Programming

Hi, I'm trying to make a video playback engine, i'm new to unix and i'm not really sure what i should do. I might have to create my own engine that will play back mpg's swf's, avi's, ect... whatever I need to play back. I'm not sure where i need to go with this. I've never programmed video with unix...is there a way to easily play back video using pre-made components? What programming library should i use? Allegro? i'm not sure, i've never tried to do this with unix. If someone can point me in the right direction that would be great. All i need to know is an easy way to play back video.

Thanks

There is no massive "all in one video decoding library", but there are seperate decoders for all sorts of things. If you want everything bundled together you'd be better off using mplayer.