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https://github.com/ajatt-tools/mpvacious

🍜 Adds mpv keybindings to create Anki cards from movies and TV shows.
https://github.com/ajatt-tools/mpvacious

ajatt anki anki-cards flashcards language-learning lua mpv mpv-script spaced-repetition subs2srs subtitles yomichan

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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🍜 Adds mpv keybindings to create Anki cards from movies and TV shows.

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README 

          
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# mpvacious



Mpvacious is a user script for [mpv](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mpv)

that offers utilities for creating and modifying Anki flashcards from movies and TV shows.

It allows you to select subtitle lines, create audio clips and images, and send them to Anki.

The script supports secondary subtitles, configurable media formats, and customizable keyboard bindings.

Mpvacious works best with [Goldendict-ng](https://xiaoyifang.github.io/goldendict-ng/) or [Rikaitan](https://rikaitan.ajatt.top/).

Watch a [📽️ video demonstration](https://ajatt.top/blog/vid/sentence_mining_with_mpvacious.mp4).



✨ Ajatt-Tools is looking for **[new contributors](#contributing)**!



## Requirements



You need to install some third-party programs before you install mpvacious.



    GNU/Linux

    Windows 10+

    macOS

    Comments



    mpv

    mpv

    mpv

    mpvacious is a user-script for mpv. Get mpv v0.41.0 or newer.



    Anki

    Anki

    



    AnkiConnect

    Install from AnkiWeb.



    curl

    curl

    Installed by default on all platforms except Windows 7.



    xclip or wl-copy

    

    pbcopy

    To copy subtitle text to clipboard.



Install all dependencies at once (on [Arch-based](https://www.parabola.nu/)

[distros](https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html)):



```

sudo pacman -Syu mpv curl xclip --needed

trizen -S anki

```



## Prerequisites



* A guide on how to set up Anki can be found [on our site](https://tatsumoto.neocities.org/blog/setting-up-anki.html).

* If you're on a [Windows](https://www.fsf.org/windows) or a [Windows-like](https://reactos.org/) machine,

  a mpv build by `shinchiro` is recommended.

* **macOS** users are advised to use [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) or manually add `mpv` to `PATH`.

* Note that it is not recommended to use FlatPak or similar containers.

  If you still want to, [read this](howto/flatpak.md).

* Make sure that your build of mpv supports encoding of audio and images.

  This shell command can be used to test it.



  ```

  $ mpv 'test_video.mkv' --loop-file=no --frames=1 -o='test_image.jpg'

  ```



  If the command fails, find a compatible build on the [mpv website](https://mpv.io/installation/)

  or instead install FFmpeg and [enable FFmpeg support](#configuration) in `mpvacious`'s config file.

* Most problems with adding audio or images to Anki cards can be fixed

  by installing FFmpeg and enabling it settings.



## Installation



There are multiple ways you can install `mpvacious`.



We recommend using GNU/Linux.

Windows is not recommended,

but we acknowledge that some people haven't switched to GNU/Linux yet.



### From the AUR



`mpvacious` can be installed with the [mpv-mpvacious](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mpv-mpvacious/) package.

This method will install mpvacious to `/etc/mpv`.



### Using Bash on GNU/Linux and macOS



*Requires `curl` and `unzip`.*



Run [install.sh](scripts/install.sh) with this command:



```sh

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious/HEAD/scripts/install.sh)"

```



On GNU/Linux, we try to detect what package manager variant of the config location you're using, with precedent being:



```

~/.var/app/io.mpv.Mpv     (flatpak)

~/snap/mpv

~/snap/mpv-wayland

~/.config/mpv

```



To install into any of these locations, make sure the ones above it don't exist.



### Using Powershell on Windows



Open [Powershell](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/).



*Optional, needed to run a remote script the first time if not enabled already:*



```powershell

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

```



Run [install.ps1](scripts/install.ps1) with this command:



```powershell

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious/HEAD/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

```



**NOTE**: If this command is run in an mpv installation directory with `portable_config`,

it'll install there instead of `AppData`.



### Development mode - Using git



Installing Mpvacious in development mode allows contributors to easily test their changes.

With this setup, any changes made to the *.lua files will be applied immediately after restarting mpv.



#### First approach



Clone the repository, then create a symlink from the `mpvacious` directory to the mpv config directory.



