Actually, most were from a variety of dedicated still digital cameras. I followed your advice and the images rotated nicely. Saved the project. Came back to it a few days later and they were all rotated back to where they were. The rotation modification does not seem to hold. It is only a problem with images that were originally rotated, e.g., the camera was held vertically rather than horizontally when the picture was taken.

I am also getting unwanted clip rotation from clips from a Panasonic camcorder (mts format). Some are 90 degrees and others 180 degrees. Video clips and photos from mobile phones are OK. This happens without warning and not all the clips suffer. Very random in nature. I noticed that in the object properties for the 90 degree rotation the format becomes 9:16 instead of 16:9. Change to 16:9 doesn't change the orientation, just makes it distort larger. When attempting to change it back to 9:16, the value is not present on the drop down menu. This is very annoying and is deterring me from upgrading. The version of my Magix Movie Edit Pro is 20.0.1.80 (UDP3). Has this bug been fixed in newer versions? Is it a Windows problem? (Running Windows 10 64 bit, fully updated with 16 Gb RAM, AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor 4.00 GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6670 Graphics Card.

I acknowledge I can re rotate the clips as described by John EB.
.

@Spike

Hi Spike and welcome to the user to user forums.

An aspect ratio is always width by height. That can be set manually when creating a new project along with the correct frame rate and audio sample rate. A file from a camera or phone should have a header telling the file which orientation the camera was in during recording but can on some cameras and phones be corrupted by turning the camera in the 'wrong' direction effectively turning the camera or phone upside down. Some cameras can't cope with that and won't add the data to the header file. So it is not a bug within the editor as far as I'm aware and the correct way of turning the image if needed (If you set the project to a landscape setting rather than a portrait one or it appears upside-down) which will then effectively shrink the image to fit the height of the landscape setting, is to use the rotation tool.

If you set up a project correctly then the final render will be of the correct proportions and size.

Ray.

Thank you CubeAce for your advice. The problem I am having is that when placing a clip on the timeline the orientation initially is correct. It can remain correct during the process of further adding clips to develop the project. I save the project and when rebooting the next day the orientation has changed by 90 or 180 degrees on random clips. If I close and reboot some of the clips have corrected themselves, not all of them.

Also when exporting the orientation remains incorrect as seen on the timeline. Very strange. Have you any further advice?
 

@CubeAce

Ray, this bug has apparently been around for a while. JohnEB has mentioned his workaround (described above) a few times. Whether it still exists in MEP2022/MS2022 I don't know.

@Spike

Hi

. . . . I am also getting unwanted clip rotation from clips from a Panasonic camcorder . . . .

Can you confirm you are not rotating the camera to take some shots in vertical format?

If not what is the model number of the camera?

Which version number and edition of Movie Studio/Movie Edit Pro are you using?

Download and install MediaInfo and analyse one of the clips, that is exhibiting the issue, and post the results, see this tutorial if you are not familiar with MediaInfo on how to setup MediaInfo and analyse a video clip.

John EB
Forum Moderator

@Spike

As well as giving the information requested by John, are you mixing portrait and landscape clips into one project?

If so is the project started as a landscape ratio video for export?

I know on occasion while shooting with my DSRL that I sometimes twist my hands one way and then sometimes the other way. but fortunately this does not confuse my camera body. This is more easily done without thinking when using a view screen rather than a view finder. Phones are far easier to get to shoot upside-down rather than the correct way up. Personally as I watch most content on a computer monitor or TV I have always shot landscape rather than portrait for video as I also prefer a larger screen and better audio quality. But then I'm older and have not really been brought up as much using smart phones and tablets or into Ticktock.

I'm just waiting for the day when I go to the cinema and see a vertical screen 🤣.

I have had cameras that if you set the camera to show portrait in the cameras screen as an image in landscape so as not to have to keep twisting the camera back and forth for viewing, that the header of the file is also changed and will not show correctly either in Windows or a video editor or can sometimes show correctly in one but not the other.

Ray.

Thanks for responding John EB and Ray. I appreciate your time to assist me with this problem.

I am not taking any vertical recordings with the camcorder.

The camcorder is a Panasonic HC-X920EB-K Full HD Camcorder.

The version of my Magix Movie Edit Pro is 20.0.1.80 (UDP3).

I am mixing clips (all are landscape from the camcorder and all are portrait from the mobile phone).

The first clip is landscape from the camcorder.

