In your opinion, what is the best media player for a PC or cross-platform? (mostly music)

When using windows media player, I commonly get the error message that they can not find the proper codec to play my desired file. What media player have you found that possesses the ability to play almost any file you thow at it? I have found the VLC media player 0.9.9 at Slashdot and wondered if anyone has heard of it/used it?