Hero 7 Black recording upside down [ New ]

[phil314]

I've been trying to get my Hero 7 black to record upside down.

The result is always an upside down video.

I've tried turning 'auto lock' on.

I've set 'landscape lock' to down.

But I still get an upside down video.

I had an older gopro model and I could swear it had a mode for upside down.

And the result was a video that was right side up when viewed.

Any ideas if the Hero 7 black can do this?

[robert1326]

hi,

mine is working as it should.

and where do you get the upside down? in camera play? when play it on PC?

https://youtu.be/NN-TFJP9Jpo

keep in mind, when you start recording, the orientation camera set, feel, at that moment is kept during recording.

I use this upside down when dashboard in my car.

I let the landscape lock off, and screen orientation goes after the camera position.

when I mtb bike with my CamelbaK backpack, is mounted upside down, I always lock landscape lock down, just to be sure I have this orientation when the record starts. 

when I use the GoPro backpack, I use landscape lock up, for the same reason.

I use voice commands, on my backpacks the mounting is very loose...so I want to be orientation is the right one.

a simple test please:

- no recording

- landscape lock off

- rotate the camera

is the screen rotating as well?

just me,

robert

[robert1326]

...and @phil314

please be aware that some video players do not play the video in the right orientation.

some of our forumers reported Windows Media Player is playing a rotated video upside down!

how does the recorded video look in the monitor screen in the camera?

on PC, please try Quik or DivX players.

or download on your mobile phone.

are here alos upside down?

just me,

robert

[phil314]

Great video, thank. As always these things seem to be more complicated. I'll try to clarify.

As far as I can tell, my hero7 is behaving the same as yours.

My problem isn't with the camera or the orientation of the camera screen while I'm recording.

I'm talking about later when I download the video to the PC.

Yes, I'm aware that some player can detect orientation and play it right side up, but the video itself is still upside down.

Some video editor will do this too and some won't.

Quik for example will show the video both right side up and upside down at the same time.

This is where the problem start, it shows it to you right side up, but still saves it up side down.

But since it's auto correcting during preview, you have no way of knowing if you need to flip it.

This is where my second problem comes in. I don't want to spend hours trying to figure out if every clip needs to be flip, then flipping every single clip, then pasting everything together, only to save it and find there was one clip in the middle that was still upside down.

Bottom line, having to post process this way sucks. I'd imagine lots of gopro owners are spending lots of time doing nothing other than flipping videos.

Older gopros had an upside down mode. In this mode, they would record a video that was right side up. The camera itself inverted the video. That way you never had to question the orientation or ever do any kind of post processing and every video played properly. I was hoping the hero 7 had this mode, but I'm beginning to doubt it. It's a major oversight if it doesn't.

[robert1326]

hi @phil314, and all,

you are right @phil314, and yes, mystery solved!

in short when upside down

- h7 will save it upside down with Metadata Rotation: 180.

- h6 will save it normal orientation, without Rotation Metadata, as if it was filmed normally

could be an issue or a feature!

to me, it is a feature.

if the player/editing software is capable to read the metadata "Rotation: 180" and correct the orientation automatically, we are good to go.

if not, we are in the situation @phil314 described.....

I'm sure every editing software have something related to the Metadata Rotation...can you check?

I made a test:

- video normal and upside down with h6 and h7

- all four are played with the right orientation by:

.... Windows Media Player

.... DivX player

.... Movies&TV - the default Win10 player 

.... iPhone

.... edited iMovie, saved, etc....

in metadata, can be seen opened in DivX...menu File > Show Video Information > Extended data....look below Video section, Display aspect ratio...you will find or not Rotation.

in one case, h7 filmed upside down, there is a field Rotation: 180

not present in h6 filmed upside down, so indeed @phil314 is right, the video filmed upside down in h6, is saved "normal" (as it was upside up".

h6 - filmed normal, no Rotation Metadata

h6 filmed upside down, no Rotation Metadata

h7 filmed normal, no Rotation Metadata

h7 filmed upside down, Rotation: 180 Metadata

[phil314]

HI, @robert1326

  Thanks for doing some digging into this for me. Looks like you have confirmed what I suspected.

Unfortunately, it takes often takes software a while to 'catch up to new features'.

Currently my experience is that many don't handle this correctly.

To point out my specific problem. Say I've got 2 clips, first is normal, second is upside down.

I combine them into a single video.

