Video Rotation - Please Help Me

[robcheng]

Hello,

I am new to all of this. I purchased a brand new Sharp Digital Camcorder, which I love. Everything is working great, and I have made several VCD's and SVCD's. I am using VideoWave and TMPGenc and they are great products.

But I made a rookie mistake. The other day when capturing some video with my camera, I turned the camera to portrait like I would with a photo camera. The problem is that I do not know of any software so I can rotate the software back to landscape to be displayed on a television. Is there a utility or a more complete package than VideoWave that will do this?

Thanks,
Rob

[EricB]

Virtual Dub filters will let you rotate by 90 degrees. See "Tools" section.

[robcheng]

Eric,

Thanks for your help. I found the feature in Virtual Dub that allows 90 degree rotation. And the feature works, but it seems that it just peels another layer from the onion.

I am capturing using 1394 Firewire, which Virtual Dub does not support. So then I capture the AVI using VideoWave and then import into Virtual Dub. As soon as I do that, Virtual Dub states that since it is stored in DV it cannot process the audio. Bummer! Then I use the filter and restore the video in another AVI file. But then when I bring it back into Video Wave, the file is scrunched. Not sure how to describe it other than although it has been rotated, it seems that it has not changed the dimensions correctly. What I mean is that the file was once 720X480 and now it should be 480X720. Actually, what I really want is 720X480 but also the correct aspect ratio is maintained.

So I guess my long winded question is whether I can rotate the video using FireWire while still getting the audio, and maintaining aspect ratio?

Thank you so much for helping me!
Rob

[EricB]

OK... I use Adobe Premiere for all DV stuff. You can download a trial at their website. Using their motion control, you can easily set a sequence at any angle you want. Try that and if you have trouble, just email me and I'll give you more detailed instructions.

I'm fairly sure that virtual dub will do this, but I don't use it enough to debug the problem right now. Maybe a more experienced user can help.

[EricB]

I tried Virtual Dub again later and it did work properly. Make sure you choose "rotate2" filter and not "rotate". Set your rotation to 90 or 270 degrees whichever you need. DON'T check the "Expand to fit frame" box and this should keep your ratio to 720x480. Audio should be "Direct Stream Copy" and "AVI audio".

I loaded the result into Premiere and it did not need any rendering.

[robcheng]

Eric,

Thanks for your help. I got everything working. Is Adobe Premier the best package available? As I get more into it, I am starting to realize the limitations of various packages.

Rob

[EricB]

Glad you got everything working. Premiere has a much steeper learning curve than Video Wave, but once you get a feel for it, the features are outstanding. It is not bug free, and is lousy for producing mpeg (without additional plugin$$$).

I love it. Download the trial and give it a shot. I found buying a tutorial book to be real helpful.