Commands for GNU/Linux:



```bash

git clone 'https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious.git'

mkdir -p ~/.config/mpv/scripts/

cd mpvacious

bash scripts/symlink.sh

```



To update an existing installation, use `git` in the project folder.



```bash

git pull

```



#### Second approach



Clone the repo directly into the `mpv/scripts` directory.



Commands for GNU/Linux:



```bash

mkdir -p ~/.config/mpv/scripts/

git clone 'https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious.git' ~/.config/mpv/scripts/mpvacious

```



To update an existing installation, use `git`.



```

cd ~/.config/mpv/scripts/mpvacious && git pull

```



### Manually



This way is not recommended because it's easy to make a mistake during the process

and end up with a broken installation.



`mpvacious` is a user-script for mpv,

so it has to be installed in the directory `mpv` reads its user-scripts from.



| OS                 | Location                                         |

|--------------------|--------------------------------------------------|

| GNU/Linux or macos | `~/.config/mpv/scripts/`                         |

| Windows            | `C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/mpv/scripts/` |



Download

[the latest release](https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious/releases)

or [the master branch](https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious/archive/refs/heads/master.zip)

for a development version, and extract the "mpvacious" folder

to your [mpv scripts](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/User-Scripts) directory.



Expected directory tree



```

~/.config/mpv/scripts

|-- other script 1

|-- other script 2

|-- mpvacious

|   |-- main.lua

|   |-- helpers.lua

|   `-- other files

`-- other script 3

```



A note for mpv v0.32 and older



Older versions of `mpv` don't know how to handle user-scripts in subdirectories.

You need to tell mpv where to look for `mpvacious`.



Open or create  `~/.config/mpv/scripts/modules.lua` and add these lines:

```

local mpv_scripts_dir_path = os.getenv("HOME") ..  "/.config/mpv/scripts/"

package.path = package.path .. ';' .. os.getenv("HOME") .. '/.config/mpv/scripts/mpvacious/?.lua'

function load(relative_path) dofile(mpv_scripts_dir_path .. relative_path) end

load("mpvacious/main.lua")

```



A note for Celluloid



In [Celluloid](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/celluloid/)

user scripts are installed in `/.config/celluloid/scripts/`.

When following the instructions above, replace `.config/mpv` with `.config/celluloid`

and optionally `mpvacious` with the name of the folder mpvacious is cloned into.



## Configuration



The config file should be created by the user, if needed.



| OS                 | Config location                                                   |

|--------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GNU/Linux          | `~/.config/mpv/script-opts/subs2srs.conf`                         |

| Windows            | `C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/mpv/script-opts/subs2srs.conf` |

| Windows (portable) | `mpv.exe folder/portable_config/script-opts/subs2srs.conf`        |



If a parameter is not specified

in the config file, the default value will be used.

mpv doesn't tolerate spaces before and after `=`.





  Example configuration file




If the first field is empty, it will be set contain the string `[empty]`.

Otherwise, Anki won't allow mpvacious to add new notes.

This won't happen if the sentence field is first in the note type settings.



**Tip**: Try [our official note type](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1557722832)

if you don't want to configure note fields yourself.

Alternatively, we have a collection of user-created note types, which you can browse

[here](https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/AnkiNoteTypes).



If you are having problems playing media files on older mobile devices,

set `audio_format` to `mp3` and/or `snapshot_format` to `jpg`.

Otherwise, I recommend sticking with `opus` for audio,

and `avif` or `webp` for images,

as they greatly reduce the size of the generated files.



If you still use AnkiMobile (the [proprietary](https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/) Anki app),

set `opus_container` to `m4a` or `webm`. I'll allow iOS to play Opus files, while still maintaining

compatibility with non-Apple devices. For ancient iOS devices, set `opus_container` to

[`caf`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Audio_Format). CAF plays only on Anki Desktop,

AnkiWeb in Safari and AnkiMobile, and is really not recommended. (Please note that

[Lockdown Mode](https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120) completely disables Opus and AVIF support,

though you may try to add an exception for AnkiMobile.)



If no matter what mpvacious fails to create audio clips and/or snapshots,

change `use_ffmpeg` to `yes`.

By using ffmpeg instead of the encoder built in mpv you can work around most encoder issues.

You need to have `ffmpeg` installed for this to work.



### Key bindings



The user may change some global key bindings, though this step is not necessary.

