filter v  quot transpose 1 quot   quot path output video mp4 quot   Rotate counterclockwise  ffmpeg -i  quot path source video mp4 quot  -filter v  quot transpose 0 transpose 1 transpose 0 quot  -acodec copy  quot path output video mp4 quot   the package I use zeranoe

User · Answer

I came across this page while searching for the same answer   It is now six months since this was originally asked and the builds have been updated many times since then   However  I wanted to add an answer for anyone else that comes across here looking for this information   I am using Debian Squeeze and FFmpeg version from those repositories   The MAN page for ffmpeg states the following use  ffmpeg -i inputfile mpg -vf  transpose 1  outputfile mpg   The key being that you are not to use a degree variable  but a predefined setting variable from the MAN page     0 90CounterCLockwise and Vertical Flip   default   1 90Clockwise  2 90CounterClockwise  3 90Clockwise and Vertical Flip

[ffmpeg] Rotating videos with FFmpeg

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