Vegas Pro v.21 Build315 rotating video and aspect ratio

MURRAY-LESHNER wrote on 11/5/2025, 11:33 PM

Hello:

In the past I inquired about having problems with phone video rotating 90 degrees. I now realize I am having an apparent aspect ratio change.

I use Vegas Pro to straighten videos and occasionally adding vignette.

I have not been able to use Vegas Pro to 'call' audio editing functions via Sound Forge Audio Studio 17 with the ease I can open a an MP4 video in SF17 and do audio edits and save as MP4 again.

So I do the audio editing in SF17. About 80% of the time, the re-rendered videos are rotated 90 degrees after re-rendering. I was told it is probably due to the phone encoding orientation incorrectly. It has been happening with two different phone.

So I use Scene Rotation in Vegas Pro to correct the 'sideways' videos. What I realized is that most of my videos do not fit the screen after a -90 degree Scene Rotation is applied. When the video orientation is corrected, it is "too tall", and the person's head is cut off. I am hoping I am missing a setting while setting up the Scene Rotation so I can apply Scene Rotation without corruption the proportions. It's unfortunate I experience video rotation during post-audio-enhancement edit, and another deformation during Scene Rotation.

Have I described enough to possibly identify what I am missing during the Scene Rotation setup? All I change is rotation from 0 to -90. But the axis of rotation that is displayed looks like the end result. That supports the probability the Scene Rotation is doing exactly what I am telling it to. There probably is problem that I am still having severe learning curve issues recognizing the types of changes I need to make. The aspect ratio may be screwed up by the unexpected video rotation by SF17. I am trying to keep this question as a Vegas Pro one because the rotation correction is only possible with VP Scene Rotation.

10/12 of my videos are rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise after rendering post-audio-processing

Thank you

Murray

Comments

anthony-chiappette wrote on 11/5/2025, 11:48 PM

If you rotate the video using Picture in Picture, you can adjust the size of the rotated video to fill the preview screen from top to bottom in the PIP dialog. You can use the corner handles to resize, or use the resize setting in the PIP dialog box.

I'm not sure if that's quite what you're looking for, but I do this all the time.

Gid wrote on 11/5/2025, 11:53 PM

@MURRAY-LESHNER Hi, right click - Properties on the event on the timeline - Rotation to correct your videos.

When you start recording with your phone make sure you're holding it in the correct orientation, if you start recording in portrait 9:16 & then change the orientation to landscape 16:9, it will carry on recording in portrait 9:16 mode.

It's easy to not have the phone turned in the correct orientation by starting filming with the phone laid flat (flat-ish, the screen pointing up to the sky) & the phone has chosen portrait instead of landscape. You need to hold the phone vertical in either portrait or landscape.

MURRAY-LESHNER wrote on 11/6/2025, 9:57 PM

Thank you a-c & gid. These suggestions look like corrective and preventative solutions.

The phone orientation is a dilemma. I almost never record with 'vertical' or portrait orientation. It's an inefficient waste of format and aspect ratio for what I record. I don't need the ceiling and floor while having insufficient room horizontally.

I am able to record, and play back on a computer and after uploading to various platforms and a rotation problem only develops when manipulating MP4 files.

I will try the rotation correction techniques I had not discovered myself, and experiment with video recording orientation. To my awareness, I only record in landscape, but I could be wrong (but I doubt it). Landscape is the most efficient use of space for me and what I capture.

Thank you very much.

Dexcon wrote on 11/6/2025, 10:19 PM

I discovered the other day that for some reason my S23 Ultra recorded in the vertical 9:16 format even though the phone was being held horizontally at the time of shooting. What I did was put that event on its own track in Vegas Pro and used track motion to rotate the image 90 degrees and zoom the image in to fill the project's 16:9 frame. I doubt that there'd be a resolution problem of any significance because the phone was set up to record in 8K.

Gid wrote on 11/6/2025, 10:23 PM

Thank you a-c & gid. These suggestions look like corrective and preventative solutions.

Yes

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The phone orientation is a dilemma. I almost never record with 'vertical' or portrait orientation. It's an inefficient waste of format and aspect ratio for what I record. I don't need the ceiling and floor while having insufficient room horizontally.

I normally record in Landscape but I do make the mistake occasionally of recording in portrait without being aware of it, that's why I'm confident in my answer.

If you start recording with the phone held like this -

The phone isn't sure which way is up so sometimes it will choose portrait rather than landscape.

I wonder if it's because the record button is on the right so the phone tilts when record is pressed but from my experiments on this subject it's because I hold the phone in portrait when I open it & choose the camera, then when I go to record in landscape the camera's auto orientation doesn't correct itself quick enough.

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I am able to record, and play back on a computer and after uploading to various platforms and a rotation problem only develops when manipulating MP4 files.

Yes, some software will auto play your files correctly but in Vegas you have to do the correction manually.

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I will try the rotation correction techniques I had not discovered myself, and experiment with video recording orientation. To my awareness, I only record in landscape, but I could be wrong (but I doubt it). Landscape is the most efficient use of space for me and what I capture.

Thank you very much.

👍

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On a personal note, I have 430+ videos on Youtube, most are 20mins-ish long & each is made from 20-30 phone clips, that = 8.000+ clips edited. Like I say I make this mistake of recording in the wrong mode sometimes 🤦‍♂️👍😂

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Yep try the rotation correction technique, if you need further help make a comment 👍

Put an @ symbol at the start of the comment & the names of people who have commented in this post will pop-up, this will show as blue & whoever you select will get notified of your comment, it's also useful if you want to reply to a certain person when multiple people are commenting 👍