See [Usage](#usage) for the explanation of what they do.



| OS        | Config location                                    |

|-----------|----------------------------------------------------|

| GNU/Linux | `~/.config/mpv/input.conf`                         |

| Windows   | `C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/mpv/input.conf` |



Default bindings:



```

a            script-binding mpvacious-menu-open



Ctrl+g       script-binding mpvacious-animated-snapshot-toggle



Ctrl+n       script-binding mpvacious-export-note



Ctrl+b       script-binding mpvacious-update-selected-note

Ctrl+B       script-binding mpvacious-overwrite-selected-note



Ctrl+m       script-binding mpvacious-update-last-note

Ctrl+M       script-binding mpvacious-overwrite-last-note



g            script-binding mpvacious-quick-card-menu-open

Alt+g        script-binding mpvacious-quick-card-sel-menu-open



Ctrl+c       script-binding mpvacious-copy-primary-sub-to-clipboard

Ctrl+C       script-binding mpvacious-copy-secondary-sub-to-clipboard

Ctrl+t       script-binding mpvacious-autocopy-toggle



H            script-binding mpvacious-sub-seek-back

L            script-binding mpvacious-sub-seek-forward



Alt+h        script-binding mpvacious-sub-seek-back-pause

Alt+l        script-binding mpvacious-sub-seek-forward-pause



Ctrl+h       script-binding mpvacious-sub-rewind

Ctrl+H       script-binding mpvacious-sub-replay

Ctrl+L       script-binding mpvacious-sub-play-up-to-next



Ctrl+v       script-binding mpvacious-secondary-sid-toggle

Ctrl+k       script-binding mpvacious-secondary-sid-prev

Ctrl+j       script-binding mpvacious-secondary-sid-next

```



**Note:** A capital letter means that you need to press Shift in order to activate the corresponding binding.

For example, Ctrl+M actually means Ctrl+Shift+m.

`mpv` accepts both variants in `input.conf`.



## Usage



* [Create a card](howto/create_card.md)

* [Quick card creation](howto/create_quick_card.md)

* [Updating selected cards](howto/update_selected_card.md)

* [Open the "Add" dialog](howto/add_dialog.md)

* [Usage with Rikaitan](howto/yomichan.md)

* [Usage with GoldenDict](howto/goldendict.md)



### Global bindings



**Menu:**



* a - Open `advanced menu`.



**Enable\Disable animation:**



* Ctrl+g - If animation is enabled, animated snapshots will be generated instead of static images.

  Animated snapshot are like GIFs (just in a different format)

  and will capture the video from the start to the end times selected.



**Make a card:**



* Ctrl+n - Export a card with the currently visible subtitle line on the front.

Use this when your subs are well-timed,

and the target sentence doesn't span multiple subs.



**Quick card creation:**



* g - Quick card creation menu.

* Alt+g - Quick card creation, card selection menu.



**Update the selected cards:**



* Ctrl+b - Append to the media fields of the selected Anki cards.

* Ctrl+Shift+b - Overwrite media fields of the selected Anki cards.



**Update the last card:**



* Ctrl+m - Append to the media fields of the newly added Anki card.

* Ctrl+Shift+m - Overwrite media fields of the newly added Anki card.



**Clipboard:**



* Ctrl+c - Copy current subtitle string to the system clipboard.

* Ctrl+t - Toggle automatic copying of subtitles to the clipboard.



**Seeking:**



* Shift+h and Shift+l - Seek to the previous or the next subtitle.

* Alt+h and Alt+l - Seek to the previous, or the next subtitle, and pause.

* Ctrl+h - Seek to the start of the currently visible subtitle. Use it if you missed something.

* Ctrl+Shift+h - Replay current subtitle line, and pause.

* Ctrl+Shift+l - Play until the end of the next subtitle, and pause. Useful for beginners who need

  to look up words in each and every dialogue line.



**Secondary subtitles:**



* Ctrl+v - Toggle visibility.

* Ctrl+k - Switch to the previous subtitle if it's not already selected.

* Ctrl+j - Switch to the next subtitle if it's not already selected.



### Menu options



Advanced menu has the following options:



* i - Cycle between display modes.

* v - Open subtitle selection menu. Upon exit, this menu exports selected subtitles into Advanced menu.



* f - Increment number of cards to update.

  Only affects note updating, including quick card creation.

  The number of cards to update is reset to 1 upon updating a note.

* shift+f - Decrement number of cards to update.



* c - Interactive subtitle selection.

