flv=`sed -n '
/xmlfile/{
s-.*e=http://\([^/]*\)-url="nc \1 80" ; -
s_\(/[^"]*\)".*$_\
http="GET \1 HTTP/1.0\\r\\n\\r\\n"\n\
printf %b "$http" | $url | sed -n "/^<FLV/{s-<[^>]*>--g;p;q}"_p
q
}' "${1-/tmp/1tv}"`
$mplayer `eval "$flv"`

Given a file (`wget "$url"`), this way i can get flv of news from 1tv.ru, which (attention!) has more actual resolution, than in browser. Player there is a stupid one, without even zoom. URL of flv file must be requested from some twisted XML service. Oh, gee...

How i watch videos in text mode with `mplayer`, was posted here already.