Playing many small videos to TV from PC

[JeeDub]

I am working on a project that is to have a number of videos (of various lengths and resolutions) played from a laptop (with S-Video out) to a television in a kind of pseudo TV station feed, i.e. documentary shorts, funny skits, homemade commercials, etc. and with info screens interspersed (game schedules, standings, etc), and anything else we can think of to fill the 1 or 2 hour cycle before repeating.
Finding or inventing content isn't the problem, we have lots of ideas, but what I would like to do is make it as user friendly as possible and put it in a script or something that would play the files in order without much user intervention. The thing is, the schedules and standings screens (which I know how to create) have to be updated every 2 hours with the latest information, so I don't want to make up one long video and play it non-stop, I would like to be able to sequentially play these files (even repeating some once in a while) and just change the info files occasionally. I am familiar with lots of ways of making videos and such but I am wondering if anyone else out there has done anything like this and can help me along with some pointers and pitfall avoidance. With all the neat, free software out there I am sure I can create a nice presentation that will work. I am a very competent Windows user and have done lots of different stuff in the past, but nothing quite like this. One area I know I may have trouble with is background sound/music and so any help in that area would also be appreciated.
Thanks in advance to all, I am looking forward to your suggestions.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Try the GMFPlayer available here: http://www.gdcl.co.uk/gmfbridge/GMFBridge.zip

The file contains all the source code and the compiled program.

You can create a list of files and the program will play them sequentially.

Written by the bloke who *invented* DirectShow!

[JeeDub]

Thanks for the tip, I will look at that tonight.

[JeeDub]

Either I am stupid or this software isn't even close to doing what I want.
Maybe I didn't explain it well enough, but I don't think this is what I need.

Thanks, anyway.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Oh - sorry. I thought you wanted to be able to create a list of video files to play back-to-back. The example 'GMFPlayer.exe' does exactly that (but it's buried within the zip file that also contains a load of source code for other stuff).

[olyteddy]

VLC with a playlist? Then you could update any of the clips, saving the newer version with the name that's already on the playlist.

[JeeDub]

Bumping for more help here, I hope you don't mind.
Part of the above mentioned project I need to have a little video short that looks like someone is using a TV remote and is "flipping" through the channels until something you want to watch comes on.
I'm sure most people know what I mean, you see it on shows or movies where someone is searching or surfing and you see a quick flash of a cartoon, then maybe a cowboy movie, then a news reporter, then some other show - just to give you the impression that someone is flipping through the channels.
Does anyone know if there are any already created clips out there or has someone got any ideas on how to easily make one of these?

Thanks in advance . . .