Horizontally flipped video from phones ... WHY ?

[d4005]

I'm trying to work out why phones output video horizontally flipped. I can't think of a single reason why anyone would want to live-stream or record video in a flipped format. If there is any text in the frame it's back to front. Some people and things don't look 'normal' when they're flipped. It makes no sense to me why anyone would ever want that.

I can understand why you'd want to flip the video view on the phone's screen itself, because when you're looking at yourself and how you fit in the frame and how the things in the background appear on the screen. The reason it makes sense on the phone's own screen is because if the video was not flipped, and you feel like you're too far to the left in the frame then your natural reaction to adjust the phone would end up making you even further to the left instead of adjusting it correctly.

So I totally get why the phone screen view during streaming/recording should be flipped, but that doesn't explain why it would record/stream the video like that. The reverse view is only useful for one person, the one watching themself on the phone.

[hello_hello]

My Samsung phone doesn't. The video definitely isn't flipped using the rear camera (nor is the display) and I just checked the front camera (I never use it) and the recorded video wasn't flipped. It's definitely flipped in the display for the front camera, but it's not recorded that way.

[d4005]

My Samsung phone doesn't. The video definitely isn't flipped using the rear camera (nor is the display) and I just checked the front camera (I never use it) and the recorded video wasn't flipped. It's definitely flipped in the display for the front camera, but it's not recorded that way.

I wonder if it's only an iphone thing. Perhaps apple aren't intelligent enough to realize that they're able to flip the video for the screen but not the video being streamed/recorded. I'm also a Samsung user and I don't think I've ever used the front camera. I find it a shame you can't choose to not have one (and not need a notch or hole punch)

[hello_hello]

The only think I can think of, and it's just a guess, is the phone saves some metadata to tell the player to flip the video, and the player is ignoring it (the same way info is stored according to whether you're holding the phone vertically or horizontally). Does the recorded video display flipped on the phone itself? I only checked it on the phone. I didn't transfer it to the computer to see if it's flipped when it's played. And as you said, Apple may do things differently to Android phones.

Edit: I think I'll be seeing my ex tomorrow. She owns an iphone. If no other ithing users post in the mean time, I'll try to remember to ask her what the front camera video does and/or get her to test it for me.

[aedipuss]

no flipped video here on my samsung note front or rear cameras.

[d4005]

I'm not talking about my own experience. As I said, I've never used the front (selfie) camera, so I've not seen this.

I'm just going by the infinite number of videos you see on instagram/facebook/youtube that were obviously filmed with the selfie cam (as the filmer is in the shot holding the phone at arms length) and a huge amount of them are horizontally flipped. You only tend to notice when there's a brand name on something they're wearing, or there's signs in the background. If the phone makers did their job properly (and only flipped it for the user on their own screen at record time) then we'd never ever see this on social media, because the phone would be streaming/recording video properly.

[hello_hello]

By the way, I can't speak for all players, but if you're not re-encoding the video and therefore can't flip it during that process, Alt+6 (numeric keypad) flips the video horizontally in MPC-HC.


Edit: If it's not your own video and just a general question that probably doesn't apply. Maybe it is a metadata thing and it's ignored when the video is re-encoded by YouTube etc. I don't know if other social media sites always re-encode the video. I'm guessing... but you're right... it makes no sense if the expected result is for the recorded video to be flipped.

[d4005]

Here's an example: a youtube clip

[netmask56]

I have an iPhone Pro 11 Max and no flipped video here

[johnmeyer]

Possible help and/or explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs8JRNurk2g

[d4005]

Possible help and/or explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs8JRNurk2g

So it does just seem to be an iphone issue. The comments section of that video tells the story of the frustrated users.

It really just brings me back to the whole point of this thread though ... WHY ???? What was their (Apple's) thinking when they decided to 'output' video or photos flipped when it's only the phone user themselves that would ever want to see it in mirror/flip mode as they're using it. Nobody else would ever want it like that ... the wrong way round. It's as if the Apple engineers hobby-programmers didn't have two brain cells to rub together.