Displaying Video in a Text Console?

[Hart Larry]

Hi All:  Just got a newer monitor which is working better in linux.  I 
downloaded some boxing from the 60s to show my Dad yesterday.  I play these 
.avis with mplayer.  Well, my Dad just saw numbers-and-letters, along with 
shadows of the Boxers.  I suppose the numbers are the progress which mplayer is 
sending to Speakup.
My question is, is their a way in a straight commandline console to watch one 
of these files, without starting x or booting in windows xp?
Thanks so much in advance
Hart