I searched for this but couldn't find an answer. When I recorded some video recently it was in portrait mode. When I decided to watch it later and rotated my phone it switched to landscape which I was surprised by. I have imported the videos to iPhoto and they play back in portrait but I want to be able to view them in landscape too. How would I go about doing this?
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iPhone Video Rotating
- Thread starter DC Hurricane
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When you click record - whatever orientation the iphone is in - that's how the video gets recorded- regardless of how you hold the phone AFTER you hit record. If you want to record in landscape - hit record while in landscape mode. If you want portrait - click record while in portrait. But once recording, the orientation is "set"
I honestly think that portrait video recording shouldn't even be allowed. The iPhone OS can make use of the accelerometer to detect portrait mode and prevent recording (and include a toggle in Settings of course 
. That portrait reso for videos is just weird!
. That portrait reso for videos is just weird!See thats what I thought as well until I was able to rotate the video while watching it back on my phone and it played back correctly without bars on the side or anything. I figure if this is possible on the phone it will be possible in iPhoto or whatever program.
Watching on the iphone is different than the computer because the video itself isnt being rotated - the "view" is. When you throw it on your computer, the orientation has to be set.
I imagine that Apple knows and still left in the ability to shoot both ways because many people will just watch on their iphones and/or prefer to hold the iphone a certain way to capture video.
Perhaps iphoto in its next release/update will allow auto-adjusting when importing the video to take that into consideration.
I imagine that Apple knows and still left in the ability to shoot both ways because many people will just watch on their iphones and/or prefer to hold the iphone a certain way to capture video.
Perhaps iphoto in its next release/update will allow auto-adjusting when importing the video to take that into consideration.
Actually I've read posts that say the video changes back to portrait inadvertently when you start recording. Supposedly the fix is to wait a few seconds before recording to make sure the iPhone "knows" it is in landscape. Just a FYI, since I haven't seen this behavior myself.
Well that's very strange then. I thought since the iPhone could figure out how to orient it on the phone in landscape correctly it would be able to upload it that way as well. Hopefully apple will fix this in an update.
I believe it's more complicated than just that..
Its one thing to change orientation - it's another to output in a different orientation.
I could be wrong - but it's not as simple as just rotating the image which requires little processing time/etc
to truly do what you want, the video would have to be completely recoded in the proper orientation. Now this would be quick with short compressed video. But the 3GS records in a pretty decent resolution and file sizes are big. Since they want you to be able to watch/upload immediately - I don't think they would engage in a system which would require what could be exponentially longer (maybe even an hour or more based on how long your video is) to re-encode in a different orientation without losing quality.
Again - I could be wrong and there could be an easier solution.
But I know as a video editor - if I shoot something with a camera in one way and I want to rotate it and have it watched rotated - the entire video file needs to be re-rendered
That's not to say apple can't just force you to hold the camera one way and one way only to output correctly. But then I think we'd see threads asking why we can't hold "that damn camera anyway I damn well want" lol
Its one thing to change orientation - it's another to output in a different orientation.
I could be wrong - but it's not as simple as just rotating the image which requires little processing time/etc
to truly do what you want, the video would have to be completely recoded in the proper orientation. Now this would be quick with short compressed video. But the 3GS records in a pretty decent resolution and file sizes are big. Since they want you to be able to watch/upload immediately - I don't think they would engage in a system which would require what could be exponentially longer (maybe even an hour or more based on how long your video is) to re-encode in a different orientation without losing quality.
Again - I could be wrong and there could be an easier solution.
But I know as a video editor - if I shoot something with a camera in one way and I want to rotate it and have it watched rotated - the entire video file needs to be re-rendered
That's not to say apple can't just force you to hold the camera one way and one way only to output correctly. But then I think we'd see threads asking why we can't hold "that damn camera anyway I damn well want" lol