mpv-interactive-video

mpv Lua script for watching interactive videos (such as Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch).

Source (Credit: Netflix)

Usage

Copy interactive-video.lua file to the scripts subdirectory of the mpv configuration directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/scripts/) for automatic loading.

You can also load the script manually by passing the --script=path/to/interactive-video.lua command-line parameter to mpv.

In order for mpv to play an interactive movie, you should have in the same directory:

• the movie file (say movie.mkv);
• the segments JSON data file (which contains the segments element), renamed as movie.seg.json;
• and the interactive video moments JSON data file (which contains the interactiveVideoMoments element), renamed as movie.ivm.json.

You can then type mpv movie.mkv to play the movie. If the two JSON data files are detected properly, the script should display something like

Playing: movie.mkv
[interactive_video] Found JSON data files for interactive video playback:
[interactive_video]   seg: ./movie.seg.json
[interactive_video]   ivm: ./movie.ivm.json 
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264 1280x720 25.000fps)
 (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=eng (*) (aac 2ch 48000Hz)

on the terminal.

Example JSON data files are provided in the json directory.

Controls

Most of the usual mpv controls are unchanged.

Navigation keys (left, right, up, down, page-up, page-down) jump forward or backward by 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 10 minutes, respectively, unless mpv encounters an interactive moment before reaching the desired position. Using the shift modifier will force mpv to jump by the selected amount of time, oblivious to any interactive moment.

When a choice appears on the OSD, the arrow keys can be used to highlight the answer, and then enter to submit it. Likewise, numbers can be typed in using the number keys.