Rotate videos 90 or 180 degrees using ffmpeg

Rotate Videos using ffmpeg

Rotate videos 90 or 180 degrees using ffmpeg.

ffmpeg_rotate_90_or_180_degrees.bat

rem For the transpose parameter you can pass:

rem 0 = 90CounterCLockwise and Vertical Flip (default)
rem 1 = 90Clockwise
rem 2 = 90CounterClockwise
rem 3 = 90Clockwise and Vertical Flip

rem To rotate 180 degrees, instead use "transpose=2,transpose=2"

rem Using -codec:a copy will simply copy the audio instead of reencoding it.

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf "transpose=1" -codec:a copy out.mp4

This will re-encode the video, always resulting in a quality loss (though usually imperceptible). Since the MP4 container format supports a "rotation" flag, which most players respect, you can set it for lossless rotation:

ffmpeg -i $INPUTVIDEO -metadata:s:v rotate="-90" -codec copy $OUTPUTVIDEO

see https://gist.github.com/ViktorNova/1dd68a2ec99781fd9adca49507c73ee2

OR using exiftool:

exiftool -rotation=270 FILE.mp4

see https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=10806.0

If the player you're using doesn't support this metadata flag, or if you're using another container like mkv, then ffmpeg with -vf transpose=1 is a fine alternative.