I'd say mplayerplug-in is still the best option for embedded streaming video. What kind of a problem did you have compiling it? Have you tried
3rd-party binaries?
I forgot to mention GNOME project's
Totem Xine/GStreamer player that also has a Firefox plugin. It is used by default on Ubuntu.
Then there's
MediaPlayerConnectivity add-on for launching an external media player window (MPlayer, Xine, VLC). This is a very nice tool.