<p>VLC Media player, which is free, allows under it's Tools -> Effects and Filters a Geometry Tab, which you could try for rotation. </p>

<p>Then you could use the Encode/Stream option under File - to try to get a decent output. </p>

<p>However, unless your camera has some sort of ccd/cmos rotation feature, if the video was shot vertically, you shot it using only a fraction of the sensor, discarding the vertical space on the top and bottom to create a letter box version at a lower resolution. </p>

<p>You can up-res it, either simply, or with an expensive plugin, but it's never going to be "full resolution" because the information simply isn't there. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-07T19:45:52.960Z
if it's rotated, then it's probably shot 1080 wide and 1920 tall, so if he shoves it into a 1080p video, he'll lose half the quality (technically he'll lose 3/4ths of it) but if it puts it into a 4k video, he'll keep all the quality.
TravisO
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-08T04:16:56.667Z
I agree, and as I mentioned I don't know of any camera (phone that is), that has any sort of "rotating camera sensor" built into to maintain full resolution during acquisition. Certainly not impossible for future phones to have built in, but I've yet to see one. Finally, I'd have to only say that even if the sensor is sampled beyond 1920x1080, say 4K, the image even when captured sideways will undoubtably not retain the sharpness of using the sensor in it's native form. RED is a perfect example of this, speaking of say the EPIC, continued..
McFlySoHigh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-08T04:20:18.413Z
if you shoot 4K on the 5K sensor, it's less sharp than shooting 5K on the 5K sensor and then scaling down to 4K in post. So capturing 1080 just because there's 1080 "room" worth of pixels doesn't mean the camera will process or debayer the data the same way. I have not even bothered to look into the "whys" as to why this happens, but it does, speaking from experience on my EPIC-X. Shooting 4K at 5:1 Redcode using Arri Master Primes was a quality trade-off, 5K acquisition, simply scaled down to 4K in post, was undoubtedly sharper, even when watching on a smaller monitor.
McFlySoHigh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-06T21:43:47.477Z
2018-09-06T21:43:47.477Z
McFlySoHigh
<p>I recently committed the <a href="http://saynotoverticalvideos.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">crime of shooting video vertically</a>, and now when played anywhere except on my phone the video renders sideways. What is the best method to rotate it (using PC software), without losing any pixels?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-06T03:38:01.833Z
Vertical video is not a crime! If you're shooting content that will ultimately be viewed on a smartphone, why punish yourself and your viewers by shooting in landscape and forcing them to either turn the phone around (which often involves some fiddling around with settings) or watch the video super small.
stib
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-05T19:21:35.540Z
@stib Because no streaming platform treats vertically shot video like that. If you want to push new standards, fine, but don't neglect the fact that there'll be a long period before acceptance where it's certainly not better for users.
user3643
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-06T01:23:06.923Z
@stib Even today, very very little content can be guaranteed to be only seen on a mobile device. Casual users may view content on mobile phones, but that isn't an excuse to punish users who still use a dedicated desktop/laptop. Best practice should be to cater to the desktop experience first by shooting video horizontally as has always been the case - a mobile user can pretty easily  rotate a horizontal video being watched on social media, for example (swiping down + pressing a button to change orientation is hardly effort) but the inverse isn't true of a desktop user watching vertical video.
Hashim Aziz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-12T06:51:05.867Z
@digvisionmedia yeah, it's just obscure websites like youtube.com https://mashable.com/article/youtube-vertical-video-ads/#iFEA4ViOPaqD
stib
<video><video-editor><video-quality>
How to fix video shot vertically on a smartphone?
Hashim Aziz
# How to fix video shot vertically on a smartphone?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-09-04)

I recently committed the [crime of shooting video vertically](http://saynotoverticalvideos.com/), and now when played anywhere except on my phone the video renders sideways. What is the best method to rotate it (using PC software), without losing any pixels?

**Tags:** video, video-editor, video-quality

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Vertical video is not a crime! If you're shooting content that will ultimately be viewed on a smartphone, why punish yourself and your viewers by shooting in landscape and forcing them to either turn the phone around (which often involves some fiddling around with settings) or watch the video super small.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 Because no streaming platform treats vertically shot video like that. If you want to push new standards, fine, but don't neglect the fact that there'll be a long period before acceptance where it's certainly not better for users.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Even today, very very little content can be guaranteed to be only seen on a mobile device. Casual users may view content on mobile phones, but that isn't an excuse to punish users who still use a dedicated desktop/laptop. Best practice should be to cater to the desktop experience first by shooting video horizontally as has always been the case - a mobile user can pretty easily  rotate a horizontal video being watched on social media, for example (swiping down + pressing a button to change orientation is hardly effort) but the inverse isn't true of a desktop user watching vertical video.  
> **username_1**: @digvisionmedia yeah, it's just obscure websites like youtube.com https://mashable.com/article/youtube-vertical-video-ads/#iFEA4ViOPaqD  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-09-06. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

VLC Media player, which is free, allows under it's Tools -> Effects and Filters a Geometry Tab, which you could try for rotation.

Then you could use the Encode/Stream option under File - to try to get a decent output.

However, unless your camera has some sort of ccd/cmos rotation feature, if the video was shot vertically, you shot it using only a fraction of the sensor, discarding the vertical space on the top and bottom to create a letter box version at a lower resolution.

You can up-res it, either simply, or with an expensive plugin, but it's never going to be "full resolution" because the information simply isn't there.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: if it's rotated, then it's probably shot 1080 wide and 1920 tall, so if he shoves it into a 1080p video, he'll lose half the quality (technically he'll lose 3/4ths of it) but if it puts it into a 4k video, he'll keep all the quality.  
> **username_3**: I agree, and as I mentioned I don't know of any camera (phone that is), that has any sort of "rotating camera sensor" built into to maintain full resolution during acquisition. Certainly not impossible for future phones to have built in, but I've yet to see one. Finally, I'd have to only say that even if the sensor is sampled beyond 1920x1080, say 4K, the image even when captured sideways will undoubtably not retain the sharpness of using the sensor in it's native form. RED is a perfect example of this, speaking of say the EPIC, continued..  
> **username_3**: if you shoot 4K on the 5K sensor, it's less sharp than shooting 5K on the 5K sensor and then scaling down to 4K in post. So capturing 1080 just because there's 1080 "room" worth of pixels doesn't mean the camera will process or debayer the data the same way. I have not even bothered to look into the "whys" as to why this happens, but it does, speaking from experience on my EPIC-X. Shooting 4K at 5:1 Redcode using Arri Master Primes was a quality trade-off, 5K acquisition, simply scaled down to 4K in post, was undoubtedly sharper, even when watching on a smaller monitor.  

---