  The range of the currently displayed subtitle line is selected. The selection then grows both ways based on the following displayed lines.

  It does nothing if there are no subs on screen.



* shift+s - Set the start time to the current sub.

  The selection then grows forward based on the following displayed lines.

  The default selection spans across the range of the currently displayed subtitle line.

* shift+e - Set the end time to the current sub.

  The selection then grows backward based on the following displayed lines.

  The default selection spans across the range of the currently displayed subtitle line.



Then seek with Shift+h and Shift+l to the previous/next line that you want to add.

Press n to make the card.



* r - Forget all previously saved timings and associated dialogs.



* z and Shift+z - Adjust subtitle delay.



If above fails, you have to manually set timings.



* s - Set the start time.

  The selection then grows forward based on the following displayed lines.

  The default selection spans across the selected start point and the end of the subtitle line.

* e - Set the end time.

  The selection then grows backward based on the following displayed lines.

  The default selection spans across the selected end point and the start of the subtitle line.



Then, as earlier, press n to make the card.



Alternatively:



* m to update the last card(s). (Shift+m to overwrite)

* b to update the selected card(s). (Shift+b to overwrite)



**Tip**: change playback speed by pressing [ and ]

to precisely mark start and end of the phrase.



### New Note Timer



The **new note timer** feature allows mpvacious to automatically detect and update new Anki notes

without manual intervention. When enabled, mpvacious will periodically check for new notes

and automatically add media (audio and images) to them if they match your configured note type.



To enable this feature, set `enable_new_note_timer=yes` in your [config file](mpvacious/config/default_config.conf).

You can adjust how often mpvacious checks for new notes with the `new_note_timer_interval_seconds` setting.



When this feature is enabled, you no longer need to manually press "m" to update notes

that were created externally (e.g., with GoldenDict or Rikaitan). The process happens automatically

in the background.



### My subtitles are not in sync



If subs are badly timed, first, you can shift timings

using key bindings provided by mpv (usually z and Shift+z).



Alternatively, try to re-time subtitles.

Read [Retiming subtitles](https://tatsumoto.neocities.org/blog/retiming-subtitles) for details.



### Example sentence card



With mpvacious you can make cards like this in just a few seconds.



![card-example](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/69171671/92900057-e102d480-f40e-11ea-8cfc-b00848ca66ff.png)



### Audio cards



It is possible to make a card with just audio, and a picture

when subtitles for the show you are watching aren't available, for example.

mpv by default allows you to do a `1` second exact seek by pressing Shift+LEFT and Shift+RIGHT.

Open the mpvacious menu by pressing a, seek to the position you need, and set the timings.

Then press g to invoke the `Add Cards` dialog.

Here's a [video demonstration](https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=BXhyckdHPGE).



If the show is hard-subbed, you can use

[transformers-ocr](https://tatsumoto.neocities.org/blog/mining-from-manga.html)

to recognize and add text to the card.



### Secondary subtitles



If you want to add a translation to your cards, and you have the subtitles in that language,

you can add them as secondary subtitles if you run `mpv` with `--secondary-sid=` parameter,

`sid` being the track identifier for the subtitle.



You also need to specify `secondary_field` in the [config file](#Configuration)

if it is different from the default.



If you want to load secondary subtitles **automatically**, don't modify the run parameters

and instead set the desired languages in the config file (`secondary_sub_lang` option).



Secondary subtitles will be visible when hovering over the top part of the `mpv` window.



https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/69171671/188492261-909ba3e8-b82c-493f-88cf-0ec953dfcfe1.mp4



By pressing Ctrl+v you can control secondary sid visibility without using the mouse.



### Other tools



If you don't like the default *Rikaitan Search* tool, try:



* [GoldenDict](howto/goldendict.md)

* Clipboard Inserter browser add-on

([chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clipboard-inserter/deahejllghicakhplliloeheabddjajm))

([firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/ja/firefox/addon/clipboard-inserter/))

* An HTML page ([1](https://pastebin.com/zDY6s3NK)) ([2](https://pastebin.com/hZ4sawL4))

to paste the contents of your clipboard to



You can use any HTML page as long as it has \\ in it.



