Yes, thanks, that's the method I'm using. I'd had the avi-mpg step already understood, it was the rotate-the-silly-avi step that I had to find. :D
Thanks for drums4ever, I've got the cookbook steps I need in vitualdub to rotate the avi to the portrait aspect I wanted.
For anyone else searching this forum on this one, simple topic, download virtualdub here:
http://www.virtualdub.org/
Unzip, then run the exe. Use 'file' to open the avi you want to rotate. Then select 'video' then 'filter' then 'add'(I think). You should get a list of choices, one of which is 'rotate;' select that. From the next pop-up, select 'left by 90'.
At this point I just said 'file' and 'save as' and gave it the new avi name I wanted. It processed in a few seconds (none of my avis are very large).
There are thousands of options in these video programs, which can be daunting if you're looking to do just one thing.
Thanks for all the help, folks. I hope this helps others, if they stumble on this thread, too.