Well SQLite is definitely the way to go if you want portability and speed. It’s used in a ton of projects and doesn’t require an install. All it needs is a dll that you include in your project. There certainly isn’t that same feeling of bloat you get with SQL Express. I replaced an in-memory datatable with SQLite in my pet VB project and it’s pretty easy to work with even for a newb like me.

It’s definitely a step in the right direction. I’m still not convinced that a full-fledged database will be the way to go, but using it as the cache engine definitely has helped my setup.

A database will be required for some of the features I’d like to see in future releases, so it will be interesting to see how they implement the performance of a database model, while not becoming overly bloated like MyMovies and even OML.

All I can say is it’s about damn time. I believe this is what has made XBMC so much faster at displaying movies.