[MPlayer-users] Inactive RAM problem in OS X 10.5

[Joshua Lippai]

Hello,

I have noticed since starting to use Mac OS X 10.5 that Mplayer (both
commandline compiled from SVN and "MPlayer OSX variants) that playing
files in MPlayer causes a certain amount (perhaps proportional to the
size of the file) of Memory to go into "Inactive" mode. This would be
fine if the memory functioned as advertised and got allocated to
programs that need it when "free" RAM runs out, but I find that it
does not get reallocated. Thus if I open several video files in a row,
each one adds to the "Inactive RAM" amount and at a certain point the
entire computer (including MPlayer, since even it can't use this
memory it tagged as "inactive") starts lagging because it has run out
free memory and cannot access the inactive memory. I was wondering if
anyone has found a way around this problem, and if not, whether
someone knows enough about OS X development to perhaps point me in the
right direction to look into perhaps making a patch to get MPlayer to
only take RAM as "active" in OS X, since this all gets released by
MPlayer once it quits. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Josh