Some editors with right out rotation 0 for the whole clip. So you get half right side up and the second part upside down. They drop metadata when combining clips. This is wrong.

Some players do the same. Even if the Metadata is carried along with the clips. The player only reads the orientation once at the begining and assumes the entire clips is that orientation. Also wrong.

To work properly, the metadata has to be carried along to the final video and the player has to read the metadata as it plays. Many of the ones I've tried, just don't work correctly.

It would have been real nice if the H7 also had an upside down mode that made it behave like the H6. That is what I am looking for.

I'm sure in 5 years all the software will get updated and work fine. But until then, it's a huge pain to deal with.

With the earlier gopros, this was a none issue. I've already wasted a ton of time because of the with the H7.

Maybe gopro will fix this in an software update for the H7. Hint, hint..

---

@robert1326 wrote:

hi @phil314, and all,

you are right @phil314, and yes, mystery solved!

in short when upside down

- h7 will save it upside down with Metadata Rotation: 180.

- h6 will save it normal orientation, without Rotation Metadata, as if it was filmed normally

 

I'm sure every editing software have something related to the Metadata Rotation...can you check?

in one case, h7 filmed upside down, there is a field Rotation: 180

not present in h6 filmed upside down, so indeed @phil314 is right, the video filmed upside down in h6, is saved "normal" (as it was upside up".

[bkpatl]

Any update on this? I just bought the Hero 7 Black, and I am going to use it to record flights in my plane. I was going to mount it upside down from the ceiling looking at the panel and out the front window. Is this going to be a problem? Will the video play upside down? 

Also, when I lock it into landscape mode, and I'm using it upside down, should I choose up or down? This whole subject is really confusing. 

[phil314]

I've been hoping for an update, but haven't seen anything.

So for now upside down recording is a nightmare.

I did a couple more test video, but it is a massive waste of time having to post process each clip just to flip it.

I spend more time flipping clips and trying to figure out which clips are flip and then having to redo the final video because I missed one.

I've also wasted a lot of time trying to find a single peice of editing software that works correct every time.

They all work differently and each have there own quirks.

Bottom line - It sucks massively. Upside down video is just not worth it. I consider it broken and never record upside down any more.

It would be SO easy for the gopro to handle this so we never have to.

The older gopros worked perfect.

[elmoeod]

Topic is a few days old, but my Video recorded with camera upside down is fine, put all the stills I take need flipped... I flip in lightroom, still upside down in RAW, have to flip there and save, than re-open in Photoshop (or anything else) to see up right???  Suggestions??

[aragon1006]

Hi @elmoeod

Just to clarify, was the video originally recorded as upside down?

Or was it supposed to be up right?

Have you tried using other editing applications?

Thanks!

Ej

[phil314]

Hi @elmoeod,

  There are no good suggestions. You are doing exactly what you have to do. You and everyone else on the planet has to manual flip every pic and video you take in upside down mode. I currently have to flip every clip and then use my editor to asseble the clips afterward. Actual I've just stopped taking upside video all together because it's such a PIA.

This is because IMHO, upside down mode doesn't work right. There is no good reason the gopro 7 shouldn't be able to flip it for you, but it doesn't. The 7 works different from the gopro 6 and earlier (which worked correctly).

[elmoeod]

Thanks for Reply, Camera is mounted upside down, best way to mount in my SXS... My Videos are fine, just the stills are upside down.

[elmoeod]

The Camera is mounted upside down, Video is fine, only stills are upside down... that is what is confusing.... ty for your hlep

[mariustanya]

Hello @elmoeod. Does it matter which Landscape Lock the camera is set to? When the camera is mounted upside down, the resulting still photo will be upside down as well if the Landscape Lock is set to Up. Let us know what you fin out. Thanks!

[elmoeod]

Landscape lock is set to off, i am always taking camera out of frame to take still and videos handheld. Setting landscape to up and down seems to work fine... but off should do it automatically. TY

[aragon1006]

Thanks for posting back @elmoeod

Let us know if you need further assistance.

[sweetvista76726]

I only have this problem on my Windows 7 machine. Quicktime displays it correctly, but Windows Medial Player plays it upside down. Windows Explorer also shows the icons upside down as well. Windows 10, on the other hand, shows icons in File Explorer are right-side up and Windows Media Player plays them correctly.

Anybody know how to get Windows 7 to do things correctly?

[phil314]

@sweetvista76726- the problem is not with windows 7.

