Control Netflix video playback using keyboard shortcuts

This script lets you control video playback, language, subtitles and more on Netflix with keyboard shortcuts. A few are inspired by the YouTube shortcuts, and provide consistency with that player (like j/k/l for example).

All the key bindings are documented here and in the script, and are easy to change.

This script is now a free Chrome extension

This script was converted to a full Chrome extension, available for free here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/netflix-keyboard-shortcut/mjpponglbellandpimdbmmhbhmakcgji

Going forward this script will still be available but will no longer be maintained; only the Netflix Keyboard Shortcuts extension will receive updates. Both will remain free forever.

Key bindings

All key bindings are configurable. By default, the following shortcuts are used:

• k switches between playing and paused
• l moves ahead by 10 seconds
• j moves back by 10 seconds
• N goes to the very end of the video (as in “next episode”)
• , when paused: moves back by one frame
• . when paused: moves ahead by one frame
• > makes the video play faster
• < makes the video play more slowly
• c switches subtitles on or off (you can also configure which language to select automatically the first time you switch them on)
• s changes the size of subtitles (Netflix provides 3 sizes, so it cycles between small/medium/large)
• v changes the subtitles track, moving to the next one in the list
• a changes the audio track, moving to the next one in the list
• p turns “picture-in-picture” mode on or off
• m is already set to mute/unmute by Netflix, but you can configure the script to also let you use a different key
• Page Up increases the audio volume by 5% – unfortunately we can’t use Up Arrow here since Netflix catches the key press event for it.
• Page Down decreases the audio volume by 5% – unfortunately we can’t use Down Arrow here either.
• 0 to 9 jump to 0% of the video (the start) to 90% in 10% increments (so pressing 5 jumps to 50%, etc.)
• d enables or disables Netflix’s diagnostics panel, similar to YouTube’s “stats for nerds” option.

Pre-configured time skips:

• l moves ahead by 10 seconds
• j moves back by 10 seconds
• L moves ahead by 60 seconds (capital L as opposed to lowercase l listed above)
• J moves back by 60 seconds
• ] moves ahead by 5 seconds
• [ moves back by 5 seconds

Other configuration

• Change by how many seconds l, j, and others jump forward or back by updating the values in TIME_SCRUB_KEYS (10 seconds by default).
• Configure any single key to go forward or back by any number of seconds simply by adding a new entry in TIME_SCRUB_KEYS.
• Change by how much the volume changes when you press Up Arrow or Down Arrow (5% by default) with VOLUME_DELTA.
• Change which language to use for subtitles the first time you press c (English by default) with DEFAULT_SUBTITLES_LANGUAGE. If you select a different language with v, pressing c again will switch between “Off” and that new language.
• The caret keys < and > let you slow down on speed up playback. Change PLAYBACK_SPEED_INCREMENTS to use different playback speeds; by default it covers the following steps: 0.5x, 0.75x, 0.9x, 1x, 1.1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x.
• Some actions cause text to be displayed briefly on the screen to provide user feedback. The constants ending with _SHOW control whether to display this text for various actions (e.g. PLAY_PAUSE_SHOW, PLAYBACK_SPEED_CHANGE_SHOW, etc.)

The script also has a debug mode, disabled by default. Enabling it provides debug information for anyone trying to modify it.