How to Fix Upside Down Video Files

Reader Sean writes: I have a P-850 Kodak digital camera. It creates .mov file videos. When I convert them to any other format such as .avi or .wmv, they're upside down. But Real Player plays them right side up. Why is this? What can I do?

The old upside down video problem is legendary and, by the looks of it, one that isn't going away any time soon.

The problem is due to a variety of potential reasons: Your video player software, the file itself, or the codecs on your machine (software that translates video data into images). You could be experiencing any one of these problems, as evidenced by the fact that you can play the files fine with Real Player but that they're upside down in, I assume, Windows Media Player.

I'd like to rule out that this is a problem with the file, so try emailing me one of the videos (just use the contact form at left for the address) and I'll see if it's upside down on my machine. But we can troubleshoot beyond that, too.

The simplest solution here is not to use Windows Media Player for your file viewing. If you like Real Player, you can stick with that. You might also try a popular third-party viewer that can handle a multitude of file formats. Ffdshow is popular, and even if it doesn't solve the problem, it has a feature that lets you rotate video 180 degrees to solve this very problem.

You can also try to update your codecs, a major culprit in upside down video issues: I use the ACE Mega Codec Pack, and I've never experienced an upside down video. As a bonus it includes codecs to play just about every kind of video format you're likely to encounter on the net. If you have any other codecs already installed (and showing up in the Windows Add/Remove Programs control panel), uninstall them first.

Finally, you might also have a problem with the software you're using to convert the .mov files to other formats. You can try a different program like WinAVI Video Converter, which can translate among innumerable video formats. All of the software I've mentioned in this post is freeware except for the WinAVI Converter, which is $29.95 after the free trial version expires.

Give these tools a shot and let me know how it goes!