Via Newsforge, linmagau has a preview of Xine 1.0 and interviews some of the authors. Here is a quick taste of what it can do:
It plays back CDs, DVDs, and VCDs. It also decodes multimedia files like AVI, MOV, WMV, and MP3 from local disk drives, and displays multimedia streamed over the Internet. It interprets many of the most common multimedia formats available – and some of the most uncommon formats, too.
The current release candidate can handle subtitles and handle a ton of file formats and streaming codecs.