How can I rotate video by 180 degrees with avconv

Question

I'd like to rotate video (mp4) by 180 degrees, but not flip. Is it possible to do it with avconv?

I found with both existing answers that theywork with the MP4 files from a Hero 3 camera, but only after I added -c:a copy to the command (just before the output filename). I also found that the second version was indistinguishable quality, but about 50% faster than the chained translate version. — Simon, Dec 30 '13 at 15:48

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '13 at 11:35

31

It is possible using the transpose video filter. You cannot rotate by 180 degrees, but you can rotate by 90 degrees and chain the filter.

avconv -i video.mp4 -vf transpose=1,transpose=1 out.mkv

See transpose in the avconv manpage: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/quantal/en/man1/avconv.1.html

answered Mar 18 '13 at 11:35

phoibos

21,456

This rotated my video, but the quality drop (resolution and framerate) was massive (iphone .mov file). – Gringo Suave Jan 06 '14 at 21:14
1

transpose=clock works now see my answer – Elder Geek Feb 27 '17 at 17:05

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '14 at 16:38

Yes, but you'll need to add some additional options to your command for it to work properly. Transpose and vflip/hflip should do the trick, but if you don't tell avconv more detail about what you want, you'll likely get very low quality output try:

 avconv -i original.mp4 -vf "hflip,vflip" -codec:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 20 -codec:a copy flipped.mp4

Notice the -crf option. That sets the output quality. It goes from 0 (lossless) upwards logarithmically. You'll probably want a value between 19 and 25 in most cases. -preset sets the speed of the encoding, either "slow", "medium", or "fast". Slow should get you smaller file sizes with an obvious tradeoff. You should adjust -codec:v to match the original. If you don't set these options you'll get the defaults, which don't work well when flipping iphone video.

Unrecognized option 'preset' Failed to set value 'slow' for option 'preset'
That's what I got — Karel Bílek, May 12 '14 at 14:16

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 14 '13 at 19:47

6

Additional method with avconv is to use vflip and hflip filters. Should run faster and maybe better quality:

avconv -i video.mp4 -vf vflip,hflip out.mp4

edited Dec 14 '13 at 19:47

kiri

28,246
16
81
118

answered Dec 14 '13 at 19:46

wcarlson

61
1
1

Same: This rotated my video, but the quality drop (resolution and framerate) was massive (iphone .mov file). – Gringo Suave Jan 06 '14 at 21:14
1

@GringoSuave wcarlson has given you a stripped down example, you still need to add all the -codec:v ... and other tags – v010dya Nov 10 '14 at 18:24

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 27 '17 at 09:51

1

I did this:

avconv -i invertedOne.mp4 -c:a copy -vf "hflip,vflip" rightOne.mp4

Full HD video, great results with non perceivable quality loss

edited Feb 27 '17 at 09:51

David Foerster

36,264
56
94
147

answered Jun 19 '16 at 11:49

jap1968

394

Pure gold for avconv version 11.12-6:11.12-1~deb8u9, except that I desired a 90-degree clockwise rotation, so I replaced "hflip,vflip" with transpose=clock. – Digger Nov 13 '20 at 16:43

Elder Geek · Answer 5 · 2018-12-09T17:32:45.063

For avconv or ffmpeg Under 14.04 or later

There have been some changes to the libav documentation since @phoibos quality answer to this question. You can rotate a video 180 degrees avoiding flipping entirely by chaining 2 90 degree commands together (separated by a comma) I accomplished this with the command

avconv -i inputfile -vf transpose=clock,transpose=clock outputfile

for clockwise rotation.

in ffmpeg the syntax is the same.

ffmpeg -i inputfile -vf transpose=clock,transpose=clock outputfile

where inputfile is your supported input video file and outputfile is your desired output file.

For counter clockwise rotation replace clock with cclock

Sources:

https://libav.org/avconv.html#transpose

Testing on Ubuntu 14.04.5 and 16.04 LTS

How can I rotate video by 180 degrees with avconv

5 Answers5

Linked