I've been using mplayer for years...only recently (yesterday in fact) noticed that when attempting to play a MP4 file it looks like no actual video is created, although the app itself starts.
So looking into this I found the following in the LOG:
MPlayer SVN-r38083-9.1.0 (C) 2000-2021 MPlayer Team
Setting process priority: realtime
Playing G:\tmp\AUTO\20210128_201140.mp4.
Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes)
libavformat version 58.65.101 (internal)
libavformat file format detected.
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x307b00]Protocol name not provided, cannot determine
if input is local or a network protocol, buffers and access patterns cannot be
configured optimally without knowing the protocol
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
VIDEO: [H264] 1920x1080 24bpp 30.000 fps 34089.8 kbps (4161.4 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 58.118.100 (internal)
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
Clip info:
major_brand: mp42
minor_version: 0
compatible_brands: isommp42
creation_time: 2021-01-29T01:14:08.000000Z
location: +42.2680-083.0048/
location-eng: +42.2680-083.0048/
com.android.version: 10
com.android.capture.fps: 30.000000
Load subtitles in G:\tmp\AUTO\
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [kva] 1920x1080 => 1920x1080 Planar YV12
KVA: Setup failed!!!
...
...indeed, the "KVA: Setup failed!!!" is reporting out a problem initiating the video outout.
OK, so I went back to my startup CMD, which is:
@mode 80,60
G:\apps\multimedia\mplayer\mplayer.exe -xy %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
And here is what my mplayer.ini file looks like:
# Write your default config options here!
# VIDEO
vo=kva:snap
# 'geometry' settings, where '+0+0' is the top left
# 'x:y' will put the display at this specific location
# 'x%;y%' will put the display at this percentage of the overall screen location (50%:50% would be center of screen)
# slightly moved from LEFT and TOP sides, good for 720 playback
#geometry=10%
# full-screen-width for 1080 playback (fits on HEAD-0 window)
geometry=0%
#aspect=16:9
double=yes # double buffering(recommended for subtitles)
autoq=100 # AUTO control the video quality
#vf=pp=de,hqdn3d # additional post-processing options
#vf=pp # additional post-processing options
#framedrop="1" # For slow machines
#hardframedrop="0" # Make sure hard frame drop is off but can turn on easily now
# AUDIO
ao=kai:dart
#ao=kai:uniaud
#srate=48000
softvol-max=300
#font=g:\psfonts\verdana.ttf
#subfont=g:\psfonts\verdana.ttf
codecpath=g:\apps\multimedia\mplayer\codecs
# OTHER CONTROLS
msglevel:all=5 # set the DEBUG level (5 = DEFAULT)
cache=20480 # set the TOTAL cache size
cache-min=50 # fill xx% of TOTAL cache before playback start
autosync=30 # sync up video/audio by adjusting the algorithm
#mc=1.0 # up to how many seconds/frame to adjust
priority=realtime # set the priority of mplayer (idle,belownormal,normal,abovenormal,high,realtime)
# Video Overlay Options and VIO Message Window Options
#really-quiet=yes # limit what the VIO window shows
#fixed-vo=yes # keep display output window open between different feeds
colorkey=0x000001 # change the background to off-black, instead of bright green
# Setting for Browser User Agent response
user-agent=NSPlayer/4.1.0.3856
Is anything jumping out at anyone here? Like I said above, this is the config I've been running for somet time now, heck, my last update of anything is about 2022 timeframe.
Going to try with DIVE next to see if that results in something different...
As always: thanks everyone!