How to Rotate a Video Taken on Your Phone: Quick and Easy Guide

During a trip to Thailand, I filmed several breakfasts at Le Méridien Khao Lak. All the videos are fine except one, which was accidentally recorded in portrait orientation instead of landscape. I plan to compile all these clips into a video about breakfast at Le Méridien Khao Lak using Kdenlive. However, the portrait video won’t fit with the landscape ones, so I need to convert it to landscape orientation.

I initially thought I’d use Kdenlive, my go-to video editing software. I figured, “How hard could it be to rotate a video in Kdenlive?” Turns out, it’s trickier than expected. I tried the Rotate Effects in Kdenlive, but it just wasn’t working out as what I expected. I even did a quick Google search and watched a few YouTube tutorials, but they didn’t help either.

Then, I remembered that I’d done something similar before using VLC Media Player. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the rotation function in the latest version of VLC. After 20 minutes of fumbling around with no results, I was feeling pretty frustrated. Who knew rotating a video could be such a hassle in this day and age?

That’s when it hit me—FFmpeg! I’ve been working with video content for a few years now, and FFmpeg is my main tool for processing videos into HLS and DASH formats. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that can handle almost anything related to video processing.

So, I decided to use FFmpeg to rotate my video. And let me tell you, it was super easy! You just need to run a simple command in the Windows Command Prompt or a Linux terminal, and you’ll have your video rotated in no time. Here’s the magic command line:

ffmpeg -i yourvideo.mp4 -vf "transpose=2" result.mp4

Breaking Down the Command:

• -i yourvideo.mp4 specifies the input video file.
• -vf "transpose=2" applies the counterclockwise rotation.
• The transpose=2 filter rotates the video 90 degrees counterclockwise.
• result.mp4 is the name of the output video file.

And that’s it! Just run this command, and your video will be rotated. No need to struggle with complex video editing software or spend hours searching for tutorials. FFmpeg makes it quick and easy.

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me. Give it a try, and you’ll be a video-rotating pro in no time. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to drop a comment below. Happy video editing!