I downloaded mplayer from the site in RPM format, and followed the instructions for installation. But i have no idea where it was installed to, or how to run it now. I searched for mplayer and it didn't come up with any executables. Am i supposed to do something more after "rpm -Uvh package1 package2 package3"? I noticed when i rpm'ed them, package1 said [33] on the right side, package2 said [66] and package3 said [100]. Does that mean anything? Thanks.

funny enough!
(well the reason that you are so baffled is that you have not used linux enough)
I think that you have installed the gui of mplayer
which i think is called gmplayer
So while you are in X windows ,use the command gmplayer to open the gui (gui means graphics user interface) of mplayer.
If you are comfortable with command line,type mplayer in the shell(open xterm,or something like that) and you will get the mplayer.
But before that read the man pages
man mplayer
and also the help
located at
/usr/share/doc/mplayer-<blah>/

Ok, thanks for the help!

btw. the numbers are percentages for completed installation