[MEncoder-users] using mencoder as a virtual device

[Reza Roboubi]

RC wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 06:01:37 -0700
> Reza Roboubi <reza at parvan.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>>This way, another application can send decoded video output
>>to it, and mencoder can encode it's input into any of the
>>known formats.
> 
> 
> MPlayer supports a huge number of input formats, and you're sure to find
> some that your application can output to.  

That would be RealPlayer.  I never even considered looking at it, until
I got "RTSP/1.0 400 Bad Request" from mplayer:
http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2006-April/059560.html

I still haven't downloaded RealPlayer, but from my past experience
I seem to recall they deliberately didn't have a "dump stream" feature;
presumably to protect the copyrighted material of their customers.

Of course, what I want to do is probably _perfectly_ legal in any imaginable
jurisdiction that matters, but still, there is the technical issue of how?

So it would be really cool, to let mencoder somehow act as a "virtual
graphics card" and receive input as such.

What does it take to implement this feature?

Reza.