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"This began a year ago... I've tried lots of players under linux 
(mtv,xmps,dvdview,livid/oms,VideoLAN, xine,xanim,avifile,xmmp) but they 
all have some problem. Mostly with special files or with audio/video sync. 
Most of them is unable to play both MPEG1, MPEG2 and AVI (DivX) files. 
Many players have image quality or speed problems too. So I've decided 
to write/modify one..."

 * Plans for the close and distant future?
A goal for the distant future is to have a movie player that can open a
movie file and play it, regardless of the file format and audio/video
stream formats inside, without any of this nonsense about "unrecognized
file format" or "unrecognized data stream". Ideally, this will all be
accomplished entirely with open source decoders. 

In the short term, the development team proceeds stubbornly along,
implementing new, and fixing old, file and A/V decoders in order to
handle any media that users can throw at it.

 * Do you need help? If so: of what kind?
If you can furnish the technical details of a file format that MPlayer is
currently unable to decode, or if you know the data format of an A/V codec
that MPlayer doesn't currently handle as an open source codec, the
developers would be very interested to know those details. Better yet, if
you would like to add such file or A/V decoders to the program yourself,
the development team is always receptive to patches. Also, more document
translations are appreciated.

 * Interesting/fun stories that might juice up the story?
Sometimes, MPlayer seems to be one of the most loved and hated open source
projects available. Freshmeat lists in as the #2 most popular project,
second only to Linux itself. Yet, at the same time, there's an air of
controversy surrounding the project, particularly with the tiffs with
Red Hat regarding their premature release of gcc-2.96, and with various
groups that have attempted to distibute binary packages of the program.
Then there's the fact that many people who have not read the documentation
ask covered questions on the MPlayer list which frustrates the development
team and leads to a breakdown in patience towards new users.

 * Website/FTP addresses?
The primary website has everything you need:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

 * License?!
The project tries to be GPL as much as possible. There are some unresolved
(read: untested) issues surrounding the incorporation of the closed-source
Win32 and XAnim binary codecs in the program. Until we start seeing some
formal legal threats, the team doesn't lose a whole lot of sleep over such
issues.

 * Standard documents to read in this context?
A'rpi, the lead maintainer of MPlayer, will tell you to RTFM. In fact,
it's the standard banner on messages sent to the MPlayer-users mailing
list. He doesn't mean to be abrasive (at least, we don't think he does),
but it really is valid advice. MPlayer has tons of features and
flexibility, supporting a wide variety of file formats, microprocessor,
and output devices, and it can be tricky to get it all up and running. The
documentation actually does cover these issues quite well and a new user
benefits greatly from giving the manual a thorough read.

 * Anything you would like to see mentioned?

 * Answer to a question I forgot?


EXTRA
 - Which licenses on which are currently blocking your project most?
	AND
 - How many problems do software patents create for your work?
As mentioned in the "License?!" question, the development team codes
oblivious to most licensing and patent issues. "We'll cross that bridge
when we come to it," is the cliche to keep in mind here. To answer the
questions, licensing and patent issues haven't caused any direct trouble
in the development of MPlayer code, but it has made the members wary of
creating and distributing binary distributions.