Working with 9:16 /vertical video/ from smartphone

I have a video footage from smartphone, shot in vertical position.

If I open the video with VLC player it is rotated correctly (i.e. still vertical) and codec information is:

Type: Video
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
Resolution: 1920x1088
Display resolution: 1920x1080
Frame rate: 29.920776
Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YVU


The problem I face is I cannot grade that video without Davinci 14 to rotate the video and/or scale/crop it.

The most simple way to test is:
Import the 9:16 video from the media pool. Drag it on the timeline - accept the recommendation to convert current project settings to fit current video. And now, just export the video (Quicktime, MPEG4 Video).

The result is video rotated CCW on 90 degrees in any player I test - otherwise the codecs information on the exported file looks identical to the information above (except for the "Codec: MPEG-4 Video (mp4v)").

I've tried a lot of things but I always get the the video messed up, no matter what I've tried like transform tool, rotation, scale, zoom.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong - is there any workaround to that issue?

H.264 is bad for post. Convert it to DNxHD or ProRes and try that.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong

Two things.

1. Shooting video with a phone.

2. Holding the phone vertically.

Of course, fixing 1 obviates the need to fix 2.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong

Two things.

1. Shooting video with a phone.

2. Holding the phone vertically.

Of course, fixing 1 obviates the need to fix 2.

Not funny. That is only way to produce proper Facebook "My day" videos. They should be vertical and in aspect 9:16 otherwise they look crap on the phone. Davinci fails to produce a simple re-encoded video even from DNxHD to DNxHD format.

About 1 - not interested in the video quality, when the software is doing terrible things with the data.
The same thing applies shooting with drones - you should avoid all aerial footage because cameras on the drones don't carry 8K RED cameras on board, but yet people love using drones.

DNxHD can't hold 9:16 HD video as it supports only strict resolutions. 1080x1920 is not one of them. It has nothing to do with Resolve.
Use DNxHR or ProRes or Cineform for such a files.

I had 0 problems creating 1080x1920 custom Resolve project and exporting such a file as DNxHR.

Julian, can you post a link to your file?

Thanks! That really helped.

Basically my workflow now should follow process something like this:

Transcode .mp4 movie shot by my phone (Nexus 6P) by using Shotcut, to:
Format: mov
Codec: prores

Inside Davinci Resolve I had to first change the Timeline resolution to:
Custom, 1080 x 1920

Next, I had to import the transcoded .mov video to the timeline.

On Delivery page, I also need to change some attributes:

Format: QuickTime
Codec: DNxHR 444 10-bit
Resolution: 1080 x 1920

and render the timeline.

BUT then I had to transcode the result file back to .mp4 with Shotcut, so I can play it everywhere:

Format: mp4
Codec: libx264
Audio: aac

Alternatively, inside Resolve I can export to QuickTime, MPEG4 Video with Custom resolution to 1080 x 1920.

In all cases, even If I set 1080 x 1920 in the Project settings for Timeline resolution, the default, custom resolution on Delivery page is 1920 x 1080, not the one I've set for the Timeline, i.e. 1080 x 1920.

Failing to set those numbers correctly everywhere causes "letterbox" issue :/

Julian, can you post a link to your file?

I had couple of problems.

First, the .mp4 video:

Type: Video
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
Resolution: 1920x1088
Display resolution: 1920x1080
Frame rate: 29.920776
Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YVU

- if you import that file inside Davinci Resove, you'll see it everywhere (media storage, timeline, delivery) CCW 90 degrees rotated.

So, I have to use DNxHR or DNxHD or Prores as input format/codec.

- the other problem, that I didn't realize, on delivery page, I have to pick codec that offers Custom resolution, like QuickTime, MPEG4 Video or DNxHR as suggested above and flip the 1920x1080 to 1080x1920. Obviously Davinci Resolve don't use the timeline resolution as default, which is sad and confusing.

I know this is a very old thread but I just want to say thank you to those that said to render using DNxHR, I had no issues with exporting in 1080x1920 on my windows 10 pc but I had to send it out for repairs and could not for the life of me find an answer as to how to get my videos exported on my windows 7 pc ... this has fixed it, so thank you agian!