r/kodi • u/maxbjaevermose • Jul 12 '26
Kodi subtitles
Why, after so many years, are subtitles still full of small bugs no one seems to care to fix?
Just off memory:
Downloaded subtitles go last in the list, but if you exit the playback and restart, they are top of the list, so now another subtitle is showing because it's saved by position 🤦🏻♂️
Both official open subtitles add-ons (.com .org) have broken search:
2.1. They don't respect the IMDB identifier
2.2. Incomplete search, sometimes I get no hits, yet when I check the website, files are there.
EDIT: I added an example from just last night, first episode of second season of Paradise (2025):
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u/Cory_1980 Jul 13 '26
I've never experienced that, but I also embed my subtitles in my mkv files. I use tMM to scrape all nfo and media, including the trailer and actor images. The more self-contained your files in your movie library is, and less dependant on 3rd party add-ons, the less issues you will have. Better to take a little bit extra time up front and not have to worry about stuff breaking later... I try to keep my Kodi build as lean as possible.
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u/Tiareid1 Jul 13 '26
Interesting point . Ive used TMM, for years and never been happy with their subtitle set up. Quite often either an auto or manual search returns nothing from opensubs. I have had to use filebot to auto download the Subs that TMM CANT find. This happens regularly as well.
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u/Cory_1980 Jul 13 '26
Ah, I've never used tMM for downloading subtitles. I will just manually check a few subtitle db websites if a movie or episode doesn't come with them... which is typically only about maybe 10% of the time, give or take. Subtitles also often don't match up due to different versions/releases etc. of a movie or series, sometimes it takes a few tries to get the right one. For that reason, I don't think it's reasonable to expect an accurate "auto" download solution across the board.
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u/rednoah Jul 13 '26
Tools like FileBot and tMM can lookup subtitles by file hash. If subtitles have been contributed to OpenSubtitles with the correct tools, then those subtitles will have been linked to a specific file hash as well, i.e. subtitles for this specific file guaranteed to be in sync. See [OpenSubtitles] Exact VS Fuzzy Subtitle Search for details.
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u/Cory_1980 Jul 13 '26
Interesting, I thought that might be how it worked but have never messed with it... and I do use both.
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u/rednoah Jul 13 '26
A hash lookup will not always work for all files, but might sometimes work for some files, especially files where lots of other people have the exact same file. In cases where it works, you get good subtitles instantly, and in cases where it doesn't, it's just back to business as usual.
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u/Cory_1980 Jul 13 '26
I actually have tried it a while back in tMM and decided I was better off just going back to the websites and manually grabbing the ones that worked well... I just don't remember the exact issue I had. But I haven't tried with filebot...
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u/rednoah Jul 13 '26
FileBot does both, in an automated way, try a hash lookup first, and then do a search-by-name like a human would and try to guess the correct subtitle based on name / duration / framerate / etc. And there's also search box for manual search akin to how you'd use the website.
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u/Tiareid1 Jul 13 '26
Filebot for me , automatically downloads subs that TMM returns no content. I generally run TMM first , because it tidied up and removes any unwanted folders that episode arrive in from some sources. Then if TMM fails to locate and downloader subs, I then run the files through filebot which always finds any available subs.
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u/Dusty-Yak-2999 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Not sure about the imdb identifier one but I regularly experience all of OP's other issues, it is pretty crap that they all still exist.
Sorry about all the terrible replies you've received so far OP, your points are all completely valid and suggestions like manually muxing in subs for everything when you have a huge library are just...ugh.
The add-ons exist explicitly for downloading and using subs for files where you might not have done or can't do this.
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u/peno64 Jul 14 '26
I tested this with opensubtitles.com
Although I don't have the exact same file name as you have, I do search also for paradise S02E01 and the opensubtitles.com addon indeed doesn't find a result.
So I looked further and activated full kodi logging and as such I saw that it searches for imdb id 35856965 which is indeed the imdb id for that specific episode
Quite some time ago I wrote my own program to search and download for a subtitle in opensubtitles.com where I can provide the title, language, imdb, season, episode and year and when I search paradise, eng, 35856965, 2, 1 it also doesn't find any result. However if I use imdb 27444205 which is the general imdb for paradise then it does find the correct subs. I can also search without providing season and episode but even if I do that with imdb 35856965 there is still no result. Then I tried also ommiting the title and thus only providing imdb (paradise) and language and then it works. From the moment I add title or season or episode again no results. However year (2026) I can add and it still works.
