How to rotate and flip videos using Handbrake

HandBrake is a free tool that’s available for Windows, Mac OS and Ubuntu that allows you to take a video in various formats and convert it to an MP4.

The steps below show how to rotate videos using HandBrake.

How to rotate and flip videos using Handbrake

  1. If you don’t already have HandBrake, it can be downloaded here:  https://handbrake.fr/
  2. Open HandBrake and load your video using the ‘Source’ button
  3. Choose where to save the rotated video by clicking on the ‘Browse’ button and select where the converted file will be saved.
  4. Open the ‘Filters’ tab
  5. The ‘Rotate’ option allows you to choose four different options
    1. 0 – do nothing
    2. 90 – rotate to the right
    3. 180 – turn upside down
    4. 270 – rotate to the left
  6. Choose the rotate option you require
  7. Click ‘Start Encode’ to begin
  8. At the bottom of the window you will see the progress

 

Help! It didn’t work

Try the manual way of rotating, by applying manual filters.

  1. Open the ‘Video’ tab
  2. Copy the desired command from below and paste into ‘Advanced Options’
  3. Once you have the required command entered, click ‘Start Encode’ to begin

Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

To rotate 90 degrees clockwise, enter the following command into the ‘Extra Options’ setting:

, --rotate=4

Rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise

To rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise, enter the following command into the ‘Extra Options’ setting:

, --rotate=7

Rotate 180 degrees (upside down)

To rotate 180 degrees so that the video is upside down, enter the following command into the ‘Extra Options’ setting:

, --rotate=3

Other options?

The official HandBrake documentation has more detail on what other options are available.

1 : x flip
2 : y flip
3 : 180 degrees rotate (also the DEFAULT)
4 : 90 degrees rotate (clockwise)
5 : 90 degrees rotate + y flip
6 : 270 degrees rotate + y flip
7 : 270 degrees rotate

16 comments on “How to rotate and flip videos using Handbrake

  1. Thank you, so much!! The last time I had this issue, I had to downoad some crapware piece of junk video encoding software that stuck watermarks all over my tiny 30 second clip. I don’t know how I missed this article then, but I’m glad I found you now! I knew it couldn’t have been difficult to achieve in Handbrake, just needed some insightful person to reveal it.

    Thanks again! <3

    PS. I run adblockers but I'd love the ability to make a small donation to such a helpful site so that I can keep running ad blockers, but also show my thanks. Is there any way to achieve this?

    1. Hey – Thanks for the kind words and confirming the instructions still work.
      I’m not really sure where I stand with adblockers/ads/donations. But no need at all, just glad you took the time to say thanks and that it still works. ‘Donations’ may be too hard for me to manage, taxes and all – not sure how that all works.

Leave a Reply to newsbugmedia Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *