I have been using vlc for quite some time now.there is a bug that has broken it in my distro which is pushing me to look for something that is a better fit for me instead of just settling for something that [used to] works. want I really want is a video player that has a library function. I have a large collection of tv series stored on my server in an organized heirarchy [video/$series/$season/$episode_name]. I'd like this all to be in a library so that I can open the directory tree to the level I want, drag that entire level into the playlist and be on my way. when vlc was working I used a collection of handmade playlist files, but the usability of a media library is far superior in my opinion.

You might take a look at MythTV.

is that going to play nice on a system that doesn't have a tuner? I was always under the impression that the entire mythtv system was tightly integrated and wouldn't work well in a system where you only grab the portions you want.

You may have to install the whole thing(not sure) but you can watch avi, etc with it.

my hangup is that it seems to require a tv tuner. and I am not looking to put out money just to switch media players.

I have seen several installs without tuners. I think that part that does not require it is called the frontend.