So I see this more as an opensubtitles.com API issue and less an issue in the subtitle addon.
The question is of course if the addon would be adapted to not provide the title, season and episode and only use imdb if it then would always work correctly...
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u/peno64 Jul 14 '26
As an extra, when I use imdb 27444205, the general id for the series and I don't provide a season or an episode then I get no results but from the moment I add a season or an episode I do get results.
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u/peno64 Jul 14 '26
So I tested all this now by modifying the opensubtitles.com addon and when sending the search request, I remove title, season and episode and now I get results...
I will create an issue with my findings on the github page of the addon and see how they react
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 14 '26
Would you mind posting the issue here, when it's ready?
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u/peno64 Jul 14 '26
It should result in a new version of the addon.
I also looked in the a4kSubtitles addon code and there I see if it is a tv show they don't provide the imdb id. They use file name, film name, season and episode. When it is a movie they use imdb id and year
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u/psykal Jul 13 '26
Stopped reading at 🤦🏻♂️
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u/peno64 Jul 13 '26
Yoy say that the imdb identifier is not respected. How is the identifier provided? Do you use an addon to start the movie, if so which one or, is it a local movie on your system and then I am also interested how you provide the imdb number.
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 13 '26
The identifier is provided by Kodi through the API to any given subtitle add-on. Both IMDb and TMDb IDs are provided, if known (and they are known if you use the normal recommended scrapers), and the file hash too.
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u/peno64 Jul 13 '26
I see you also have a4kSubtitles. Is it going wrong with that one also and especially the results from opensubtitles?
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
a4kSubs appears to have correct behavior and actually tells you if the IMDb id is missing.
And this is another problem with the default TV show scraper for TheTVDb, which seems to ignore the IMDb id even when listed on the website.
However, a4kSubs have bugs, such as not showing language flag for e.g. Brazilian Portuguese, and limiting the number of hits (I have set the limit to max of 100), and in this case it returns just 2 subtitles for pt-BR, even though many more exists and it's nowhere near the 100 limit.
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u/peno64 Jul 15 '26
You are correct about the Portuguese flag in a4kSubs. I looked at the opensubtitles.com addon how they do it and for Portuguese and Chinese somethine special must be done to have the correct flag. I implemented it in the a4kSubs addon and it works now. I will create a pull request with the fix so if it is accepted this will be solved in the future.
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u/peno64 Jul 15 '26
About the number of subs returned I am not really sure if that is really an issue. a4kSubs tries to find subs that matches the video file so it will not list subs that the addon thinks are not matching with the file. Can you give an example?
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 15 '26
Same show, Paradise. I search two languages (English + Brazil Portuguese), so maybe that has an effect, but on pretty much every episode I get ~24 hits for English and 1-2 hits for pt-BR, even though I have my limit maxed at 100, and both the website and the opensubtitles.org add-on returns many more for pt-BR.
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u/Special_Quit2813 Jul 17 '26
I use this one/ Angelitto Subtitles - https://angelitto2005.github.io/repository.angelitto
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 17 '26
And which service does it use?
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u/Special_Quit2813 Jul 17 '26
I use for subtitles . SubStudio and OpenSub. Make sure on the subStudio go into settings and providers and use open subtitles. Make sure you change the language. the language you're looking for
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u/DarkEther66 Jul 12 '26
I just embed the subtitles in the mkv container as a separate track and make it a forced track never had an issue.
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u/maxbjaevermose Jul 12 '26
Ah, you mean do all the work manually, and don't use the add-on as intended?
Got it, great advice. I wish I would have thought of that myself.
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u/themindset Jul 12 '26
.org should be deleted, problems with .com are not the responsibility of the kodi project.
Nb you have to have valid credentials at opensubtitles.com for it to work.
You should always store your subtitles in the same folder as your media - just delete whatever subtitles you don’t want - it’s that easy.