Need help watching video Podcasts in iOS 5.0

I was never a fan of how video and music were split up on my iPad. I use my iPhone 90% of the time for podcasts. I am wanting to upgrade to 5.0 but save for 1 problem. One beautiful feature of the iPod app on 4.3.3 and many prior releases is that if you have a video podcast, you can watch it by going to either the podcasts or the videos tab in the iPod app. The beauty come in the fact that if you access the video through the podcasts tab you can view it either in portrait or landscape mode depending on the orientation of the phone. If you access that same video podcast via the video tab it forces landscape mode.

I put iOS 5.0 on my old 3GS to test things out and now it seems as though the only way to watch video podcasts is to go to the Videos app. This forces landscape mode and will not allow for watching in portrait mode no matter the orientation.

Am I missing something? is there a way to watch my video podcast in portrait mode without using a 3rd party app? At least on the iPad you can watch via portrait mode if you orient it that way.

I just don't see why if there is now a dedicated video app why there are less viewing options. I was really hoping for someone to reply with something along the lines of "Of course you can watch your videos in portrait mode, here's how."
Anyone get this to work?

The problem with the 3rd party podcasting apps is that you have to use their players. I still want iTunes on my home server to manage my podcasts. I was looking forward to wi-fi syncing being the final piece of that puzzle. All of my podcasts get updated every hour on my home server (mac mini). When I get home I sync and can then finish any partially watched or listened to podcasts from my iPhone on my mac mini or my Apple TV.
I have purchased 2 apps that supposedly are better. While they will manage podcast subscriptions they do not use the iTunes (now Music and Video) as the player, thus remembering where I left off when syncing to the home server.