[MPlayer-users] Re: New Mplayer Release???

[Jan Knutar]

> > > program structure?) (test_program | mplayer -slave somefile.mpg).
> >
> > Such progam just need to print command on it's stdout.
>
> I've tried this. My test_program wrote "pause" to stdout every 5
> seconds. Thus, I expected mplayer to play first 5 seconds of
> "somefile.mpg", then to halt for 5 seconds, then to play 5 seconds of
> "somefile.mpg" again.

I tried a different approach, placed this in ~/.mplayer/config:
slave=yes
input=file=/home/me/mplayerctrl

Where mplayerctrl is a fifo in my home directory (mkfifo mplayerctrl).

Then, I started mplayer on some mpeg file I had lying around,
and tried this in a shell:
echo "PAUSE" >~/mplayerctrl

Which worked, and paused mplayer. This is exactly what I needed :) Now 
my from-scratch IR remote controller hardware&software can control 
mplayer  by opening that file and writing commands to it :) (Yes, I 
know there is LIRC, blah blah :-P)