mplayer does not work when Python script run in background

Question

I have a python script that plays some audio files with mplayer. This is how I call mplayer in the code:

subprocess.call(["mplayer","-msglevel","all=-1",audiofile])

it works fine if I run the script in foreground... However if I run the script in background like

sudo python script.py &

I cannot get any audio... why? How to fix it?

Answer 1

According to Mplayer FAQ:

Q: How can I run MPlayer in the background?

A: Use:

  mplayer options filename < /dev/null &

In python, use stdin argument to pass null file.

import os
import subprocess

with open(os.devnull, 'wb') as nul:
    subprocess.call(['mplayer', '-msglevel', 'all=-1', audiofile], stdin=nul)