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Comment by zelag | Hacker News Reader

Is there a similar application but for movies/tv shows stored locally?

I use PotPlayer, which can show two subtitles at once; also, when you click on a word, it can search it in the search engine of your choice (e.g. a dictionary). You can also add multiple search engines (as well as "Copy to clipboard" command) accessible when you right click a word instead of left clicking. You can also assign a shortcut (e.g. Ctrl+C) to copy the whole subtitle visible on the screen, to paste in Google Translate etc. I use all of those features, and it significantly helped in my English learning in my teens (and later other languages).

Previously I used KMPlayer by the same developer, which supported not just two but three simultaneous subtitles (which I sometimes used, as strange as it may sound); but I switched to PotPlayer when he sold the program and it started to be bundled with ads.

Both programs are only available on Windows, and lack of something as featureful and customizable as PotPlayer was one of the reasons my brief flirtation with Linux at the start of this year wasn't that satisfactory. But if all you want is multiple subtitles, I found SMPlayer on Linux that did the job; but the features of PotPlayer/KMPlayer is simply unmatched (beyond just language learning).

https://animebook.github.io/

never mind the 'anime' in the name, it's just a web video player that supports nearly every format and has good subtitle integration.

you'll need a hover/popup dictionary (for example, for Japanese Yomichan is popular) to go with it

I don't use netflix because of the ethical issues associated with drm and nonfree software.

I've been learning japanese for nearly a year using yomichan[0] mpv, mpvacious[1], and anki[2].

There is a fair bit of setup involved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbg6ztWecbU&t=0

[0] https://foosoft.net/projects/yomichan/

[1] https://github.com/Ajatt-Tools/mpvacious

[2] https://apps.ankiweb.net/

You could try my app: https://video.fluentcards.com

Haven't tested it in a while.

Oh hey it's that fluentcards video HTML! Bit of a blast from the past. Kudos again!

A VLC plugin or somesuch would be nice

That's what I think to myself every time those language learning extensions/apps come up. Sadly the VLC code is not very well documented and the extension guide on the wiki is pretty bare as well. I'm guessing one would have to extend the freetype text renderer but that's a tall order.

There's MPV plugins, but they require a lot of setup. Some good web based alternatives were suggested in other replies to the parent.

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