YBaCuO thin films have been deposited by inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering on the (110) plane of SrTiO 3 substrates. The transition from ( 110) to ( 103)/(013) growth was studied as a function of the substrate temperature, Ts, by means of X-ray diffraction, electrical-transport measurements and atomic force microscopy. Only at low T~ = 600-620°C the films grow purely [110] oriented. At higher T s admixtures of [103] and [013] growth orientation occur, which are dominant at T s > 720°C, but even at T s = 820°C a 10% amount of (110) growth can be detected. The normal and superconducting properties of the low-T~ (110) films are poor: the ab plane conductivity at room temperature is a factor of 10 lower than in single crystals and c-axis oriented thin films. T c and j¢ do not exceed 70 K and 4 X 104 A/cm 2 at 4.2 K, respectively. The resistivity and Jc anisotropies parallel and perpendicular to the ab plane reach 10 and 20, respectively. Due to the admixture of 40% [103] oriented grains the resistivity anisotropy decreases to 1. With respect to the [001] and [110] substrate directions (103)/(013) dominated films are anisotropic as well but with the higher resistivity in [110]. They reveal a resistivity anisotropy of 8. A drastic improvement of (110) growth and properties is provided by a PrBaCuO template layer, e.g. Tc increases to 89 K and the resistivity anisotropy amounts to 35.