SubDownloader is a program for automatic download/upload subtitles for video files (DIVX,MPEG,AVI,VOB,etc) and DVD’s using fast hashing.

It sports a friendly interface which allows users to have a better movie experience since searching for subtitles is no longer dull or boring. SubDownloader follows the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. This utility makes subtitle searching and matching for your movies a simple task.

Subdownloader is available for Linux as an open source software. However Windows version of Subdownloader has been released as a shareware and you have to pay 15 Euros to use it in Windows.

In Ubuntu or Debian Linux, you can install Subdownloader as follows :

$ sudo apt-get install subdownloader

Once installed, you can run Subdownloader by navigating GNOME menu through Applications > Sound & Video > Subdownloader.

Features of Subdownloader

• Open source, GNU GPL Project
• Subdownloader uses fast hashing algorithm (27 GB movies/7 seconds)
• Search and download subtitles for 1 movie or multiple movies in one go.
• Upload subtitles to opensubtitles.org site (possible as a registered/unregistered user)
• Auto detects the movie’s imdb.net page if the NFO file exists in the movie directory.
• Uses OSDB and ISDB protocol
• Auto detects user language. You can also set your preferred languages, and even filter search results based on a particular language.
• PAD file is available for subdownloader.

How to use Subdownloader ?

Subdownloader sports a tabbed interface featuring 3 tabs. You can use Subdownloader to find the correct subtitles of movies in the following ways :

1. Search from video files -  In the first tab, you can select the video or folder which contain your movie(s) and Subdownloader will automatically identify the movie and download the necessary subtitles for the movie in the language of your choice. It downloads subtitles from the opensubtitles.org website.
2. Search by movie name – If you know the name of the movie, you can click on the second tab of Subdownloader and search online for subtitles for that particular movie. You can filter the results based on the language in which you want the subtitles.
3. Upload subtitles – You can upload subtitles you found else where of movies to opensubtitles.org directly from the third tab of Subdownloader interface.

Subdownloader interface

Search for subtitles by movie name and filter by a specific language.

Upload your subtitles to opensubtitles.org

Recently, I got my hands on a very nice French movie named “Amelie”. However the movie did not show any subtitles. As I don’t know French, I was at a loss in enjoying the movie. It was Subdownloader which came to my rescue. It automatically downloaded the relevant English subtitles for the movie Amelie and saved it in the folder containing the movie file.

Of course, I had to sync and merge the subtitles with the movie which is another story. The important thing is Subdownloader helped me retrieve the correct subtitles of the movie very easily.