[MPlayer-users] Muting mplayer by not muting whole sound system? A feature request.

[Jouni.Lohikoski@iki.fi]

When a running mplayer is muted (sound off, shortcut 'm') it decreases
the PCM output level to 0. That will mute also all other sound devices
on that sound card. 

One reason to mute a running mplayer (-ao alsa:device=hw=0.1) would be when
watching a video stream 24/7 and once in a while would want to use XMMS 
to play some music in the middle. But if the mplayer is now muted, it 
also mutes XMMS (using hw=0.0).

Could it be possible to change the method for muting ALSA sound device
by some other means, so only mplayer would be muted?