The problem is because of the way the gopro 7 records upside down video. It records it upside down with metadata indicating that it's recorded upside down. This is a problem for many video player that don't pay attention to the metadata information. Some do, some don't. It's got nothing to do with windows 7.

This problem gets even worse with video editor that don't properly carry the metadata forward to the final video. You have to manually flip everything in order to get it to work.

Your only real choice is to find a player that works and just use it. Or hope that Gopro will eventually update the 7 and add an upside down mode that works like the 6 did.

[sweetvista76726]

Or in my case Hero 4 Black.

[s0dhi]

I just read through this thread.

This is stupid. My Hero 5 easily handled recording either way without this metadata monkey business.

I have to flip each clip while editing - this is a pain the @ss. I can't properly review the clips on my computer as NONE of the players take this metadata into account.

This is definite step backwards and should be fixed to work like the Hero 5 & 6.

[elmoeod]

Let us know if you need further assistance.????

Nothing has been fixed, what do you mean "further assistance" just answered with the settings I was using

[mariustanya]

Hello @elmoeod. When Landscape Lock is Off, the photos should automatically be oriented right-side up and this should be seen on both the camera preview screen, as well as in the computer after importing the photos through Quik for desktop. I just tested with a few photos - taken in different orientations (camera upside down, upright, portrait) and all the resulting photos are correctly oriented as viewed in Quik and in Windows Media Player. Will you be able to check on your end is your stills behave the same way? Could it be that LightRoom may have a different orientation detection system? 

[sweetvista76726]

Windows 10 is just fine. File Explorer shows thumbnails corretly and videos show correctly. The problem is the videos produced by the Hero 7 are upside down when viewed by Windows 10. My Hero 4 Black worked the way it should.

This is a GoPro problem with their Hero 7. The only program I can get to show videos correctly is Quicktime and the color is off. 

[sweetvista76726]

Correction to above post, "The problem is the videos produced by the Hero 7 are upside down when viewed by Windows 10." should be "The problem is the videos produced by the Hero 7 are upside down when viewed by Windows 7."

[mariustanya]

Got it. Thank you for sharing, @sweetvista76726. We are unable to replicate the views on Windows 7 but Windows 10 view them correctly, according to the Landscape Lock chosen and how the camera is oriented when filming. When Landscape Lock is Off, the footage is automatically switch to the correct (upright) side when viewed. 

[sweetvista76726]

Landscape Lock on or off doesn't matter. Thumbnails and video is always upside down when recording upside down. I have is upside down when recording offroad trips and Landscape Lock is off. When recording with Landscape Lock Up or Down or Off, thumbnails and video is always upside down on my Windows 7 Home. Period. No if, ands or buts.

[rapidtree65255]

Registered just to post this. Are you guys in GoPro seriously don't undestand what he's talking about?! Can you please somebody who undestands the feature answer this questions, not just a customer service rep with "thank you, let us know if you need further assistance"?

I have the same issue - just bought the Hero 7 Black. I use it for skydiving and the mount I use for my helmet mounts the GoPro upside down, plus the fact that I am rotating in all directions when I am falling - I need to lock the orientation, which is not an issue since I can change the orientatioin, right? Wrong! All videos are shown properly on the camera itself - but upside down when I transfer files to the computer.

This is huge pain in the ass.. Please address it, feel like I should be returning the camera now..

[mariustanya]

Hello @rapidtree65255, 

Which media player are you using? There is a tag embedded in the .mp4 video file that tells a video player that the image is upside down, and will correct the video for the viewer.  Since you are mounting the GoPro upside down, and if you haven't yet, see how it goes when the auto-rotation is set to Down. Hope to hear back from you. 

Thanks, 
Marius

[rapidtree65255]

I understand this is a Windows Media Player problem. Both Up and Down auto-rotation settings end up with a video being upside down on WMP, so I need to post-edit to rotate it. This is not a problem for me per se, as I can use other software to watch the video that can read the 180 tag, however the problem is when I am sharing this video file with somebody who's not really into all these tech things (i.e. parents) - and the only software they have on their computer is WMP, good luck explaining them how to download/use another program for it. I am a new GoPro user and not sure about this, but it was mentioned here before that previous versions didn't have this issue (assuming the video was rotated properly by GoPro without need to attach a tag). On another note, the entire auto-rotation feature is buggy and may or may not function as expected depending on the mode (quick caputre seems to be pretty unpredictable, especially after shutting GoPro off once).

