Some Videos Now Play Upside Down

Plex Media Server
, ,
1

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 4.116.1
Hello everybody -

At some point recently (within the last 6 months), home videos shot on my iPhone that had always played in the correct orientation now play upside-down. This affects about 20% of the ~1100 videos, seemingly at random. For example, two videos shot on the same day and at the same settings, one will play upside down and the other will not, even though they both played correctly before. This issue persists even with the server and player updated to the latest versions. Playback can be on my computer or from a phone Chromecast to a TV, it doesn’t seem to matter. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Jason

2

Going back a few years I’ve found some hints…
Do you experience this with videos playing in original quality or also if they’re being transcoded?
There’s been some threads over the years where direct playing such mobile phone videos could get their orientation mixed up if the player doesn’t interpret the technical metadata in the recorded video (specifically the info about the orientation).

If transcoded, the server should send a file with the correct orientation and without additional orientation information.

3

Thanks so much! I can tell you that the videos play in the correct orientation when played on media players outside of Plex. Also, I believe the upside-down videos are transcoded (I have them playing at 1080p, 10 Mb/s). I’m somewhat of a Plex novice - can you suggest what I specifically could do to test your hypothesis about transcoding?

5

The Plex server dashboard should show if the files are playing directly or if they’re being transcoded.
Exemplary screenshot from the "now playing" section
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/

Another test would be putting the original file on an USB drive, connecting that to your tv and see how it plays using the TV’s native video player.

6

Hi there - thanks so much for the tip! I played one of the “upside down” videos directly on Chrome, and it played in the proper orientation. Here’s what the dash said:
Played on Chrome

Then I cast it to my TV using Chromecast, and it was upside down. Here’s what the dash said:
Playing on Chromecast

In case it’s a clue, you can see in both of the images above that the preview thumbnail is upside-down (it’s a video of some friends playing a song with guitars). Any tips appreciated!

7

One more data point. The video plays upside down when played on Plex on my iPhone. Here’s the dash says:

Played on iPhone

So, in summary:
Plex Web: Correct Orientation
Plex Cast: Upside Down
Plex iOS: Upside Down

8

Hello - has anyone out there experienced this with their home (phone) videos? Any tips? Or does anyone know of an easy way to force the proper orientation or flip the orientation within plex?

9

Same here, started a while back and it goes beyond i-phones, samsung phone videos also doing same thing.

10

Looks like all phone videos are doing this, as samsung phone videos are doing it also. They had always played fine before local and remote.

11

Thanks kwpowell! I use Plex mostly to organize and cast my collection of music and concert videos taken on my phone. So for me, this is a big issue, and I’m sure there’s others out there too. @OttoKerner (I just picked you somewhat at random, since you’re a Ninja! Please excuse me if that’s not appropriate) - is there any hope of Plex addressing this issue? It seems to have been around for a while.

12

Also happening for me. Videos taken on a Pixel 6a.

13

I’m having the same issue. Upside down videos, most recent from iPhone 15.
Viewing in browser and on Roku clients.

Server is running on a raspberryPi

14

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.