--- title: "Rotate or Flip a Video in DaVinci Resolve | rotate.video" description: "Rotate a clip 90° or 180° in DaVinci Resolve’s Inspector, flip it, fix the frame size for vertical video, and export. Plus a faster free browser option." url: https://rotate.video/rotate-video-davinci-resolve --- Free · runs in your browser # How to rotate a video in DaVinci Resolve Turn a clip with Rotation Angle in the Inspector, flip it, give a portrait shot a vertical timeline so nothing is shrunk, then render. Everything here works in the free version. **Quick answer:** on the **Edit** page, select the clip in the timeline, open the **Inspector** at the top right, stay on the **Video** tab and type 90, -90 or 180 into **Rotation Angle** under **Transform**. The flip buttons are in the same group. A landscape clip turned a quarter then needs a vertical timeline, or it shows as a small upright picture between black bars. All of this is in the free version of Resolve; you don’t need Studio. If a clip just has to be upright before you start cutting, it’s quicker to fix the file first in the tool above: a quarter turn there is lossless, and the clip then imports the right way up. ## Rotate a clip in DaVinci Resolve 1. ### Put the clip on a timeline Drag the video into the Media Pool, then onto a timeline on the **Edit** page. 2. ### Open the Inspector Select the clip in the timeline and click **Inspector** at the top right of the window. Stay on the **Video** tab. 3. ### Set Rotation Angle Under **Transform**, type 90 or -90 into **Rotation Angle** for a quarter turn, or 180 for an upside-down clip. If it turns the wrong way, use the opposite sign. 4. ### Fix the frame If the turned clip sits between black bars, switch the timeline to a vertical resolution, or raise **Zoom** to fill the frame (both are explained below). 5. ### Render the result Open the **Deliver** page, pick a preset such as H.264, click **Add to Render Queue**, then **Render All**. ## Rotate one clip, or the source everywhere Rotation Angle in the Inspector changes one clip in one timeline. If the same sideways file is used again and again, set the turn once on the source instead: right-click it in the Media Pool, choose **Clip Attributes**, and on the **Video** tab set **Image Orientation**. Every use of that clip, in every timeline, then comes in upright, so you don’t rotate each cut separately. The Cut page has the same Inspector, so the steps work there too if that’s where you edit. ## Flip a clip horizontally or vertically Next to the position and rotation controls in the Inspector’s Transform group are two **Flip** buttons: one reflects the clip left to right, the other top to bottom. Click again to undo. A horizontal flip fixes a webcam or selfie recording with backwards writing ([why recordings come out mirrored](https://rotate.video/mirrored-video)). A clip that is simply [upside down](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-180-degrees) wants a Rotation Angle of 180 instead, because a vertical flip would leave it reversed. ## Black bars after a 90° turn? Change the timeline resolution Resolve turns the picture inside the timeline’s frame, so a 1920×1080 clip turned 90° becomes a tall picture in a wide frame, shrunk to fit with black on both sides. There are two ways out: 1. **Make the timeline vertical.** Open **File → Project Settings**, set the timeline resolution in **Master Settings** to 1080 × 1920 (tick **Use vertical resolution** if your version has it), then click **Save**. For a single timeline, untick **Use Project Settings** when you create it with **File → New Timeline** and set the size on its **Format** tab. 2. **Zoom to fill.** Keep the landscape timeline and raise **Zoom** in the Inspector until the bars are gone. That crops a lot: only a band across the middle of the picture survives. Clips whose shape doesn’t match the timeline are framed by **Image Scaling** in Project Settings: **Scale entire image to fit** leaves bars, while **Scale full frame with crop** fills the frame and trims the edges. Footage that was filmed upright and only looks sideways because of a missing flag is a different case. Once it’s upright it’s already portrait, so give it a vertical timeline and leave Rotation Angle at 0\. [Converting horizontal video to vertical](https://rotate.video/horizontal-to-vertical-video) covers the crop-or-rotate choice for landscape shots. ## Straighten a tilt or animate the turn Rotation Angle takes any value, so 2 or -1.5 levels a crooked horizon; nudge Zoom up a little to hide the corners that open up. To spin a clip over time, click the keyframe diamond beside Rotation Angle at the start, move the playhead, change the angle, and Resolve animates between the two. [Straightening a tilted video](https://rotate.video/straighten-tilted-video) shows how much zoom each angle costs. ## Can Resolve rotate without re-encoding? Not in any practical way: rendering from the Deliver page encodes the picture again, even when the only change is a turn. That’s fine as part of an edit, but it’s slow and slightly lossy for a clip that only needs to be the right way up. For that job, change the rotation flag instead. The tool at the top of this page does it with **Turn right** or **Turn left**: the video stream is copied untouched, so it’s lossless and finishes in seconds, and nothing is uploaded. On the command line, [FFmpeg’s \-display\_rotation](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-ffmpeg) does the same. ## DaVinci Resolve rotation FAQ ### Why are there black bars after rotating in DaVinci Resolve? The timeline is still landscape, so the turned clip is shrunk to fit it. Switch the timeline to a vertical resolution such as 1080 × 1920, or raise Zoom in the Inspector to fill the frame. ### Can DaVinci Resolve rotate a video without re-encoding? Not in practice; the Deliver page renders a new encode. To turn a clip without re-encoding, change its rotation flag with the browser tool above or with [FFmpeg](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-ffmpeg). ### How do I make a vertical timeline in Resolve? Set the timeline resolution to 1080 × 1920 in File → Project Settings → Master Settings, or untick Use Project Settings when you create a timeline with File → New Timeline and set the size on its Format tab. ### Where is the flip button in DaVinci Resolve? In the Inspector, on the Video tab, in the Transform group: the two Flip buttons mirror the clip horizontally or vertically. ### Do I need DaVinci Resolve Studio to rotate video? No. Rotation, flips, keyframes and vertical timelines are all in the free version. ### Why is my phone video sideways in Resolve but upright elsewhere? The clip relies on a rotation flag that Resolve didn’t apply. Set Image Orientation in Clip Attributes, or fix the file before importing with the tool above, using Maximum compatibility so the turn is part of the picture. ## More rotation and flip guides * [ Rotate a video online Turn any video 90°, 180° or 270° in your browser. Quarter turns are lossless. ](https://rotate.video/) * [ How to rotate a video in Premiere Pro Rotation, flips and vertical sequences in Premiere. ](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-premiere-pro) * [ Turn a horizontal video into vertical 9:16 Rotate or crop a landscape clip into a tall frame for social apps. ](https://rotate.video/horizontal-to-vertical-video) * [ Rotate a video with FFmpeg transpose, hflip and -display\_rotation, tested on FFmpeg 7.1. ](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-ffmpeg) * [ Straighten a tilted video or crooked horizon Small angles, Fill or Crop for the corners, and the zoom trade-off. ](https://rotate.video/straighten-tilted-video) * [ Rotate a video without losing quality Which turns are lossless, which settings break that, and how to check. ](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-without-losing-quality) * [ Rotate or flip a video in CapCut Rotate and Mirror on mobile and desktop, plus the canvas ratio. ](https://rotate.video/rotate-video-capcut)