[MPlayer-users] MPlayer hangs in slave mode on Windows

[Reimar Döffinger]

On 13.12.2014, at 17:37, Anton Sviridenko <anton at corp.bluecherry.net> wrote:
> I am using r37337 build by Redxii from mplayerwin.sf.net. Exactly the
> same build works perfectly when it is being run by SMPlayer.
> 
> But I observe this behavior - when I try to run mplayer from cmd.exe
> and set -slave switch, mplayer starts, shows video window with first
> frame and then hangs (Windows shows "not responding, cursors starts
> rotating, etc). I found accidentally that if I press Enter in cmd.exe
> console it starts playing until mouse click on video window. Then it
> hangs again.I also tried to run mplayer in slave mode from Cygwin
> console and it plays without hangs there.
> 
> I'm trying to use mplayer in slave mode  for playing videos inside
> application I develop and it hangs probably due to same reason.

I you use slave mode you must connect stdin to a proper file/pipe where read, select etc. works in the expected way.
In the normal command-line stdin is connect to a console which is a horrible and crazy construct that behaves in no sane way, so all kinds of strange effects happen (since -slave disables the workarounds we use to read keyboard input from it).