The second alpha release of the inventive Linux media player Amarok has hit the web, and while there's a new look and some cool new tweaks, there's really two big reasons to take a look—namely, Windows and OS X. You heard right: The next full release of Amarok, one of our readers' favourite media players, will be cross-platform. At the moment, only Linux users can reliably run the testers' release, so I loaded it up and decided to share some early screens to let you all glimpse at the other open source, extensible, innovative app that's coming soon.

You've collected hundreds of thousands of megabytes (and maybe even gigabytes) of digital music and video in the past 10 years, and as your media library has grown, so has the necessity for finding the perfect desktop media player. Not only must the perfect player be capable of playing back your media, but it also needs to be able to help you search through and find any song or movie you're looking for at a moment's notice. Hit the jump for a glimpse at the five best desktop media players according to Lifehacker readers.

If you've got a home server running, or just a computer that controls music and video playback, the Simple Help blog has a guide that might make your digital life a little more convenient. Using the free WWWinamp tool, the author details how to set up and control Winamp from any browser, iPod touch/iPhones included. Convenient for controlling movies streamed to your television, music playing during a party, or any other away-from-computer control.

Lifehacker reader Bruno writes in with a tip that should give both fans of the old-style Winamp (a.k.a. Winamp Classic) and critics of the cross-platform VLC Media Player's somewhat plain looks a little thrill—VLC can use Winamp Classic skins as its interface. That means the thousands of styles available at Winamps Classic's official site and elsewhere can be put to good use on modern systems. To change VLC's skin, load the program, hit the "Settings" menu, select "Switch interface" and then "Skins 2." Once the modern-looking skin loads, you can right-click on blank space, choose "Select skin" and see how the player works and acts with a Winamp Classic skin. If you want to keep the skin, head for the Interface->Main interfaces->Skins dialog in VLC's preferences and make sure "Advanced options" is checked.

Windows Mobile 5 & 6 only: Free open source media player MPlayer, long known to Linux fans for its format friendliness and streamlined operation, has been ported in somewhat rough fashion to Windows Mobile-powered smartphones. While that means formats like RealAudio/Video, Ogg, M4A and others are playable, users are reporting that the program is a monster when it comes to processor use (which also makes it a battery killer) and has only the most basic "open file" functionality. But if you've got a low-quality file or a powerful phone, it could make for a nifty toy to play with until it gets fixed. MPlayer is a free download for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones only.

DivX has started showing off their prototype "Apple TV killer"  - a low cost networked media player device with 720p output. The Ubergizmo blog got a look at the device and wrote it up:

"DivX made a technology choice that is completely opposite to Apple’s. The Apple TV is basically an entry-level computer without an OS. It has a CPU, a GPU, and a hard drive, these are generic components found in all recent computers. However, AppleTV still need to be connected to a bigger computer (to talk to iTunes).

By leveraging the fact that their device is connected to a computer, DivX shows that the same basic functionality can be built at a much cheaper price, because instead of using general-purpose hardware, it uses only stream-decoding hardware that is a lot cheaper to make."

DivX is claiming the device could retail at $US99 within a year - that's a third of the price of an Apple TV. Will be interesting to see if any hardware manufacturers decide to take a punt on it. Mind you - as Apple is no doubt finding in Australia with its Apple TV - without easy access to content, the media player itself is pretty redundant.

DivX’s Apple TV, but smarter [via PVRblog]