How-To Geek
Rotate a Video 90 degrees with VLC or Windows Live Movie Maker
Have you ever captured video with your cell phone or camcorder only to discover when you play it back on your computer that the video is rotated 90 degrees? Or maybe you shot it that way on purpose because you preferred portrait style to a landscape view? Before you go straining your neck or flipping your monitor on it’s side to watch your video, we’ll show you a few easier methods.
If you simply want to rotate the video while you watch it, we’ll show you how to accomplish that with VLC Media Player. If you want to convert the video so it is rotated permanently, we’ll show you how to do that with Windows Live Movie Maker and output your video as a WMV file.
Rotate and Watch a Video in VLC
Download, install, and run VLC Media Player. (See download link below)
Open your video file by going to Media > Open File… and browsing for your file. Or, by just dragging and dropping your video onto the VLC player.
Choose Tools from the Menu bar and select Effects and Filters.
On the Video Effects tab, tick the Transform checkbox and choose your degrees of rotation. The video is rotated counter-clockwise, so to rotate clockwise 90 degrees you’ll want to choose Rotate by 270 degrees.
Now you can enjoy your video the way it was intended to be viewed.
Rotate and Convert the Video with Windows Live Movie Maker
Starting with Windows 7, Windows Movie Maker no longer comes pre-installed with the OS. It’s now part of the Windows Live suite that is available as a separate, free download for Windows 7 and Vista. (Windows XP is not supported) You can find the link to our detailed instruction on how to install Windows Live at the end of the article.
To add your video files to Windows Movie Maker, click on Add videos and photos on the Home tab, or drag and drop the video into the blank area on the right side of the application.
Next, you’ll need to rotate the video. Staying on the Home tab, click on the Rotate right 90°
or Rotate left 90°.
You’ll see your video is now oriented properly on the left.
To save and convert your video to WMV format, click the Movie Maker tab just to the left of the Home tab. Hover your cursor over Save movie, and then select your output settings. You also have the option to burn directly to DVD.
Browse for a location to save it and rename the output file if you’d like. Click Save.
You’ll be notified when the file is complete.
Now you’ll have your video properly oriented in WMV file format.
These are two rather easy ways to accomplish rotating your video. Unfortunately, Windows Live Movie Maker doesn’t give you a lot of options for output. If you want to output to a file, your only choice is WMV format or DVD. However, previous versions will also allow you to export to AVI.
How-To Geek’s Install Windows Live Essentials In Windows 7 Article.
Got Feedback? Join the discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com
Comments (41)
Andrew is a media center geek with some serious Windows skills. He's never far from a WiFi connection or a great cup of coffee.
- Published 04/12/10
I find it pretty funny that even though Microsoft Created AVI media player doesn’t have codecs and movie maker doesn’t let you export to it, instead you have to stick with the crappiest of all video formats, WMV
Great article Andrew!
If any SMPlayer users are curious, you can rotate videos by going to the Video menu (either in the menu bar at the top, or by right-clicking on a video) and then Rotate > Rotate by 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise, whichever makes more sense. You can flip the video vertically or horizontally by going to Video > Flip Image or Video > Mirror Image.
i use “Rotate Video” from moonvalleysoft, the above methods are limited, with VLC you cannot save the file and with movie maker you cant access any video codec you want, without considering that … what if you need to rotate just few degrees or however not 90, 180 etc?
Clever. No really, I laughed.
I just had to point out for clarity sake and in case you are unaware of it, you are doing the very same thing you are railing against. It is very believable that you are, in fact, self-aware enough to realize this with the exception of your use of “inordinate amount of quotes” and that those quotes are used “incorrectly most of the time.” Perhaps this is not news to you but will be to others reading your site. Please continue doing what it is your doing. It is helping the internet by leaps and bounds.
Just say’n.
Now who has egg on their blogger face? I posted that comment in the wrong browser tab. Feel free to delete the above snarky comment.
I was going to rotate movie but I was unable to the same but with the help of your website I am right now
any video can open in rotate mode. Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much, but only one question:
how do you save your file with VLC ?
There’s only one option : ‘Convert/Save’ but that doesn’t save anything at all. So, help ?
