Hi,

I'm wondering if it's possible to have videos oriented vertically with no black padding on the side. That is,say, a width=640, height=480 displayed as a width=480 , height=640, without altering media player settings.

thats no problem at all for .flv (flash video).

If you have aftereffects ( im not sure what else could do it)
just do up a new composition any dimension you want. Place your video in
and export to .flv .swf will also work but you wont have any player controls.
Be sure to select an invisible skin when you are mounting the .flv with dreamweaver or whatever else you might be using.

On a re-read of your post I realise this might not be what you are looking for.

Thank you, Get. I just may move to Flash anyway just to get that. I'm amazed that in this day of rotatable image files that video files aren't doing the same.

The thing is Glints, you dont even need flash or any knowldge of it.
Flash video is very different to flash itself. its just a video filetype for the net.
It can be embedded into a html webpage very easily.
have a quick look at my site.
the videos are .flv and i havent got a clue about flash, i cant even write html code.
Those dimensions could have been anything.