Apple video rotation... Exif?

[SplendidSuns]

Hi,

I'm trying to use getID3 to get the orientation of Apple videos. It seems that if an iPhone user takes a video with the volume buttons up then the video records upside down. Apple then add a tag of some sort which all Apple software reads to rotate the video to make sure it plays the right way up but when a user uploads a video to my site it is actually upside down. I want to find this orientation tag so I can rotate these videos as needed.

At the monent I'm doing this

$getID3 = new getID3;
$ThisFileInfo = $getID3->analyze($filepath);
getid3_lib::CopyTagsToComments($ThisFileInfo);
print_r($ThisFileInfo);

Which is giving me a lot of info but nothing it seems for the orientation. I read somewhere that the orientation is in the exif info but I can't seem to see this either?

If anyone could help point me in the right direction it would be hugely appreciated.

[James Heinrich]

If I recall correctly, I believe that data is parsed by getID3, but I'm travelling at the moment and don't have access to my test files. If you could supply a very small test file (no more than 1MB, less is better) I'll see if I can take a peek. If you could supply 4 such test videos in all 4 orientations (landscape, portrait, inverse-landscape, inverse-portrait) that would be very helpful for my test-file collection. Length and content doesn't matter, 0:01 long of a blank wall would be fine.

[Ender22]

Hi James, I'm also looking for a way to get video rotation/orientation. I did a var_dump of the file object after $getID3->analyze($myPath); but there appears to be nothing usable in that info. getID3 is unusable for me unless I can tell how the video is rotated so I must be missing something.

Help much appreciated.

Thanks,

[James Heinrich]

Again, please provide a small sample file and I can either tell you where the rotation data is returned, or try to find out why it isn't.

[Ender22]

Here is a sample video:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqyutxay5ywv7 ... e.mp4?dl=0

[Ender22]

As additional details, you'll notice in the above video the width is reported as 960 and height 544, so without the rotation info I can't know it's a vertical video and size my video player accordingly.

[James Heinrich]

There does seem to be an unparsed "rcif" frame that contains relevant-looking data:

{"wxcamera":{"model":"LG-H815", "apiLevel":"23", "screen":"1440x2560", "crop":"-1x-1", "preview":"1920x1080", "encoder":"960x544", "rotate":90, "deviceoutfps":273, "recordfps":245, "recordertype":2, "needRotateEachFrame":0, "isNeedRealtimeScale":1, "resolutionLimit":1080, "videoBitrate":1200000, "wait2playtime":827, "useback":1, "presetIndex":-1, "recorderOption":-1}}

I'll need some time to find out more about this frame type, I'll post back when I have more info.

[James Heinrich]

Based on a single sample file, and without any documentation, those fields are now parsed:
https://github.com/JamesHeinrich/getID3 ... 28478f2f9a
The arrays are parsed into $info[quicktime][camera][dscp] and $info[quicktime][camera][rcif]
The info that's currently interesting to you is in $info[quicktime][camera][rcif][wxcamera][rotate] but as a more universal solution I am also returning it in $info[video][rotate] which will be the universal location to look for if and when I find other ways that rotational data is stored in videos (of any format).

[Ender22]

That's awesome James, thank you, it's working well.
In case it helps you in any way, that video was recorded using wechat (weixin, the Chinese Whatapp)
Thanks for the speedy help!

[James Heinrich]

I have added a more general-purpose rotation detection in for all quicktime/mp4 videos that uses the matrix values in the moov>trak>tkhd atom. It detects 0/90/180/270 rotation in the two devices I tested with, if anyone has a sample file where the rotation is not correctly detected please let me know.
https://github.com/JamesHeinrich/getID3 ... e7a9f27ce0