Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Autodetection of aspect ratio should be present in Xine player, when you do not get correct aspect ratio, this means it failed for certain movie This generates an idea that it would be nicer to have ability to change the aspect ratio 'on fly' - and override the AR when it is set to wrong value.
This issue and my MythTV HD playback woes are the only things that are preventing me from fully enjoying LMCE.