[MPlayer-users] Re: mplayer audio from TV line???

[Erik Slagter]

> > This sounds like a severe out of memory condition!? Maybe ecasound has a
> > memory leak... 
> 
> That's very unlikely, as I got the exact same result using arecord and 
> aplay. I should try it again and watch memory usage. Also, the problem 
> happens at random time after starting; sometimes it takes thirty 
> seconds, sometimes several minutes. I've been watching TV using tvtime 
> when suddenly, horizontal noise lines appear. After a few seconds, the 
> hard drive light turns on solid, though it doesn't seem to be swapping. 
> If I don't switch to the terminal and kill ecasound or aplay 
> immediately, the machine locks up completely. The mouse (USB) is 
> unresponsive the whole time, though keyboard commands work fine.

How about a memory leak in de tv card grabber device driver?

I think monitoring memory usage is still very interesting. The behaviour
you mention sounds very familiar to me. The machine becomes unresponsive
because it is swapping all of the time.

BTW I think it may be wise to reboot after such a near-crash. You never
know what areas of system memory have become corrupt.