Rotate a video file 90 degrees using Ubuntu

From the command-line, with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.3gp -filter:v transpose=1 \
-c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 22 \
-c:a copy \
-metadata:s:v rotate="" \
output.3gp

• transpose=1 will rotate the video 90 degrees clockwise; to rotate anti-clockwise, use transpose=2. See the transpose documentation for a bit more information.

• -metadata:s:v rotate="" will strip any existing video stream rotation metadata; otherwise ffmpeg will copy it which may cause your player to apply additional unwanted rotation.

• For information on the video encoding settings here, see this H.264 encoding guide and the AAC encoding guide if you want to re-encode the audio instead of stream copying.

by using VLC, you may rotate the video by going to Tools >> Preferences...

And select "All" for show settings. Then go to: Video >> Filters >> Rotate

After setting the degree you want, you can rotate by going to Tools > Effects and Filters > Video Effects > Geometry .. .

the one I've tested is mp4 but I believe that VLC can support 3gp too. hope this helps. :)

There have been some changes to libav since the time that this question was originally answered. In an attempt to keep this current and useful I'll provide the followng:

You can accomplish this with recent versions of ffmpeg and avconv by using the transpose video filter.

avconv -i inputfile -vf transpose=clock outputfile

for clockwise rotation.

in ffmpeg the syntax is the same.

ffmpeg -i inputfile -vf transpose=clock outputfile

where inputfile is your supported input video file and outputfile is your desired output file.

For counter clockwise rotation replace clock with cclock

Here's an excerpt from the documentation:

‘cclock_flip’

    Rotate by 90 degrees counterclockwise and vertically flip. (default)
‘clock’

    Rotate by 90 degrees clockwise.
‘cclock’

    Rotate by 90 degrees counterclockwise.
‘clock_flip’

    Rotate by 90 degrees clockwise and vertically flip. 

Sources:

https://libav.org/avconv.html#transpose

https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#transpose-1

Testing on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04