Stream video on VLC Player over sftp with ssh key authorization

You need to correctly format the MRL so that it works; for example:

sftp://victor@webserver/home/victor/hdd/Apricot.mp4

Specifying the user (victor@) is mandatory so that VLC uses your key.

In my specific case I'm using Dolphin (KDE) file browser, I changed the URL address from: (change webserver to the target IP address or hostname)

 sftp://webserver/home/victor/hdd/

To

 sftp://victor@webserver/home/victor/hdd/

That way when I open a remote media VLC doesn't ask for a password and is able to play the media.