Multi-threaded MPlayer

I want to make MPlayer utilise more than one core. I searched a bit and found a tutorial and a discussion about this. The solution is to run the mplayer executable with the -lavdopts option like this:

mplayer -lavdopts threads=2

The above will make mplayer use two cores. Of course, this option can be specified in ~/.mplayer/config for the profile (default or other) you use, as:

lavdopts=threads=2

I have tweaked the configuration file, so in my case, this line goes here:

# Write your default config options here!

[smplayer]
# Disable screensaver.
heartbeat-cmd="xscreensaver-command -deactivate >&- 2>&- &"
lavdopts=threads=2

[default]
panscan=1.0

#

I have two earlier posts regarding my MPlayer configuration. The heartbeat-cmd option, part of the [smplayer] profile is discussed here. The reason for putting the panscan option in the [default] profile is explained here.