Pre-select best option to download and single URL 4 get list

[eduo]

Two quick questions. Both are aimed at a very, VERY, simple command-line script to get a subtitle for a single file.

I'm testing for a very simple executable to get a subtitle for a single avi file. I already get the hash and the filesize. So...

Question #1: Is there a single URL that uses the hash, language and filesize to provide a single list for available subtitles?

I can look for a subtitle with these values:

http://www.opensubtitles.com/en/search2 ... 04a82e79b0

I don't know how to translate this into a simple URL, something like:
http://www.opensubtitles.com/en/search/ ... uageid-eng

Is there a way to do this? A single URL I can use with moviehash and bytesize to get to the subtitle list with /simplexml at the end? (the simple script I have in mind wouldn't really know how to handle redirects).

Question #2: Is there a parameter I can flip when searching that does something equivalent to Google's "I'm feeling lucky"? A single parameter that redirects directly to the actual subtitle file without going through a list to select?

I guess this doesn't exist but it might be a good idea. Having an algorithm that would automatically choose the best-rated or most-downloaded subtitle (or the one uploaded by the best-rated uploader, which would be a great quality vector to apply).

I'm not sure if I'm clear so feel free to make any questions if these seem like good ideas.

[oss]

I replied to your first question in another thread (if it is same:), to your second question - I am not sure, if this is good, it should come to mind, if only one result is found (this is done on search2 page, it redirects to search page), on search page, if only 1 subtitle is found it doesnt redirect to subtitle detail now, I can do that, no problem).

I want change using mysql fulltext searching (which really sucks) to using better search "program", so maybe later this is possible. But anyway, I don't see any reason to make I'M feeling lucky button (even I feel lucky, hehe)

[eduo]

Yes, the first question was the same. Thank you so much. You can see my own example doesn't work so I guess the order of the values is important.

The second I wasn't really clear when writing. What I meant was an option to pick the best-available subtitle.

For example, if searching for one subtitle yields a list of ten then this "Lucky" checkbox would just start the download of the one with the best ratings and/or most downloads.

For this I understand a way to select the "best" subtitle should exist. To me this would be a mix of number of downloads, number of votes, average rating and rating of other subtitles by the same user.

Number of votes is an important number. Without it we can't see if the rating is from one vote or a thousand. I'm always suspicious of ratings of "10" because more often than not they're the result of a single vote.

[oss]

I replied to you in blog also...check that.

Ok, in other words, if you type something in search bar, click to "I'm feeling lucky button" should bring you to best matching subtitle details, right ?

[eduo]

Strange. I didn't receive a notification in any.

Yes, that's what I meant.

For things like a contextual menu to download subtitles a results response doesn't really work but getting the best-matching subtitle (most files have only one or two subtitles anyway) would be great.

The hard part, maybe, is deciding which is "the best" subtitle

[eduo]

Thinking further about this. I've tried to decide on the rules I use myself when selecting subtitles. This is what I manually use as rules currently to decide what to download if there are multiple choices:

Rule 0: If the uploader is someone I trust then I'll get that subtitle

Rule 1: NEVER download a subtitle with a rating of 10 if there are other options (yes, I might download a subtitle with rating of 0 before one with 10).

Rule 2: Calculate the number of downloads divided by the days it's been online. A newer subtitle with a lot of downloads has more value than a very old one if this ratio is higher.

Rule 3: See the name of the subtitle. A more complete name usually points to more care.

This all is not perfect, but it's what I use.

There are some things I think could be added to the database to enhance subtitle selection:

-Number of validations and validators (we currently store the user that uploaded the subtitle, this is unfair for the users that validate the subtitle against a hash. These users should be stored as well and the total amount of validations shown in results for the subtitle). If a subtitle has been validated against hashes several times it speaks well of it.

(to me the people doing the cross-hashing with the subtitles are doing the same or more for the community than the ones uploading without hashes, really)

-Have the XMLRPC API able to rate subtitles (much faster for users from within a program).

-Have XMLRPC report not only badly-timed subtitle but also incorrect IMDBID for subtitle

-Search subtitles on movie name in XMLRPC (results can be previewed and if they fit they can be hashed right there)