[mariustanya]

Thank you for the feedback, @rapidtree65255. We will forward this to the team for a closer look. We will post about it here once we hear back from them. 

[niklausl5]

I have the same problem...

I must mount the camera on my hangglider in upside down.

My old HD Hero (9 years old!!!) had in the settings a feature "UPd". Wonderful, no problems!

Now I bough the 7 black and all my videos are standing on the head. Bullsh**!

Of course I can turn all my clips in the video cutting software (MAGIX) but this is addiional work and - much more important - it needs a lot of computing performance to work with all those "manually turned" videos.

The landscape feature only have his impact on the LCD -  NOT on the video which is stored on the SD card!

It's incredible to remove the feature "UPd" from the firmware, dear GoPro!

Bring it back into the next FW version please!

[phil314]

---

@rapidtree65255 wrote:

I understand this is a Windows Media Player problem.

---

That's the thing - This is not just a Windows Media Player problem.

This is a problem with many media players and even more media editors.

There are a lot of programs out there that don't pay attention to the orientation data correctly.

Even GoPro Quik doesn't always display correctly.

It's going to take years for everyone to update their software - if they even ever do.

Bottom Line - the GoPro 7 should support the same 'upside down' mode the earlier GoPro's used. Flip the video at record time and mark it's orientation as right side up. Problem solved for EVERYONE.

[sweetvista76726]

This is a GoPro problem. It's as if the developers did their development on a Windows 10 system (or Mac; just an assumption, since QuickTime Player plays them correctly on Windows 7) that displays thumbnails and videos correctly and didn't even test on other systems/OSs. 

As mentioned before, by numerous people, previous versions (Hero 4 Black, in my case) didn't have this problem. Only one thing changed. My OS didn't change at the same time I got my Hero 7. 

If I developed something like this and sold it and refused to fix it, I'd be fired. Any time something goes wrong with our instruments, it's "all hands on deck" to fix it ASAP.

[brandonp24]

I’m having the same problem with my hero 7 using v01.70.00. I am recording upside down, and both on the camera playback and when videos are transferred to the GoPro app on my iPhone, half the videos are upside down and the others are right side up. Even worse is It doesn’t give the option to flip the videos. I can do it in the quick app for the story but the original video stays the same. I am using the quick capture mode where I push the shutter button while the power is off and the camera is in the same position every time. I don’t get why it is doing this.

[aragon1006]

Hi @brandonp24

You may try to save the file from the app to your phone's gallery.

Once it's there, you should be able to rotate the video.

Regarding shooting with Quikcapture, it is possible that the camera has not established the correct orientation before the recording has started.

It will be best to turn the camera from the Mode button before recording.

Or keep the orientation locked either Up/Down before if using Quikcapture.

Thanks!

Ej

[rapidtree65255]

Ej, this doesn't work unfortunately. 

Yes, the problem seems to be in Quickcapture mode. Firstly, when I skydive and my camera is hooked to my helmet - Quickcapture is the only way to operate it (and the reason I bought it in the first place). 

Secondly, as mentioned before, locking the orientation doesn't help it - I had it Off, locked up and locked down - in all 3 cases resulting videos end up being either in correct orientation or upside down with no apparent logic behind it.

[sweetvista76726]

---

@rapidtree65255 wrote:

Ej, this doesn't work unfortunately. 

Yes, the problem seems to be in Quickcapture mode. Firstly, when I skydive and my camera is hooked to my helmet - Quickcapture is the only way to operate it (and the reason I bought it in the first place). 

Secondly, as mentioned before, locking the orientation doesn't help it - I had it Off, locked up and locked down - in all 3 cases resulting videos end up being either in correct orientation or upside down with no apparent logic behind it.

---

Are you using Windows 7?

[sweetvista76726]

---

@aragon1006 wrote:

Hi @brandonp24

You may try to save the file from the app to your phone's gallery.

Once it's there, you should be able to rotate the video.

Regarding shooting with Quikcapture, it is possible that the camera has not established the correct orientation before the recording has started.

It will be best to turn the camera from the Mode button before recording.

Or keep the orientation locked either Up/Down before if using Quikcapture.

Thanks!

Ej

---

This is not a solution. My Hero 4 recorded upside down just fine and I could view it on Windows 7 up right. My Hero 7 does not. 

NOT A SOLUTION!

