Thanks sp00nhead.
Do you know if there are plans to reduce the number of media players (make things simpler)?
Looking into mythTV it to can play DVD, I don't know what it is like compared to Xine. That would mean only the sync playback functions of VLC need to be replicated and as mythTV is already distributed (networked) wouldn't it make sense to extend mythTV
I think that the way of thinking for Pluto is that consumers should be given the choice of what technologies (and products) they use in their house and Pluto provides the glue to integrate and manage them.
This is certainly true for things like lighting systems and security systems and should therefore also extend to media players and other software based technologies.
I think that this is certainly the most flexible way to approach things, but it will inevitably mean that some technologies will not be as fully exploited as they could be with a tighter, more focussed, integration with the framework.
This is one of the things that attracted me to pluto though, as undoubtedly there will be other technologies that get created in the future and the integration of these to Pluto should be as painless as possible without upsetting any of the existing integrated technologies.
The end result to the user should be a familar interface to any of the technologies in use without having to know what those technologies are or how they are implemented.
These are just my thoughts however, and someone from Pluto should feel free to confirm or correct them if they see the need.
Regards
Darren