Windows only: Our absolute favorite media player VLC is getting dangerously close to an official 1.0 release, meaning early adopters in the crowd can try out VLC 1.0 RC1 right now.
If you've ever used VLC, you've probably grown to love it for its out-of-the-box support for virtually any file type you can throw at it; if you're a more advanced user, we've shown you how to master your digital media with VLC, using it to rip any DVD to your hard drive, convert any video for your iPod or other portable device, and play ripped DVDs (among other things). With VLC 1.0, you can expect all of the same great functionality, plus some additional features including:
Instantaneous pausing
On-the-fly recording for all medias
Timeshift for most medias
New Blu-Ray Linear PCM decoder
Global Hotkeys on Windows and Linux
Controllable by the Media Keys on modern Apple keyboards (OS X only)
Several new and improved decoders, demuxers, encoders, and other codec-related goodies
VLC's interface looks to have received a lot of spicing up, but overall it seems to be the same solid open-source player we've come to know and love. I wasn't able to find much documentation about the 1.0 Release Candidate on the main VLC web site, but you can see the 1.0 RC1 changelog at FileHippo.
VLC 1.0 RC1 is a free download; currently we're only seeing a Windows version of the release candidate (despite VLC's cross platform nature). Thanks Ronson!
VLC Media Player 1.0.0 RC1 [FileHippo]