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How to Flip Videos using Video Players on Windows

Once in a while you’ll come across a video whose image has been mirrored or flipped horizontally. Often one does not notice any difference in the video up until some text like titles or captions are come onto the screen. It’s here you realize the video has been mirrored.

The usual suspects here tend to be videos uploaded on video sharing sites like YouTube and Dailymotion. I assume this happens either purposefully by using a miror effect during editing a video or by mistake when recording.

Whichever the case, some videos are rendered slightly unwatchable in this state. To correct this, you may opt to permanently unmirror the video using a video editor like VirtualDub or video converters that support doing this.

However, this is too drastic a measure that can be rectified much easily by having a video player unmirror/unflip the video “on the fly” while its playing it. Let see a couple of Windows’ video players that support this feature and how it’s done.

Unflip Playing Video with VLC

To unflip a Video on VLC Media Player do the following:

1. Open the video with the VLC and pause it or leave it playing.

2. Press Ctrl+E to open the Adjustments and Effects options.

You can also access this option by clicking the Extended Settings button or by going to Tools > Effects and Filters on the toolbar.

extended settings
Extended Settings Button

3. Inside the Adjustments and Effects window, select the Video Effects options then Geometry settings.

4. In the Geometry settings check the Transform option then below it select Flip Horizontally from the drop down menu.

adjustments and effects
Adjustments and Effects options

Your video should now be unflipped. Remember to disable this option when you play a normal video that’s not flipped.

Unflip Playing Video with PotPlayer

1. Open the video with Potplayer.

2. Now just press Ctrl+Z to unflip or flip the video while its playing. You can also unflip the video by Right-clicking > Video > Video processing > Flip Horizontal

Unflip Playing Video with MPC-HC (Media Player Classic)

Before we can flip a video with MPC-HC, we first need to make sure the renderer it’s using supports rotation.

1. Go to the Settings (O) then select the Output settings. Now just make sure the renderer that’s selected supports the Rotation option.

video renderer
Video Renderer supports Rotation

2. If it doesn’t, select a different renderer from the drop down menu that supports rotation such as:

  • Enhanced Video Renderer (custom presenter)
  • Sync Renderer
  • Video Mixing Renderer 9 (renderless)

3. Now just open your video and with the Num Lock On press Alt+Num6 to unflip it. Press the same keys to toggle the setting back to normal.

Unflip Playing Video with GOM Player

1. Open the video with GOM Player.

2. Now just press Ctrl+J to unflip or flip the video while it’s playing. You can also unflip the video by Right-clicking > Video > Mirror – Output.

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5 Comments

  1. finally figured out how to open the video in vlc. the picture was not reversed in daily motion. but the captions were. the instructions above didn’t reverse the captions so i can’t read them.

    1. Kelvin Administrator

      Hi Dana,

      Captions are usually not reversed not unless they’re hard-coded (‘burnt in’) onto the video. It’s only in such cases that the unflipping will work. I’m guessing for this video the captions are external.

  2. The VLC option doesn’t play dailymotion videos for me. It will freeze after a couple of seconds, and then shutdown the VLC player by itself. I can’t get the video to play long enough to flip either.

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Kelvin Kathia

Kelvin Kathia is a writer that's passionate about sharing solutions to everyday tech problems. He's the founder and editor of Journey Bytes, a tech blog and web design agency. Feel free to leave him comments or questions regarding this post, or by leaving him a message on the contact page. If you found his content helpful, a donation is much appreciated.