OpenSubtitles forum

I posted this same thing on an existing topic but I think I messed up, I guess it belongs to a new thread. Here we go:
Guys, can someone explain me how the "already downloaded" feature works?
I noticed SubDOwnloader (2.0.11, open version) kept downloading everytime all the subs, even if I already had them. Only a set of subs in one folder were correctl labeled as "already downloaded" and consequently not selected for download by default.
I struggled to discover in what those subs were different from all the others, but I found nothing. Even a lot of experimenting with edit dates or other file propreties lead to nowhere. I even ended up having two files, one the copy of the other, IDENTICAL in every aspect, one is correctly labeled as "already downloaded", and the other isn't.
Does someone know how that feature is supposed to work? How does it detects if a sub has already be downloaded? (clearly it's not just checking if there is already another sub file with the same name in the folder).
It's quite important for me since I download lot of series and everytime I get a new episode I don't want SubDownloader to download every goddam sub from each series again.
thanks!

this is quite small problem. PRoblem is, we add "signature" to subtitles, so you can find in free space our "advertisement". it means hashes (md5) for subtitles are different, thats why subdownloader can not know this.

Solution is: login to subdownloader

if it will not help, tell me your username on opensubtitles, I will try to set up something

I'm not sure I understood. You say that everytime I download a sub, the signature added to the file is different, therefore the program cannot recognize the file the second time it looks for it? I tried to keep a copy of an .srt and then re-download it again, and confronted the backed-up copy with the new one, and I can bet the files are exactly the same. Nothing is changed, same exact size to the bit, same exact amount of lines.
And I'm already logged in in subdownloader, otherwise how would I have downloaded all the subs in first place?
Anyway, my ID is zombiehype also on opensubtitles.
Not sure I got the point of your answer, but if you can help me out (or just let me understand the problem) thanks a lot!

I'm having a similar issue with subdownloader too.
It looks weird for me because it requires username and password.
Even after I signed up with opensubtitles it still did not work.
I used GetMySubtitle from http://store.payloadz.com/details/92766 ... Title.html and I was able to download subtitles without even being asked for username and password at all.
And it worked from two different computers, so the 'cookies lost/not enabled' theory does not apply here.
When the 30 day trial period expires I think I'm going to buy a permanent license since at only $4.99 it's cheaper than most other offering arround.
And on top of it, it's more convenient with only one right click on the movie file the download starts without the complicated settings required by subdownloader.

zombiehype: are you still have problems, when you are downloading as logged-in ? Or behavior changes ?

anyway, to explain whats going on (even I didnt program SubDownloader, but I can imagine, how it is programmed):
1. you got movie file, => we got moviehash, subdownloader ask our API for results. In Results list there are md5 of original (untouched) subtitle files
2. you got already some downloaded subtitle with movie, so Subdownloader should know, when compare md5 of already downloaded subtitle with md5 in subtitle result, if they are same, we got duplicate
3. problem is, if you got downloaded subtitles with some "signature" or "advertisement", so md5 on your hdd is different than in results, thats why SubDownloader can not know, it is duplicate.

It is quite complicated problem, because we don't know md5 of subtitles with advertisement in search results, we know that when actual advertisement is inside. There can be some workaround (we got in database all md5 for such a subtitle file because of duplicates - when such a file is uploaded back to our servers...), so within results it maybe be possible to serve list of md5...but if it is best solution, I don't know.

Better is to be VIP member (as you are now), and for these, when logged in, ads are not included in subtitles.

for dmihailescu: everything should work in latest version of SubDownloader, if not, contact authors.