[linux] No option to use external player.

[kumawatdarshan]

Theres an option "Launch playerin a separate window (advanced)" that is a boolean. All it does is launch the player in mpv like window. It does not make use of the system mpv(which I want) but some barebones player that only has basic functionalities.

Dynamically selecting player or using the env var VIDEO_PLAYER should be the ideal choice (and to extend work done here to stremio-web #f5a0bc8)

tested on: nix pkgs, flatpak

[eleloi]

I think Stremio needs to have the vlc executable into /usr/bin/vlc. In NixOs this link is not there, but in /run/current-system/sw/bin/vlc.

So I achieve to have external player in stremio creating this external link with a system.activationScripts, like so

  system.activationScripts."vlc-link" = {
    text = ''
      ln -sf ${unstable.vlc}/bin/vlc /usr/bin/vlc
    '';
  };

But it works only with the installed version of stremio, not the flatpak one. I try to manually grant access to /usr/bin to this app with Flatseal, but with no success. WIP...

[rijnhard]

I have the same issue in flatpak, it needs to use flatpak-spawn --host. that doesn't solve the self discovery issue though.

see flatpak-spawn

[lucscamps]

I have the same issue in flatpak, it needs to use flatpak-spawn --host. that doesn't solve the self discovery issue though.

see flatpak-spawn

@rijnhard Hay mate, mind to tell me how can I use that? Tried different methods with no avail. =(

[rijnhard]

Unfortunately it needs a change in the application, it's been on my todo list for a while but all my personal projects are currently on pause.

On Fri, 7 Nov 2025, 21:26 lucscamps, @.***> wrote:

lucscamps left a comment (Stremio/stremio-shell#417) https://github.com/Stremio/stremio-shell/issues/417#issuecomment-3504467851

I have the same issue in flatpak, it needs to use flatpak-spawn --host. that doesn't solve the self discovery issue though.

see flatpak-spawn https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/flatpak-command-reference.html#flatpak-spawn

@rijnhard https://github.com/rijnhard Hay mate, mind to tell me how can I use that? Tried different methods with no avail. =(

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