I've found a subtitle, which - when gets to the 3614.9th second - makes MPlayer eat all the available memory until the OOM killer takes action. The subtitle works with all movies. It won't work with -vo null or -vc null ;) I've attached the subtitle, and the output follows: $ mplayer /mnt/cd/Interview_with_the_vampire-01.avi -sub medaf.srt -ss 3610 -nofs MPlayer dev-CVS-031016-21:35-2.95.3 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon Thunderbird 1096 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 2) Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0 Compiled with Runtime CPU Detection - WARNING - this is not optimal! To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection Reading config file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf Reading config file /home/gabucino/.mplayer/config Reading /home/gabucino/.mplayer/codecs.conf: parse error at line 30 Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory Using built-in default codecs.conf font: can't open file: /home/gabucino/.mplayer/font/font.desc font: can't open file: /usr/share/mplayer/font/font.desc Using usleep() timing Input config file /home/gabucino/.mplayer/input.conf parsed: 53 binds Loading config '/mnt/cd/Interview_with_the_vampire-01.avi.conf' Reading config file /mnt/cd/Interview_with_the_vampire-01.avi.conf Playing /mnt/cd/Interview_with_the_vampire-01.avi Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes) AVI file format detected. VIDEO: [DX50] 640x352 24bpp 25.000 fps 1074.9 kbps (131.2 kbyte/s) Clip info: Software: Nandub v1.0rc2 SUB: Detected subtitle file format: subviewer SUB: Read 975 subtitles. SUB: Adjusted 5 subtitle(s). SUB: added subtitle file (1): medaf.srt SUB: Detected subtitle file format: mpsub SUB: Read 723 subtitles. SUB: added subtitle file (2): /mnt/cd/Interview_with_the_vampire-01.sub ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52 Using 3DNowEx optimized IMDCT transform AC3: 5.1 (3f+2r+lfe) 48000 Hz 224.0 kbit/s Using MMX optimized resampler AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 28000->192000 (224.0 kbit) Selected audio codec: [a52] afm:liba52 (AC3-liba52) ========================================================================== open: No such device vo_mga: Couldn't open /dev/mga_vid No vidix driver name provided, probing available ones! vo: X11 running at 800x600 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0.0" => local display) [mga] No supported cards found [mga] No supported cards found [nvidia_vid] Found chip: NV11 [GeForce2 MX] [nvidia_vid] arch 10 register base 4141d000 [nvidia_vid] detected memory size 64 MB [nvidia_vid] unable to setup MTRR: Function not implemented [nvidia_vid] video mode: 800x600@32 VIDIX: Description: NVIDIA RIVA OVERLAY DRIVER VIDIX: Author: Sascha Sommer <saschasommer@freenet.de> Opening video filter: [pp] Opening video filter: [scale] ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4) ========================================================================== [PP] Using external postprocessing filter, max q = 6. Checking audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/16bit -> 48000Hz/2ch/16bit... AF_pre: af format: 2 bps, 2 ch, 48000 hz, little endian signed int AF_pre: 48000Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian) AO: [oss] 48000Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian) (2 bps) Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/16bit -> 48000Hz/2ch/16bit... Starting playback... VDec: vo config request - 640 x 352 (preferred csp: Planar YV12) [PP] Using external postprocessing filter, max q = 6. VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.82:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 1 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 5 -> 4 SwScaler: BICUBIC scaler, from Planar YV12 to Packed YUY2 using MMX2 VO: [xvidix] 640x352 => 640x352 Packed YUY2 Using colorkey: ff00 [nvidia_vid] set colorkey 0xff00 called vixConfigPlayback [nvidia_vid] setting up a 640x352-81x144 video window (src 640x352), format 0x32 595559 A:3615.0 V:3615.0 A-V: -0.001 ct: 0.038 90375/90375 10% 30% 4.5% 0 6 46% Subtitle word '- Seńor Elkúrtad-A-Tökéletes-Bajnoki-Évadomat.' too long! Subtitle word '- Seńor Elkúrtad-A-Tökéletes-Bajnoki-Évadomat.' too long! Killed -- Gabucino MPlayer Core Team