diff -Naur a/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1 b/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1
--- a/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1	2005-03-21 02:12:44.000000000 +0100
+++ b/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1	2005-03-30 14:02:49.890625000 +0200
@@ -544,6 +544,15 @@
 For B-frames even decoding is skipped completely.
 .
 .TP
+.B \-priority <prio> (Windows only)
+Set process priority for MPlayer according to Windows predefined priorities.
+.sp 1
+Possible values of <prio>:
+.RSs
+idle|low|belownormal|normal|abovenormal|high|realtime
+.RE
+.
+.TP
 .B \-h, \-help, \-\-help
 Show short summary of options.
 .
diff -Naur a/cfg-mplayer.h b/cfg-mplayer.h
--- a/cfg-mplayer.h	2005-03-19 21:55:52.000000000 +0100
+++ b/cfg-mplayer.h	2005-03-30 14:09:09.593750000 +0200
@@ -105,6 +105,10 @@
 extern int nortc;
 #endif
 
+#ifdef WIN32
+extern char * proc_priority;
+#endif
+
 /* from libvo/aspect.c */
 extern float monitor_aspect;
 
@@ -247,6 +251,9 @@
 	
     {"adapter", &vo_adapter_num, CONF_TYPE_INT, CONF_RANGE, 0, 5, NULL},
     {"refreshrate",&vo_refresh_rate,CONF_TYPE_INT,CONF_RANGE, 0,100, NULL},
+#ifdef WIN32
+	{"priority", &proc_priority, CONF_TYPE_STRING, 0, 0, 0, NULL},
+#endif
 	{"wid", &WinID, CONF_TYPE_INT, 0, 0, 0, NULL},
 #ifdef HAVE_X11
 	// x11,xv,xmga,xvidix
diff -Naur a/mplayer.c b/mplayer.c
--- a/mplayer.c	2005-02-25 12:11:08.000000000 +0100
+++ b/mplayer.c	2005-03-30 14:09:09.593750000 +0200
@@ -997,6 +997,24 @@
 }
 #endif
 
+#ifdef WIN32
+char * proc_priority;
+
+struct priority_preset_t {
+  char* name;
+  int prio;
+} priority_presets_defs[] = {
+  { "realtime", REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "high", HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "abovenormal", ABOVE_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "normal", NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "belownormal", BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "low", IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { "idle", IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS},
+  { NULL, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS} /* default */
+};
+#endif /* WIN32 */
+
 int main(int argc,char* argv[]){
 
 
@@ -1145,6 +1163,18 @@
       }
     }
 	
+#ifdef WIN32
+	if(proc_priority){
+		int i;
+		for(i=0; priority_presets_defs[i].name; i++){
+			if(strcasecmp(priority_presets_defs[i].name, proc_priority) == 0)
+				break;
+		}
+		mp_msg(MSGT_CPLAYER,MSGL_STATUS,"Setting process priority: %s\n",
+				priority_presets_defs[i].name);
+		SetPriorityClass(GetCurrentProcess(), priority_presets_defs[i].prio);
+	}
+#endif	
 #ifndef HAVE_NEW_GUI
     if(use_gui){
       mp_msg(MSGT_CPLAYER,MSGL_WARN,MSGTR_NoGui);