@ Josiah:
the -softvol-max filter was taken from the mplayer man page. It does not seem to work with the internet tablets.

Also, I will rewrite the first part of the script to make it better for the arguments. This would mean I will change from "if the first argument is..." to "if ANY argument is..."
the only way I see doing this is a loop, going from 1 to $#. anyone can suggest a more elegant way? If so, please do in the next 6-7 hours, since it is then that I will rewrite the script.

oh, and a thought just crossed my mind: would it be reasonable to start a new thread for this script, or should we just continue here, although it isn't [anymore] related to TCPMP. the only relation that still exists is that we're trying to implement most of tcpmp's features in one script.