You can try BS Player, it plays pretty much everything apart from realvideo, and even tries to play corrupted movie files.
It has pretty good options to alter the video's appeareance, and offers direct access to Media player's plugins...
AND it you really don't like it, they're is "Ultra Player", it's free too, and really good, but as it is based on Media Player, it has the same drawbacks while player.
Just search for them on www.google.com and you'll find them..
Good luck
Alex.