Horizontal mirror
job_f98b91abceac4d80No arguments. It either flips or it does not.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "hflip" -t 5 out.mp4video filter
The FFmpeg hflip filter
Mirrors video horizontally, the selfie-camera correction.
3 of 3 variants measured Measured 2026-08-20
The part that catches people
hflip mirrors the pixels including any burned-in text, so flipping after a drawtext produces reversed captions. Flip first, then draw.
Measured, not described
Every row below is a real job. The same 1280x720 five-second H.264 source went through each variant, so the numbers are comparable to each other and to every other filter page on this site. Encode time is the FFmpeg step on its own, separated from the download and the upload.
| Variant | Encode | Output | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizontal mirror | 1261 ms | 497.8 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0028 |
| Vertical mirror | 1000 ms | 537.0 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0025 |
| Both axes | 973 ms | 507.6 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0024 |
The fastest variant here is not the smallest. Both axes finished the encode in 973 ms, while Horizontal mirror produced the smallest file at 497.8 KB. Which one matters depends on whether you are paying for compute or for storage.
The exact commands
Vertical mirror
job_33c237c076f44ee5The sibling filter, for completeness.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "vflip" -t 5 out.mp4Both axes
job_ecca95596e23496eEquivalent to a 180 rotation, and cheaper than transpose twice.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "hflip,vflip" -t 5 out.mp4How these numbers were produced
Each variant was submitted to the Rendobar API as an ffmpeg job against the same public source file, and the response was recorded verbatim. Encode time is the API's own per-step timing for the FFmpeg step. Output size is the byte count of the file the job produced. Cost is what the job was actually billed.
Nothing here was estimated, and the whole set is re-runnable, so if a figure looks wrong it can be checked rather than argued about. The 72 variants behind this filter reference cost $0.193082 in total to measure.
Frequently asked questions
What does the FFmpeg hflip filter do?
Mirrors video horizontally, the selfie-camera correction.
What is the most common mistake with hflip?
hflip mirrors the pixels including any burned-in text, so flipping after a drawtext produces reversed captions. Flip first, then draw.
How long does hflip take to run?
On a 1280x720 five-second H.264 source, the fastest variant on this page (Both axes) spent 973 ms inside FFmpeg. That figure is the encode step alone, measured separately from the download and the upload, so it is the filter's own cost rather than the round trip.
Do I need FFmpeg installed to use hflip?
Not with Rendobar. Every command on this page ran through the Rendobar API against a URL, with no local FFmpeg install and no server. The job id next to each row is the real job that produced the numbers.
Other filters, measured the same way
scale Resizes video to a target width and height, with optional aspect-preserving arithmetic. crop Cuts a rectangle out of each frame, positioned from the top-left corner. fps Resamples video to a constant frame rate by duplicating or dropping frames. transpose Rotates video by 90 degree steps, optionally flipping as it goes. pad Adds bars around the frame to reach a target size without cropping the picture.
Run hflip without installing FFmpeg
Every command on this page ran through the API against a URL. No binary, no server.