Re: [Mplayerplug-in-devel] mplayerplug-in leaving zombies

[Forest B. <fo...@al...>]

Hi Kevin,

On Wed, Oct 03, 2007 at 06:14:28AM -0600, Kevin DeKorte wrote:
> Forest Bond wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 01, 2007 at 09:38:38AM -0600, Kevin DeKorte wrote:
> >> Forest Bond wrote:
> >>> As you may remember, my application uses the mplayer plug-in to displ=
ay
> >>> television channels.  I am conducting some testing where my code
> >>> continuously changes the television channel on a delay loop.  The cha=
nnel is
> >>> changed by calling Stop(), SetURL(), and then Play().
> >> might want to try calling "quit()" instead of stop. As that should kill
> >> mplayer where Stop might try to pause the media. Also instead of
> >> "SetURL" you might try "Open" or "filename =3D "tv://x" where x is your
> >> channel.
> >=20
> > Why are there so many different ways to do these things?
>=20
> Compatibility with different plugins. And also how some of this stuff wor=
ks.

Ok, that makes some sense, although I suspect things could be simplified at
least a little bit, maybe.

> > On the other hand, I'm not entirely clear as to why the player process =
is being
> > killed at all.  Why not keep the slave mplayer process alive for the en=
tire
> > duration of the plugin instance's life?  That would certainly simplify =
some of
> > the thread/process management issues, and would also result in shorter =
delay
> > between play, stop, etc.
>=20
> The main reason is this. When a media file is over in mplayer "-idle"
> mode. Mplayer doesn't say that the file is over. It just quits sending
> output. I've asked them to add this feature or even to add a property
> that can be queried to see if the file is complete. But so far no good.

There is such a property:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
get_property filename
ANS_filename=3Dtest.mpg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----

But after the file has finished playing:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
get_property filename

---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----

> > Also, I've found that things go bad when I do this:
> >=20
> > mplayer.filename =3D 'foo';
> > mplayer.Play();
> > mplayer.filename =3D 'bar';
> >=20
> > This seems to be necessary, instead:
> >=20
> > mplayer.filename =3D 'foo';
> > mplayer.Play();
> > mplayer.Stop();
> > # delay here ...
> > mplayer.filename =3D 'bar';
> > mplayer.Play();
> >=20
>=20
> Have you tried "quit()" instead of "Stop()"? They actually do different
> things.

Yes, I believe I tried it.  Both require a delay that is much too long for =
my
application.  Using the loadfile command to mplayer reduces that delay
significantly (a power of ten or more, rough estimate).

What do quit and Stop do differently?

Thanks,
Forest
--=20
Forest Bond
http://www.alittletooquiet.net