[MPlayer-users] controlling multiple instances of MPlayer (Win7)

[Lobster]

On 5/11/2010 11:44 p.m., Wybe Horsman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I digitally restore 8mm films. That often means changing a certain filter or processing parameter (sometime multi-pass processing) and see if the result is better than the original (or previous version). So I have to compare movies. The tricky part is to view multiple movies simultaneously and let them be controlled by a single commanding source (keyboard e.g.)
> I discovered that I can control MPlayer via external commands in slave mode. But how can I control multiple instances, all in slave mode, simultaneously?
> I think in Unix it should't be so hard: you define a named pipe (fifo) as input and, from the command line, you pipe the keyboard to that fifo device/file. You then let all MPlayer instances use that fifo as controlling input (option -input)
> But how can I do that in Windows? Or is there another way to control multiple instances?

This might be of use, how ever I am unsure how the windows support is,

The following is taken from the man page

-udp-ip <ip>
Sets the destination address for datagrams sent by the -udp-mas‐
ter. Setting it to a broadcast address allows multiple slaves
having the same broadcast address to sync to the master (de‐
fault: 127.0.0.1).

-udp-master
Send a datagram to -udp-ip on -udp-port just before playing each
frame. The datagram indicates the master’s position in the
file.

-udp-port <port>
Sets the destination port for datagrams sent by the -udp-master,
and the port a -udp-slave listens on (default: 23867).

-udp-seek-threshold <sec>
When the master seeks, the slave has to decide whether to seek
as well, or to catch up by decoding frames without pausing be‐
tween frames. If the master is more than <sec> seconds away
from the slave, the slave seeks. Otherwise, it "runs" to catch
up or waits for the master. This should almost always be left
at its default setting of 1 second.

-udp-slave
Listen on -udp-port and match the master’s position.


using the above options will allow you to have a master MPlayer, and all
others will slave to it.

Have a play and see how you go.
I would be interested to know how well that works on windows (if it does).