Xine is one of the oldest multimedia players with its own engine (the xine engine). It offers tremendous functionality - almost all aspects of audio and video can be configured here (including very technical stream parameters). The default user interface of the program is however horrible (probably designed by the programmers, at least looks like this). This is the main reason why Xine is mostly being used though the frontends like gxine, Kaffeine or Totem.

Here are some of the functions Xine offers (there is much more of course):

• Support for CDs, DVDs (with DVD menus) and (S)VCDs
• Support for all known and popular multimedia formats, as well as some of the unknown and very unpopular ones
• High modularity of the design, the engine is divided from the frontend, thus it can be easily separated and used in diffreent apps
• Skin support
• Support for remote control (via lirc)
• Support for streams (Internate radio and TV)
• Xinerama support
• Support for different configurations of video cards/monitors

Rys 1. Xine - very functional, horrible looks

There are many external frontends that can be used with Xine. The most popular are Totem and Kaffeine. None of them offers all the functions offered by pure Xine, though. If you need the whole bunch of features, use pure Xine or gXine - the clone of Xine interface in GTK+.