Well, it turns out that the QT class I was using to start MPlayer is starting two instances of it. I'm not sure why , but I would guess that some of my loadlist commands are getting sent to the wrong one. In any case this doesn't appear to be a problem with MPlayer (although the one included in Mandrake 10 still insisted on loading all videos fullscreen even when I didn't want it to). Thanks for all your help.

-Ben

Oops, looks like I spoke too soon. Even when I start it from the command line I'm getting two instances. Is this normal? I'm almost positive it didn't happen before I upgraded to Mandrake 10. It still seems like it could be the source of my problem though. -Ben