The information generated by MediaInfo is;

General
ID                                       : 1 (0x1)
Complete name                            : F:\1_Joseph\2022\Mar 2022\Disneyland Paris March 2022\Petes Camcorder\00182.MTS
CompleteName_Last                        : F:\1_Joseph\2022\Mar 2022\Disneyland Paris March 2022\Petes Camcorder\00218.MTS
Format                                   : BDAV
Format/Info                              : Blu-ray Video
File size                                : 959 MiB
Duration                                 : 9 s 94 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 884 Mb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 18.0 Mb/s
Recorded date                            : 2022-03-04 13:08:31+00:00
Writing application                      : Panasonic

Video
ID                                       : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=12
Codec ID                                 : 27
Duration                                 : 9 s 41 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 849 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 16.8 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan type, store method                  : Separated fields
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 16.374
Stream size                              : 915 MiB (95%)

Audio
ID                                       : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : 129
Duration                                 : 9 s 121 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -80 ms
Stream size                              : 428 KiB (0%)
Service kind                             : Complete Main

Text
ID                                       : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : 144
Duration                                 : 8 s 577 ms
Delay relative to video                  : -80 ms

I hope the above helps. Thanks once again.

I have noticed that if adding an affected clip in the same project, the orientation is incorrect again. If adding the same clip in a new project, the orientation is correct. How long it remains OK is unknown.

Further investigation I installed a trial version of Video Pro X 14 and used the project file as used by Magix Movie Edit Pro with the orientation problem. The orientation was correct in Video Pro X 14. Does this point to a bug in Movie Edit Pro?

@Spike

Hi Spike.

Be aware that Dolby have withdrawn support for the AC3 codec and is no longer supported in most new video editing packages. MS2022 and VPX 14 do not support AC3.

Other than that I'm more interested in the data from any problematic file and what the problem is associated with that file.

Ray.

Hi Ray

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

@Spike

Hi

To qualify @CubeAce comment . . . MS2022 and VPX 14 do not support AC3 . . . . they do import AC 3 Surround Sound, however it will be mixed down to stereo when exporting as h.264/AVCHD.

The only available export format that still supports Surround Sound is the Windows media Export as a WMV file.

IIRC the issue with the rotation was fixed in MEP/MMS 2022 and VPX 13.

John EB
 

Thanks John for the reply, much appreciated. I am now confident to upgrade knowing the bug has been fixed.

Interesting about the AC 3 issue and the support for surround sound except for WMV files.

Many thanks John, Ray and @AAProds for your assistance and time to help me in this issue of incorrect orientation. 😀😀

@Spike

Hi

. . . . Interesting about the AC 3 issue and the support for surround sound except for WMV files . . . .

The lack of support, which also affects some other video editing software manufacturers, is a result of the Dolby vs Adobe case on licensing 'violations' back in 2018.

WMV export does not use Dolby AC-3 encoder, it use the Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec - the only problem is that not all devices can play this format.

John EB

@Spike

Beware, the Section effect has a major bug in MS2022; it doesn't work.

@AAProds

Thanks for the info. I will take this under consideration before upgrading.

Update.

I installed a new Windows 10 OS on a clean hard disk and then installed Magix Movie Edit Pro 20.0.1.80. Used the saved project file that was giving me the problems and the orientation remained correct throughout the completion of the project and I successfully created 5 movies within this project. This was over a period of about 1 week.

Then immediately after a Windows automatic update I launched Magix Movie Edit Pro and the orientation problems re-appeared but remain correct in the Video Pro X14 trial.

Looks as though I will be forced to upgrade if I want to continue to use Magix. Now looking at alternatives.

@Spike

Hi.

I have had a similar problem in the past which was caused by the camera. My cameras have a setting that enables a portrait image to be shown in the landscape orientation of the view-screen for playback, avoiding the need to keep rotating the screen on the camera back and forth when reviewing images.

The drawback is in some editing programs that file header becomes the dominant instruction and will not show the file in it's correct orientation for playback. I don't know if this could be a cause for your problem of not.

For me, the solution was to turn that function off in camera.

Ray.

@CubeAce 

Hi Ray thanks for your reply.

My problem was with the clips from my camcorder which was always shot in landscape. Some clips had the problem, not all. Some were 90 degrees, others were 180 degrees. The clips that didn't have the problem were from mobile phones. Very odd and fustrating. Sometimes the affected clips would rectify itself.

@Spike

Hi Spike.

I know it is a hassle but try raising a ticket on this issue with Magix because there seems to be an issue between trial versions that have features missing but behave correctly and the full versions which when downloaded, do not. I think this is something that needs fixing by Magix.

Ray.

Thanks Ray. I might follow your advice before buying alternative editing software.

Pete.