Description of problem: Totem always uses the xine-backend, running "totem-backend -b gstreamer" as root does not change this. The only way I've found to run totem using the gstreamer backend is by invoking: totem-backend -b gstreamer totem as normal user. This can be a rather nasty F-9 surprise for people like me who have spend a lot of time to create a good gstreamer setup / have written lots of gstreamer patches to get good multimedia support! I would _really_ like to see this fixed before F-9, let me know if there is anything I can do to help achieve that. To reproduce: start totem, or a website with embedded media which will start the totem plugin. Goto the about bix, it will always say: "using xine-lib version 1.1.11.1", independent of how you've configured things through totem-backend.
I am running into the same issue and additionally think that this is a F9blocker. Actually, I did not even note that Totem switched to Xine, as I explicitly was running Gstreamer some time earlier in the F9 cycle.
That's because the alternatives file gets removed in the postun on upgrade. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 442895 ***