Copy subtitles with mpv

Sometimes it might be convenient to copy and paste the subtitles appearing on screen. mpv is a very powerful and light media player that supports interaction with subtitle text via its variable sub-text.

The file ~/.config/mpv/input.conf stores the player's keybindings, so we can add the following line to copy subtitles to the primary selection (middle click to paste) with Ctrl+s.

Ctrl+s run "/bin/sh" "-c" "echo \"${sub-text}\" | tr -d '\n' | xclip -selection primary && notify-send \"Copied text to primary seletction\""

Or use the following to copy with Ctrl+Shift+S to clipboard and and paste with Ctrl + v.

Ctrl+Shift+S run "/bin/sh" "-c" "echo \"${sub-text}\" | tr -d '\n' | xclip -selection clipboard && notify-send \"Copied text to clipboard\""

Quick explanation:

• xclip is copying, but you may change it to your preferred clipboard manager, like xsel.
• tr -d '\n' is used to remove the line break character, merging multiple lines in one.
• notify-send makes a notification pop-up if there is a notification daemon running and we managed to copy successfuly

Now, combined with record and printscreen, it's possible to extract audio, picture and text very quickly.