I used Windows Movie Maker, which worked out just the way you said it would with on exception. No Audio. The program only loads the video not the audio. So the finished product is the rotated video with no audio. Whats the point?
I just did this with Windows Movie Maker, the movie is flipped now but the audio is totally out of synch with the picture. Is it b/c of HD?
Big time hassles here with a video I don’t even have to edit! Thanks for any help.
Google’s Picasa will rotate your video. Just open the video with Picasa, click on the rotate right or left button. Commit changes to hard drive.
Many thanks for the info….presented in a way that even an idiot like me can understand!!
Strange that VLC doesn’t tell you how to do this, or simply have a “Rotate Right/Left” Tab.
Thanks again – Don Hill – Charleston, SC
I got to this page via search engine. I asked how to rotate and SAVE a video. This article (specifically the VLC part ) does not answer that question. Jimmy knows that too.
hi,
very useful tip
thank you so much…
Gilles
VLC most definitely allows you to save the converted file. Using the Convert-Save option, you can choose the source of your video – it can be a DVD, file or an analog capture device – and save it in any format at all, to any file location, with any bitrate, scaling, audio, whatever. Dare I say it – it’s great for ripping DVDs. Legal ones, of course… It will copy, transcode, scale and save at the same time. It pays to experiment with a short file – stop the process a minute or so in and look at the output – adjust your output settings if it looks crap. It helps to have a fast processor – my poor little Celeron notebook struggles a bit but it gets through the process slowly. My desktop is fine.
how i save rotated video by vlc player?
yar vlc se rotate hoi video ko save kese karte ha.
plz ans me on my id “basharatawan12@yahoo.com”
plz ans me
Rotate Video (Moonvalleysoft) allows to save, supports also HD that is supported by VLC too but VLC does not allow to save, while MM does not support hd camera videos
Hi, I found everything I need here BUT still not sure it works correctly. I am creating PPT’s in Portrait MODE (9:16) then coinverting to video so that i can loop the video to play on monitors at a trade show. HOWEVER, I would like to FLIP the 42″ monitors UP so they are also in PORTRAIT mode and then play the video’s. Will VLC rotate my video for proper playing on a rotated Monitor ?
THANKS A LOTTTT
Hey, the Picasa on my mac worked great! The only thing I didn’t like is that upon double clicking it to start it scanned my computer for photos. Then when i tried to import my movie and edit it, there were no rotation options or anything
The way i got it to work:
Better to just drag the movie on top of Picasa application. This opens it up to play it and then you see the rotational options and then an “export” button.
best suggestion. thanks a lot
how to save it in vlc then ?
Thanx to Article!!!
Helped a Lot!
GBY!
thank you the article.. it helps me a lot.. =)
hello , I may rotate videos but i cant save it. tell me how to save
“FreeVideoFlipAndRotate” this program works well! I tried it, both video and audio converts. But, I think it makes video time shorter.Can be reached by visiting this webpage:
http://download.cnet.com/Free-Video-Flip-and-Rotate/3000-2194_4-10763530.html
Hope it helps to you.
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank uuuuu
It’s really help
Hiii may i ask :)
If i use VLC to rotate, how to save that video after rotating?
Thanks!!
Thanks A lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
how to save rotated video in vls plyaer???? pls tell me i am really in mess,,oh god
Picasa is the easiest. VLC is a bit of a pain to rotate and attempting to save the file. Took me 2 seconds to rotate the file in Picasa and save it.
Great article! THANKS ALOT!!
HOW CAN I SAVE MY WIDEO ON VLC
thanksyou muches
This is ok, but I use vReveal, it’s much faster than VLC and especially crappy Windows Movie maker. It also has one-click-fix and much more options than VLC.
hi,
very useful
thank you so much…
kmr
In Format Factory, before converting, you can choose “rotate” in the advansed settings. It can rotate only 90 degrees at a time, so you’ll need to do it twice if you want to turn your video upside down :)
thanx for giving this info…
Useless article, the occasions when i would want to flip a video but not save it are very few. VLC will not sve the video even after messing with convert/save for half an hour -.-
ty a ton..
its working
thank you :)
Thank you very very much …. it helped a me a lot.