[alexw0832]

This has been a huge hassle for me as well.  I use my Hero7 for autocross, and the best way to mount the camera is upside down.  I post process all of my videos in Dashware (a GoPro owned program I might point out). 

All of the videos load into Dashware upside down, and even if I check the "rotate video" option in the view menu, the resulting output video is still upside down.  Within Dashware the video will display correctly after checking the "rotate" option, but it still outputs upside down regardless of the status of that option.

The only workaround I have found is to manually rotate the video in an editor before working on it in Dashware.  While I like the overall video quality and image stabalization, the rotation issue is a huge pain.  This was never an issue with my old Hero Session.

[lukasg331]

Exact same issue with my GoPro Hero 7 Black.

On my most recent MTB ride I had my GoPro chest-mounted upside-down.

Some videos are recorded correctly while others upside down. Even when watching directly on GoPro they are simply upside down. So no matter the camera was all the time chest-mounted in the same position the results are totally inconsistent.

Is there any quick way to rotate those upside-down recorded by 180 degrees?

So far I did not have such an experience, it maybe occurred on 1 or 2 videos but during last ride I have quite a few such videos. I am on the latest firmware btw.

thanks

lukas

[brandonp24]

So my last ride I had switched the screen lock to upside down. I had the camera mounted upside down and used the quick capture mode. Out of my 8 or so videos all of them recorded correctly and remained right side up.

[alexw0832]

That's all well and good, but it doesn't solve the problem of playing them back on a computer, or editing them with other software.  Many programs will still see them as upside down, causing all sorts of head aches later.  I have tried the landscape lock and it doesn't solve the underlying problem.

[bibbsontour]

Has anyone found a solution of sorts to this?

All my footage is upside down when played back in (up-to-date) Premiere Pro CS6 but plays in the correct orientation in Windows 10's media player etc.

Video was recorded with landscape lock set to down

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, temp fix is to manually flip each and every clip after having cut the bits out of the upside down raw clip but that's no good as that's absolutely mind numbing...

Thanks in advance

[danielr15]

This has to do with individual programs not reading the metadata correctly.  It's not a GoPro issue.  As far as editing multiple clips in Premiere, just correct the orientation in one clip and copy the attributes and then select all clips (other than the first) and paste the attribute.  It shouldn't be taking any time at all.

[bibbsontour]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, I did see it was about meta data further up the thread i was just seeing if anyone knew an overall fix to essentially get Premiere to read said meta data as we shouldn't even need to be flipping the video at all considering that Premiere is one of the best softwares on the market!!

Thanks for your response

[danielr15]

True, although you are talking about an Adobe product released seven years ago and as of January 9, 2017 is no longer distributed by Adobe, and therefore not on the market . I, for example, have no issues with Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019 (which can be argued to be one of the best software on the market). You might want to consider DaVinci Resolve 16 if you would like to stay current with video editors (it's free and in many ways considered better than Premiere Pro).

[bibbsontour]

Christ... had no idea it was that old! That could be the issue haha. Will see about the alternatives and check back with the outcome later

Cheers Dan

[alexw0832]

Someone at GoPro made the (in my opinion stupid) decision to rely on the meta data to establish orientation, and as we have seen here that makes their video essentially incompatible with a whole bunch of programs.  That IS a GoPro problem.  If they just physically flipped the video as the older versions of their camera did, it wouldn't be an issue, regardless of what program the video is edited or played back in.  If it's not a GoPro problem, it will become one if people stop buying their cameras since their video will only play back / edit correctly in certain programs.

Also, the program I personally am having problems with is Dashware, which is OWNED BY GOPRO.  This is a GoPro problem.  The least they could do if they want to rely on meta data is release updated versions of their own programs that properly read the meta data.

[phil314]

I agree, this definitely *IS* a GoPro problem. GoPro Quik doesn't even work right.

When you release a product that is incompatible with most of the software in the market, you made a mistake.

When you release a product that is incompatible with your own software, you really screwed up.

And the answer is simple - give us a fireware update with the upsidedown mode that was in the Hero 6 - *Problem solved*

[spawnywhippet]

Another person with serious issues from 'upgrading' from Hero 5 to Hero 7. I use the camera exclusively in upside down mode to record video and GPS coordinates for vehicle prototype testing.

Any sort of video post processing screws up the GPS data coordination, and our video analysis tools display the video upside down no matter how the Landscape Lock is configured. Windows 10 plays the videos the correct orientation.

The camera is entirely useless to me at this point.