1. MPLAYER James Courtier-Dutton:
Linux Multimedia (Videos, Music, VoIP, Multicast etc.)
Linux Kernel (ALSA)
Linux Software Defined Radio (SDR)
Reverse Engineering.

2. mplayer : Activity Project aim: No specific aims
Users/developers add features as an when they need them.
Currently adding dvd menu support and ass codec support.
mplayer supports a huge range of multimedia formats, with more being added all the time.

3. mplayer : Challenges
The biggest problem MPlayer faces is its lack of design.
but that's ok, because most of the multimedia content mplayer has to play is not designed well either, and requires horrible dependencies between the layers.
Software Patents
Lack of developers
The biggest problem MPlayer faces is its lack of design.
MPlayer grew from a 10 minutes hack into a full fledged
video player application. There were some minor redesigns
and refactoring of components, but overall we still have
the same structure with which Arpi started over 5 years ago.
It's this very same structure that limits us in further
development in some specific areas becaus changing it
would mean to rewrite big parts of MPlayer. And because
the structure is complex (due to lacking design) it is
also very hard to understand, making refactoring even more
difficult.

4. Mplayer : Dependencies
Libraries in use:
Many different ones (more than 51).
Projects dependent upon:
ffmpeg (for codecs)
libdvdnav/libdvdread

5. mplayer : Next Steps Fix bugs, add new codecs, features.
There are no specific goals, the project just evolves over time.