Subtitle Servers

Atlas Subtitler consults all relevant servers on the web to download the subtitle files (*.srt). The query sequence can be defined, the login data can be set and the download process can be largely adapted to future server changes:

• OpenSubtitles.org: An account is optional but recommended since you may get unlimited downloads or other advantages that the server grants.
  
  
• Podnapisi.net: Podnapisi has two different interfaces. One is specifically for programs via XML. However, this only provides part of the existing subtitle files that can be seen on the website. This is why Atlas Subtitler also queries the website. Generally speaking, website queries are a factor slower, as Subtitler has to read through them like a human and assess whether they are a hit or not. You can set whether you only want to query one interface or both, and in which order.
  
  
• SubDL.com: SubDL (short for "Subtitle Downloads") is a quick server that provides a program interface. A replacement for Subscene which ended its service in may 2024. You can create an account there for free and inside is your individual Api Key that you can copy-paste over here.
  
  
• Addic7ed.com: Addic7ed has no program interface. Subtitler has to search through it like a human, hence the slow responses.
  
  
• TVSubtitles.net & MSubs.net: These are two portals of the same provider, the first one for TV shows, the second one for movies. No interface available here either.
  
  
• OpenSubtitles.com: The former OpenSubtitles.org transformed about 2023 into a freemium model. A few dozends of subtitle files can be downloaded for free per day but if you need more you can create a paid account. You will get an API key inside the account which you can then copy over to this dialog.

You can use the provided Test button to check whether the login data works like this. In case of OpenSubtitles.com Subtitler will show how many downloads are left and when they will be renewed.

You can press the Documentation link to see more technical informations.

Scan Order: Check the blue header of each server settings. There is a letter at the end. You can put these characters into this field in the order you would like to have the servers scanned. You can also omit some servers entirely that way.

Max. Subtitles: As soon as this number of subtitles has been found for a movie, the search is ended and the most suitable one is selected. If 'Selection by Hand' is activated in the main dialog, you will receive this list for selection, already pre-sorted with the best ones at the top.

Title Distance: This is a number in 1/100'000 steps that indicates how different two titles are. 0 means "totally identical", 100,000 means "totally different". In other words, 20,000 corresponds to a 20% difference. If you have set a maximum all subtitles with more than that difference will be skipped.

Timeout: Subtitler will wait at most this amount of seconds for a server response. If you make this smaller you can see more quickly when no files are present but if the server is slow you might miss a result.

If a server repeatedly reports "Timeout", it may be that it is blocking your individual connection, but not that of other people. This can happen, for example, if it thinks that you have made too many requests in a short time. In this case, you can open this dialog and increase the value.

In order for a server to block you individually, it only has a few options to look at:

• User Agent: This is a string that is usually passed to the server and tells it which browser is making the request. For example, in the case of Mozilla Firefox, the most secure and free browser as it is open source and freeware (our recommendation), "Mozilla/5.0" is transmitted. By default, Atlas Subtitler transmits its own program name and version number. However, a subtitle server could use this as a test to block all requests from Subtitler. So if you get many timeouts in a sequence you can try entering something else here and see if the blockage goes away.
  

• Throttling: All servers in the world are subject to so-called DOS attacks. Denial of Service means that an extremely large number of requests are made at the same time, making the server inaccessible to other people. To thwart this, the servers check the source IP address and only allow requests from there again after a certain time. At the maximum, you can make a request every 300 milliseconds, for example. The server can change this limit at any time. You can therefore try entering a larger number here and see if the request comes through. Unfortunately, this slows down the subtitling process for an entire series considerably. Unfortunately, there is nothing one can do about this. The server operator could distribute the load across several servers, but that is his decision alone.
  

• IP address: A server looks where a request is coming from. If it is overwhelmed with requests, it can simply block this IP. You can circumvent this by using a VPN program. Such programs usually cost around $20 per year. There you can switch your location to another country. Your request is first sent to a server in this country and from there to the subtitle server. The subtitle server only sees the IP of your VPN provider. This allows you to bypass the IP block. But of course, the IP of the VPN operator may also have been blocked by the server. It depends on how many such addresses the server has available. Just try a few countries and you will know whether your own IP is blocked. An IP block is usually lifted by the server after a certain waiting time.