Thanks Serge, I did follow the instructions to remove the config file before installing the new .deb version of mplayer but then tried to run the old ./mplayer command from the previous directory where an old version of mplayer was still stored. I imagine this could have re-created the file? (What else should we delete from an old mplayer install i.e. the old mplayer executable?)

Anyway config was there again, I removed it and now mplayer playback is very good and it looks like audio is fine with a quick test thank you for your help!

--edit-- It seems I do not need the -bandwidth option now either Thanks very much Serge it works very very well streaming from TVersity.