### Additional mpv key bindings



I recommend adding these lines to your [input.conf](#key-bindings) for smoother experience.



```

# vim-like seeking

l seek 5

h seek -5

j seek -60

k seek 60



# Cycle between subtitle files

K cycle sub

J cycle sub down



# Add/subtract 50 ms delay from subs

Z add sub-delay +0.05

z add sub-delay -0.05



# Adjust timing to previous/next subtitle

X sub-step 1

x sub-step -1

```



For example, check out [my input.conf file](https://github.com/tatsumoto-ren/dotfiles/blob/main/.config/mpv/input.conf).



## Profiles



Mpvacious supports config profiles.

To make use of them, create a new config file called `subs2srs_profiles.conf`

in the same folder as your [subs2srs.conf](#Configuration).

Inside the file, define available profile names (without `.conf`) and the name of the active profile:



```

profiles=subs2srs,english,german

active=subs2srs

```



In the example above, I have three profiles.

The first one is the default,

the second one is for learning English,

the third one is for learning German.



Then in the same folder create config files for each of the defined profiles.

For example, below is the contents of my `english.conf` file:



```

deck_name=English sentence mining

model_name=General

sentence_field=Question

audio_field=Audio

image_field=Extra

```



You don't have to redefine all settings in the new profile.

Specify only the ones you want to be different from the default.



To cycle profiles, open the advanced menu by pressing a and then press p.

At any time you can see what profile is active in the menu's status bar.



## Contributing



Since Ajatt-Tools is a distributed effort, we **highly welcome new contributors**!



Install the project in development mode to easily test and commit your changes.



Try these libre code editors with [lua](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lua) support:



- [pycharm-community-edition](https://archlinux.org/packages/?name=pycharm-community-edition) with [emmylua](https://emmylua.github.io/installation.html)

- [vscodium](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vscodium) with [sumneko.lua](https://open-vsx.org/extension/sumneko/lua)



Make sure to use an automatic code formatter.

Also see: [Running tests](#running-tests).



## Running tests



```bash

MPVACIOUS_TEST=TRUE mpv 'path/to/some/file.mkv'

```



The results will be printed to the console.



## Custom Subtitle Filtering



While the default subtitle processing in `mpvacious` is sufficient for most users, you can define custom logic to handle specific needs, such as filtering bilingual subtitles.



### Setup



To use this feature, create the following directory and an **empty `main.lua**` file (required to prevent `mpv` from reporting a plugin error):



| OS                 | Plugin Location                                                           |

| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| GNU/Linux          | `~/.config/mpv/scripts/subs2srs_subtitle_filter/`                         |

| Windows            | `C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/mpv/scripts/subs2srs_subtitle_filter/` |

| Windows (portable) | `mpv.exe folder/portable_config/scripts/subs2srs_subtitle_filter/`        |



**Structure:**



```text

subs2srs_subtitle_filter/

├── main.lua                     # Empty file to satisfy mpv

└── subs2srs_subtitle_filter.lua # Your custom logic

```



### How it Works



`mpvacious` will automatically load `subs2srs_subtitle_filter.lua` and look for these exported functions:



* **`preprocess(text)`**: The primary function for filtering or reformatting raw subtitles.

* **`trim(text)`**: Overrides the internal trimmer. Note that internal trimming must be enabled via `clipboard_trim_enabled=yes` in `subs2srs.conf`.

* **`init(config)`**: Called on load to setup keybindings or initialize custom logic. It receives a **configuration table** containing:

  * **`get_mode`**: A **getter function** that returns the current `custom_subtitle_filter_mode`, ensuring your script stay in sync with profile switches.



### Configuration



You can control the filter's behavior via `subs2srs.conf` and its profiles:



* **`custom_subtitle_filter_mode`**: A string accessible via `config.get_mode()` in `init`. Use this to dynamically toggle or change filtering logic when switching profiles—for example, set it to `japanese` in your JP profile and `none` in others.



### Using the Example Script



An example script is available within the repository at:

`scripts/subs2srs/.github/RELEASE/custom_subtitle_filter_example.lua`



This script is designed to extract Japanese lines from bilingual subtitles. While originally tailored for **Japanese/Chinese** pairs, it works for any language combined with Japanese because it identifies lines based on the presence of **Kana**.



To use it, copy the example's logic into your `subs2srs_subtitle_filter.lua` and modify it to suit your workflow.



## Hacking



If you want to modify this script

or make an entirely new one from scratch,

these links may help.



* https://mpv.io/manual/master/#lua-scripting

* https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/player/lua/defaults.lua

* https://github.com/erjiang/subs2srs