Portrait Mode Video playing as Thumbnail on Phone after editing

[prakashwadhwani]

Hi Friends!

I shot a few small video clips on my Huawei P30 Pro Mobile Front Camera in Portrait Mode 1920x1080, 30 fps, mp4 H264. The phone was mounted on a small tripod during shooting. The clips play back perfect on the phone ... Full Screen!

I transferred all the clips to my laptop and edited them in Microsoft Movie Maker. After editing, I exported the saved clips in the same recommended format 1920x1080. It seems to play fine in VLC (on my laptop) with the top and bottom edges filling my laptop screen. However, when I copy it back to my phone, it now plays just like a thumbnail (screenshots attached). I can pinch to expand it slightly on my phone, but there's still a big gap on all 4 sides. I've also tried playing this on 3 different phones of mine, plus sending it over WhatsApp ... its the same ... it just plays as a thumbnail. This is very baffling and frustrating. On my phones I'm playing the videos in the default Gallery Player (not using VLC for Android).

I also tried editing the clips in Clipchamp instead of Movie Maker (which is extremely dated), but the end result is the same ... Thumbnail !!

I'd really like the edited clip to play FULL SCREEN in Portrait Mode on my Mobile (as shot, as edited, as intended).

Any help and pointers would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


[Attachment 74301 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 74302 - Click to enlarge]

[Alwyn]

format 1920x1080

I suspect you've hard-coded it to 16:9 because of the 1920x1080. The phone is respecting it's own file's orientation (1920x1080 but Portrait/9:16) but after you've edited them, the flag has been changed to 16:9.

That doesn't actually look like a thumbnail: it's just a 16:9 video that is being limited by the lateral size. The hard-coded black side bars are stopping it "expanding' any further to fill the screen vertically.

Try encoding them as 1080 x 1920 (or set the orientation/display aspect ratio) to 9:16.