Rotating videos with FFmpeg

Have you tried transpose yet? Like (from the other answer)

 ffmpeg -i input -vf transpose=2 output

If you are using an old version, you have to update ffmpeg if you want to use the transpose feature, as it was added in October 2011.

The FFmpeg download page offers static builds that you can directly execute without having to compile them.

Rotate 90 clockwise:

ffmpeg -i in.mov -vf "transpose=1" out.mov

For the transpose parameter you can pass:

0 = 90CounterCLockwise and Vertical Flip (default)
1 = 90Clockwise
2 = 90CounterClockwise
3 = 90Clockwise and Vertical Flip

Use -vf "transpose=2,transpose=2" for 180 degrees.

Make sure you use a recent ffmpeg version from here (a static build will work fine).

Note that this will re-encode the audio and video parts. You can usually copy the audio without touching it, by using -c:a copy. To change the video quality, set the bitrate (for example with -b:v 1M) or have a look at the H.264 encoding guide if you want VBR options.

A solution is also to use this convenience script.

If you don't want to re-encode your video AND your player can handle rotation metadata you can just change the rotation in the metadata using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.m4v -map_metadata 0 -metadata:s:v rotate="90" -codec copy output.m4v