Multimedia :: DSL "frozen" when mplaying a lot...

Sometimes when i have been watching a lot of clips (mpg/wmv/avi) with mplayer/xine/codecpak (in X-vesa) mplayer doesn't respond anymore. Usb-stick flickers like crazy but DSL/fluxbox doesn't respond anymore (ctrl-alt-del, ctrl-alt-F1, nothing works only pushing the shutdown button for like 7 seconds)

I usually (from Firefox V1,.0PRE) click on a clip and watch it outside of FF. Should i try to have the clip being played inside FF? (i have the feeling that when i play a lot of clips, my memory (usb-stick/internal memory) goes less. When i have watched a clip with Xine, Xine doesn't always close when the clip is done.. (have to close it manually).

Any hints?

Not an expert at all, but, maybe your /tmp directory full of your clips so you have no free RAM left? Try using EmelFM to clear unneeded stuff from /tmp

Also, it could be that you are overstressing your machine?

Mplayer is a memory hog, especially in multiples.

-J.P.

Quote (Patrick @ Jan. 24 2005,05:03)

In the linux 2.4.x kernels there had been (and possibly still is) a kernel freeze problem where the kernel will lock up and freeze when it runs out of memory. The problem existed for me on my desktop with the 2.4.18 kernel so it might still exist in the 2.4.26 kernel used by the current version of DSL 0.9.2.

I am betting you are running out of RAM and the kernel is taking a dump. You can use the DSL->System->Setup DOS Swapfile option to create a swap file on a hard drive partition. And use that for your DSL session, then delete it when you are done.

I would suspect that would take care of your problem.

original here.