[CentOS] RPMforge mplayerplug-in seems to be locking up my sound device

Got home from vacation last night and ran yum update.  Among other
things installed was mplayerplug-in-3.25-1.el4.rf ... now any time I
attempt to view CNN video, my sound device locks up -- I eventually
end up having to kill firefox, and anything thereafter that attempts
to access sound (such as system-config-soundcard) also ends up wedged.

Previously this only happened sporadically and after several hours of
successful use of the plugin.  I have nVidia onboard sound, using the
snd_intel8x0 driver module.  Anybody have any suggestions?