I was a user of Mplayer for the longest time, but decided to give VLC a fair try. While VLC is a more polished product, seems more elegant, and has a cool orange cone icone, I had to go back to Mplayer.

Basically, there's a lot to be frustrated with in VLC, which can be alleviated by the developers, I'm sure -- if they try. First and foremost, the ability to go forward or backwards one minute with the left/right keys, or forward/backward 3 minutes (or 5, not sure) with up/down, is amazing in Mplayer, and I felt very much out of control about how my movies were playing with VLC. The slider is okay, but why not give us both options? Just start a movie, tap the right key a few times until you get to the part you want to be at, and watch.

Another problem is the screeching sound in my ears as I moved forward/backward. What's up with that? Mplayer never gives me screeching sounds like that.

Finally, jumping into a part of a movie with VLC caused the screen to become green muck, which slowly fixed itself as the screen was drawn. this doesn't happen with Mplayer. And it shouldn't happen ever.

So Mplayer is my choice. it's got a "rough" feel at times and a 'b' in its version number, and it has that annoying tendency to run to apps while playing movies, instead of just one, but it is a great tool for me.