According to my experience, VLC Player is unable to play Real Media smoothly so I use Media Player Classic all this time. But lately, zoom player has drawn my interest so much because of its features and support for wide formats. SplashPRO seems great too but it does not support low quality formats such as Real Media......... and I haven't received my license key yet.
Regarding music player, I don't really care since I am not a music lover. Hearing it from previewer within file manager is enough for me. I even have TidySongs to organize my collection which I never use it due to it needs iTunes prior to installation.