As a user this is all just a big mess. Mplayer2 had some nice improvements (does straight mplayer support mkv segment linking yet?) but also removed some important features (e.g. mencoder). (Side note: ffmpeg has been refusing patches to add new filters because they're working on a new filter infrastructure. For something like 4 years now). It's even worse if you're on windows and want to use a frontend as well.

Here's hoping the various groups resolve their differences somehow or a clear winner emerges.