VLC plays some iPhone 4 HD videos Upside Down

[thexframe]

Depending upon how I hold my iPhone 4 when I am recording, VLC will play the video upside down.

For example, if I hold my iPhone 4 in landscape so that the volume buttons are facing upwards - the video in VLC will be upside down for me (and others who I've asked to confirm this on their iPhone 4's).

If I hold the iPhone 4 in the opposite direction, so the volume buttons are facing down - the video plays fine in VLC.

Is this a problem with the iPhone 4's hardware or is VLC having trouble with something?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

iPhone 4 records with a rotation flag VLC doesn't handle.
Patches are welcome.

[thexframe]

iPhone 4 records with a rotation flag VLC doesn't handle.
Patches are welcome.

Ohhhhh .. that's weird. Lol.

So is this an Apple issue or can VLC be updated to fix this for my existing videos?

And on a side-note .. is there any reason why these same videos that are upside down for me in VLC are also skipping badly in Quicktime .. whereas the videos taken while rotating the phone the other way are fine in Quicktime (and VLC)?

Thanks!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC could be fixed.

It is slow, because it needs additional filtering to rotate.

[thexframe]

VLC could be fixed.

It is slow, because it needs additional filtering to rotate.

Thank you! You've helped me out more in the last 10 minutes then the whole internet (and Apple Support) in the last week.

So basically you're saying my computer can't handle the HD video from the iPhone 4 plus the processing of flipping the video? Because for example if I use QuickLook on my Mac on the same video (not HD anymore?) the video plays fine. If I view it in iMovie '09, the video looks fine (I assume it undergoes some encoding before entering iMovie). And that would also explain why if I send a friend the same bugged video for me, he says it looks fine in Quicktime.

I was under the impression I need to uninstall all of Quicktime, or even clean install my whole Mac, to get Quicktime to behave correctly. I have a 2.16 GHz Mac, 3 years old - so it's not like it's a dinosaur.

Thanks again!!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

So basically you're saying my computer can't handle the HD video from the iPhone 4 plus the processing of flipping the video?

That is what I would guess yes. But I am no expert and it would make sense.

[thexframe]

So basically you're saying my computer can't handle the HD video from the iPhone 4 plus the processing of flipping the video?

That is what I would guess yes. But I am no expert and it would make sense.

Does it support your theory even more seeing as how when I took the video that skips and shrink the video player size down to almost an iPhone's screen it played fine?

And shrinking it half-way caused it to skip about half as bad.

Does this mean I am sh*t out of luck or is there anything I can do? Should I do a clean install?

[thexframe]

Hey j-b,

Just 1 last (slightly off-topic) post on my Quicktime problem I promise ..

I just sent a video that I can't play without the video stuttering and skipping at full HD resolution to my brother on his Macbook which has worse performance specs than mine (lower model) and he played the video just fine.

So it's definitely NOT my phone .. it's definitely a problem with something on my computer that is affecting the video playback for this issue specifically (weird).

Do you recommend a clean install or do you have any other guesses? Thanks!!!

[unfrostedpoptart]

iPhone 4 records with a rotation flag VLC doesn't handle.
Patches are welcome.

Thanks for the info. I thought I was going crazy. To add insult to injury, when I upload the videos to youtube, they are right-side up.

Is anyone working on fixing this?

[adjuvantjfoster]

Movies normally DO have exif tags that Apple and Adobe look at correctly, while VLC does not. See that for yourself with iPhone 4S video files you make with four possible orientations of the iPhone 4S home button.

This situations is explained on the web page:

impulseadventure.com/photo/exif-orientation.html

I have put 4 file, each taken with a different position of the home button of the iPhone 4S into DropBox.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7584570/IMG_0061.MOV.zip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7584570/IMG_0062.MOV.zip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7584570/IMG_0063.MOV.zip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7584570/IMG_0064.MOV.zip


In DropBox is one zipped archive IMG_0064.mov, with a posit note showing the iPhone4 orientation, which shows right side up with Apple QuickTime Player but shows upside down with VLC because VLC does not look at these exif flags. The file looks right side up in the thumbnail.

0061 and 0062 are rotated 90 degrees, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise by VLC

0063 is shown by VLC correctly

Most high end video cameras certainly have exif tags, So does the iPhone 4S