I've compiled mplayer from svn and copied the mplayer binary file to /usr/bin/player; thereby overwriting the binary from the feisty repos. All works fine now, incl mencoder (note: I didn't copy the mencoder binary).
Conclusion is that the mplayer binary has an bug, properly related to mp3lib.
I've compiled mplayer from svn and copied the mplayer binary file to /usr/bin/player; thereby overwriting the binary from the feisty repos. All works fine now, incl mencoder (note: I didn't copy the mencoder binary).
Conclusion is that the mplayer binary has an bug, properly related to mp3lib.