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I was trying to play a video on my laptop using SSH command from my android phone(JuiceSSH). but the video started playing in bytes in my phone's terminal. the player was VLC player. how can I make it run the movie on the laptop not on my phone terminal.

Rui F Ribeiro
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  • Is there someone logged in on the laptop's console? – Celada Mar 08 '16 at 08:48
  • @Celada yes. does it make any differences? –  Mar 08 '16 at 09:09
  • Makes it easier, especially if it's the same user logged in to the console and logging in by SSH. Therefore I thought it would be relevant info to include in your question. But it looks like you got an answer so it's all good. – Celada Mar 09 '16 at 21:30

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VLC would be using the X Window System for the pictures. If you have a session running on the laptop, e.g., its desktop, X would be running.

From the desktop you can make a connection to X without problem, and use xhost to add your phone to the "computers" which can connect to the X display. Something like this (in a terminal on the laptop):

xhost +myphone

where myphone is the hostname of your phone. Then in the phone, you would set the DISPLAY variable (if VLC has no suitable command-line option) to point to that X display, e.g,

export DISPLAY=mylaptop
vlc

In the DISPLAY variable, you have to use the screen number (usually 0 for the actual computer), e.g., "mylaptop:0".

Further reading:

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Thomas Dickey
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  • works like a chump!!! Thank you so much. very usefull. –  Mar 08 '16 at 09:21
  • Uh? The video is being played by a process running on the laptop, to display on the laptop. xhost is useless and dangerous. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Mar 08 '16 at 22:34
  • I explictly pointed to opening up the specific hostname, as well as providing suitable reading to cover the problems with the approach. Everyone knows about xhost +; it seems that some people never noticed the "+". – Thomas Dickey Mar 09 '16 at 21:55