Nice post, but it's not that complex, really (regarding stuttering), they just need to up the priority (Linux users: lower niceness) of the media player and sound subsystem. If a war breaks out between a web page and the media player, I want media player to win, because I can't notice 0.1 seconds delay in a web page, but I can win media player.

Also, given how buffers work, I don't think it's a player fault - a player freeze would give less quirks with longer recovery time. I think it's the sound subsystem (or whatever you have replacing an audio driver/mixer).