Unfortunately, after this update, TVAI is still unusable for processing vertical/portrait videos that include rotation metadata or require manual rotation in the input settings. I’ve tested this across three sets of vertical videos from two Android phones (2014 and 2022 models).
Set 1: No Rotation Metadata (Manual Rotation Needed)
- Source: 640x480 resolution. These are portrait videos saved in landscape orientation because the phone was held upright but registered the recording as landscape.
- TVAI Input Settings: Manually set Rotation = 90° to correct the orientation.
- Model Used: 4x Starlight Mini
- Output: 2560x1920. The orientation is correct, but the video is stretched horizontally and the aspect ratio is wrong.
- Expected Output: 1920x2560, maintaining correct portrait dimensions.
- Alternate Test: Leave Rotation = 0 and rotate the video later in a video editor.
- Output: 2560x1920. The video is sideways, but the aspect ratio is correct.
- Summary: Rotating the video inside TVAI changes the image orientation, but the resolution doesn’t update to match. This results in distortion. (Take any normal landscape video, rotate it inside TVAI to 90 or something, and you’ll get the same result, all because the output resolution doesn’t update to match.)
Set 1A: Same Videos With Rotation Metadata
- Source: Same videos as Set 1, but processed using
ffmpeg -display_rotation 90to add rotation metadata. - Effect: When imported into TVAI, Rotation = 90° is automatically selected in the input settings.
- Model Used: 4x Starlight Mini
- Output: TVAI returns an error: “Please contact support.”
- Alternate Test: Change Rotation from 90 to 0 in the input settings.
- Output: 2560x1920, but now rotated 270° (upside down) and stretched, with the same incorrect aspect ratio as in Set 1.
- Summary: Adding rotation metadata causes TVAI to return an error. Manually overriding the rotation inside TVAI gives the same warping problem.
Set 2: Modern Phone With Rotation Metadata
- Source: 1920x1080 portrait videos recorded on a 2022 phone, with 270° rotation metadata.
- TVAI Input Settings: Automatically shows Rotation = 270°.
- Model Used: 2x Starlight Mini
- Output: TVAI returns an error: “Please contact support.”
- Alternate Test: Set Rotation from 270 to 0 in TVAI Input Settings.
- Output: 3840x2160. The video is upside down and stretched into a landscape resolution.
- Summary: Rotation metadata again causes an error. Setting it to 0 inside TVAI avoids the error but leads to incorrect orientation and aspect ratio.
Conclusion
There seem to be two main problems:
- Rotating a video inside TVAI does not update the output resolution. This causes warped, stretched video due to the wrong aspect ratio.
- Videos that contain rotation metadata cause TVAI to return an error, making them unprocessable unless the metadata is removed. Removing the metadata (or setting the rotation to 0 inside TVAI) only leads back to problem 1.
Edited to add: @dakota.wixom Tagging you here since it seems like this post got buried and went unnoticed. This is a major issue and I am really hoping for it to be fixed in the next update.
