I can think of the following approaches/ideas for players:
- Based on Coin, a 3D lib implementing OpenInventor API and VRML,
  the API and player is in C++.
  There should be cool effects possible with full-blown 3D, like the
  menu swirling away, or the camera moving in cool ways.
  Scrolling could also be done by just pointing the camera to the
  selected object.
  Theming here would happen by the menu items being VRML files, so they
  could be anything and be animated. Menus themselves and menu transitions
  could maybe also be in VRML files, given that
  VRML describes a dynamic scene, not just static 3D objects.
  It could look a bit like the PSP (oder PS3?) menu system or that of some games.
  The video player could be mplayer for now (rudimentary, but already works)
  and later a custom player based on ffmpeg or gstreamer, which implements
  remote control (lirc or event dev) and a nice OSD.
- If you want a frontend in Java (maybe users will not be thrilled),
  Xith3D could be the 3D lib, and JMF (Java Media Framework), more precisely
  FMJ (the open-source implementation of JMF), could be the player.
- One could adapt mythfrontend to use the Zeipis backend.
- You could write a player entirely in the browser.
  Firefox has nice XML abilities and DOM manipulation, so the menu should
  be trivial. Theming there is well-known, too.
  Firefox 3.1 also has a <video> tag, so Firefox can natively play videos.
  It doesn't come with MPEG2 codes by default, but there's a patch to use
  DirectPlay on Windows and gsteamer on Linux, so the platform codes would be
  automatically available. I don't know, if Firefox allows full-screen video
  or how comfortable the controls are or can be made (they are customizable)
  or whether the stream source supports HTTP range.
  Downside: Remote controls won't be supported. The browser is not exactly the
  ideal media player for your living room, either.
