playerctl VS sn

if you dont mind setting up command shortcuts, look into playerctl https://github.com/altdesktop/playerctl

The latest nwg-shell-config update brings a new tab, to configure idle and lock screen settings. Under the hood, it provides the nwg-lock command, which is a wrapper around gtklock or swaylock. It adds a random image background, either local, or downloaded from https://unsplash.com. You may also display an overlay window to control mpris media player with playerctl.

Yes it would be possible to pipe the output into a script/program and parse it to extract the information, but in my opinion not the best solution. Instead you can query information from media players that support MPRIS https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MPRIS via tools like playerctl https://github.com/altdesktop/playerctl

Playerctl can control the currently active media player.

I think both firefox and vlc support MPRIS, which can be controlled from the command line using playerctl, if you have that installed: ssh name@host playerctl play-pause

You can use playerctl for browsers, spotify and similar players.

VLC (and therefore cvlc as well, I suppose) can be controlled via MPRIS (using playerctl, for example).

My super-duper simple playerctl script that works flawlessly for years to prioritize my media keys to work on Spotify or ncspot over anything else. If I'm listening to Spotify or ncspot, why do I need to control any other stuff with my media keys, right?! Without it, if I have any other mpris player open, which can be a lot of things some not even related to media, my keyboard media keys won't focus on the music players I use for actually listening to music. ncspot doesn't respond to playerctl --player=ncspot play-pause, so I have to detect if it is playing or paused, so I can run playerctl --player=ncspot play or playerctl --player=ncspot pause separately. Script.

Try playerctl.

Notes; sn(my script using fzf)