A horizontal video maker for phone footage
Upright phone clips look great on a phone and awkward everywhere else. On a TV, a laptop, a projector or in a 16:9 editing timeline, a 9:16 video becomes a narrow column between two black bars. This horizontal video maker turns a vertical video into a proper 16:9 landscape file — 1920 × 1080 by default — so it fills a widescreen frame the way you choose.
Keep the whole tall shot and fill the sides with a blurred, enlarged copy of the same footage, with a colour or with a gradient, or crop it to a full-width slice that pans up and down to follow the action. Everything runs locally: Mediabunny (MPL-2.0, loaded unmodified) reads the file and your browser’s WebCodecs encoder writes an H.264 MP4 with AAC sound. Your video is never uploaded.
How to convert a vertical video to horizontal
- Drop the phone video on the upload area. The tool reads its length, resolution, codecs and the rotation your phone stored, so it is never sideways.
- Pick a landscape size — “16:9 Full HD · 1920 × 1080” suits nearly everything; 4:3 is there for older screens.
- Choose how to fill the sides: Blurred video, Colour (solid or gradient), or Nothing — crop to a full-width slice.
- If you crop, drag the preview up or down to choose the part that stays, or tick the keyframe option to make the slice travel with your subject.
- Press “Make horizontal video”, wait for the progress bar, check the result in the player and press “Download MP4”.
Horizontal Video Maker features
Blurred sides
The familiar news-and-TV treatment: the sharp vertical shot in the middle with a soft, darkened copy of it filling the left and right.
Vertical panning crop
Crop to a full 16:9 strip and move it up or down over time with keyframes — useful for a person walking towards the camera or a tall building.
Colour and gradient sides
Use the bars for your colours or as space for a lower-third title in your editor.
Rotation handled
Phones often record sideways and store a rotation flag. The reader applies it before reframing, so the picture stays upright.
Up to 4K output
Choose 720p, 1080p, 1440p or 4K; the estimate shows the likely file size before you start.
Pillarboxing, blurred sides or crop?
A 9:16 picture placed in a 16:9 frame fills only about 32% of the width. Plain black side bars — called pillarboxing — are honest but look empty on a big screen. Blurred sides keep the frame feeling full while every pixel of the original stays visible. Cropping fills the screen completely but keeps only about a third of the original height, so it suits shots with one clear subject.
Zoom sits between the two: at 150–200% the vertical picture becomes larger, the blurred sides narrower, and the top and bottom are trimmed. Drag the preview to decide which part of the height to keep.
Landscape sizes to choose from
| Size | Pixels | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 16:9 HD | 1280 × 720 | Slides, email, quick sharing |
| 16:9 Full HD | 1920 × 1080 | TVs, laptops, most editors and websites |
| 16:9 QHD | 2560 × 1440 | Large monitors when the source is sharp enough |
| 16:9 4K | 3840 × 2160 | 4K phone footage on 4K screens |
| 4:3 | 1440 × 1080 | Older projectors and classic layouts |
Tips for phone footage
- Phone video is often 1080 × 1920. Filling a 1920 × 1080 frame with a crop enlarges it about 178%, so a crop looks softer than a blurred-sides version, which keeps the original pixels.
- Fast-moving clips at 60 fps get a higher bitrate automatically, because motion needs more data to stay sharp.
- Trim long recordings before converting: the video cutter makes this faster and the file smaller.
- For YouTube in particular, read the notes in the YouTube video resizer: YouTube’s player adapts to vertical video itself, so you only need a 16:9 version for a specific look.
- Need the reverse? The vertical video maker turns widescreen footage into 9:16, and the square video maker makes 1:1.
Horizontal Video Maker FAQ
How do I make a vertical video horizontal without black bars?
Choose “Blurred video” to fill the sides with a soft copy of the same footage, or “Colour” for a solid or gradient fill. To fill the frame with the picture itself, choose “Nothing — crop” and drag to pick the part that stays.
Is this the same as rotating the video?
No. Rotating turns the picture on its side; this horizontal video maker keeps it upright and changes the frame around it from 9:16 to 16:9. If your clip is actually sideways, use the rotate video tool first.
What resolution should a horizontal video be?
1920 × 1080 (Full HD, 16:9) works almost everywhere. Use 1280 × 720 for a smaller file, or 3840 × 2160 only when the source is 4K.
Will the quality drop?
The video is re-encoded, which always loses a little. With blurred or colour sides your original pixels are kept at their size; cropping has to enlarge a slice of the picture, which looks softer.
Does it work with iPhone videos?
Yes, as long as your browser can decode the clip. iPhones record HEVC by default; Safari, and Chrome or Edge on computers with hardware HEVC support, can read it. If yours can’t, the tool says so before anything is processed.
Are my videos uploaded?
No. Reading, reframing and encoding all happen on your device, and the result is created in your browser’s memory.