[MPlayer-users] Howto make dumpstream quit if no stream to dump?

[tps]

Dear All,

I have a setup where I stream video with ffserver/ffmpeg.

Sometimes I don't what the stream to be available through ffserver, so I 
quit the ffmpeg process that sends data to ffserver.

Besides streaming the video I would also like to save the video for 
later reference.

For that I use mplayer with the dumpstream option connecting to the 
stream I serve through ffserver/ffmpeg.

Is there anyway I can set up a call to mplayer with the dumpstream 
option so the stream will be dumped when ever the stream is available? I 
would like the mplayer command to run all the time so I don't have to 
call the mplayer command when ever the stream is up again.

When I call mplayer with the dumpstream option and the stream is served 
everything is fine. I capture video to a file. But if the stream is 
unavailabe or becomes unavailable mplayer just hangs. I do not get my 
prompt back.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Thomas S