Never did any regular tests (only ps output) but Kaffeine (http://kaffeine.kde.org) - heavy duty GUI KDE media player based on xine was using less memory than mplayer when viewing the same DVD.
One more problem: started Canola without net connection, Search YT, "cannot locate server". Canola couldn't force tablet to connect on its own. Minimize app, connect to net manually, return to Canola, repeat search, still cannot find server. Had to restart Canola to detect net connection.