Hard to say if this shouldn't be in Linux - Server...

I'm currently attempting to slowly build out a Media Server/LAMP machine; it's doing the LAMP thing just fine. I've also got the box hooked up to my TV but haven't gotten around to making use of that, until now.

Since I have my laptop on 24/7 and usually within arm's reach, I'd like to be able to run an X session, say, to play a movie/dvd from the server and display it on the TV.

I've read a few thing about dmx and others suggesting VNC. I'm not for using VNC as I'm most certain there is a simpler way of doing this.

I've noted some people on the forums have mentioned passing the $DISPLAY variable with the associated screen to get this to work.

I do not want the overhead of an xserver running when I'm not making use of it, I'd like to just pass a command such as startx followed with a xine or xmplayer line to startup a movie. Once I'm done watching the film I'd like to kill the playback as well as the X session.

A concern: since I'm very rarely at the console, does passing the $DISPLAY get X to just take over the screen even though the terminal hasn't been logged into?

Thanks for any pointers/information/previous threads/articles/or direct solutions ahead of time!

So, I'm quite sure I didn't fully understand your post but I still want to give it a try . You mean something like logging into some kind of movie server using "ssh -Y -C yourserver" and afterwards watching the movie locally as you usually do (e.g. "mplayer mymovie.avi")?

Laptop ~ Network ~ Server -> TV

SHH from Laptop to the server, and initiate an X session locally to the server, as to run mplayer (and such) on the TV plugged into the server.

(use the laptop as a giant remote)

Keep in mind that in order to use the ssh -Y command you have to enable X11 forwarding in the sshd_config file on the computer you're trying to connect to.