(g)mplayer stops

I have two machines both running uptodate Debian Testing. They both have Mplayer and mozilla-mplayer installed.

One of them will play video from the web using Iceweasel and the other won't. On the one that won't I see a message saying 'buffering' then a short while later 'stopped'. Restarting produces the same 'stopped' message.

Also on the machine that doesn't play if I start gmplayer or mplayer from a console window the lines displayed are the same as on the machine that does work except for the last line which is:

Option Creating needs a parameter at line 1

and then back to the console prompt.

Any ideas please?

-- 
Barry Samuels
http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk
The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain