OpenSubtitles.org problems explained

[2ge]

Hi all,

I am admin of opensubtitles.org, and also happy user of Boxee. I am looking for BoxeeBox, and when I was developing opensubtitles.org, one of my dream was to have mediaplayer, which will work like now - I click and see available subtitles.

I know, the functionality of opensubtitles in boxee is broken. It has various reasons.

1. I give to all clients same host: api.opensubtitles.org - which is wrong, because currently, it is quite difficult scale the power of servers
2. The most resources right now takes BS.Player, I would say 90%, I give them also another API host, but it takes time to update all clients.
3. by all of that, in peak times, API have to handle more than 10.000 clients, which is for now, quite difficult. We are in the process of adding 2 more servers for API, and also moving database to SSD hdd, but all of this is question of money.

So, for me, when I saw Fixing opensubtitles bug by removing opensubtitles support, I was quite surprised, but on other way, I understand.

I am in contact with Boxee developers, but also think users deserve know, what's going behind.

The truth is, opensubtitles.org is generating no profit from using its API. This is fact for now. I am open (and it is already set up, so everything, what needs to be done, is just changing HOST in source code) to any donations for server, so API for boxee users will be running smooth and will have dedicated server.

[2ge]

update:

I never programmed in python, but somehow I manage to post a patch to http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-5500 - as I said, I am boxee user for now, so I really like to see opensubtitles working in boxee

I am attaching patch files, and also patched files, so everybody should enjoy this, until it gets to next release (I hope).

In Archive.zip you will find these files:

gui.py and osdb.py - just rewrite with these files original ones, on Mac OSX you can find them @ /Applications/Boxee.app/Contents/Resources/Boxee/scripts/OpenSubtitles/resources/lib

gui.py.patch and osdb.py.patch - patch files...(you don't need to do nothing with these, just if you are curious, what I've changed). I changed couple of things:

1. timeout set to 10 seconds
2. set new host for boxee
3. set other hosts (fever 301 redirects)
4. call valid LogIn() on osdb server, ostok on boxee returns sometimes empty token, or timeout

As I said, I am happy boxee and opensubtitles are friends together - at least at my home

[dadein]

I just tried this on a few movies and it seems to be working again, after not working for a long time. Thank-you.

Good Luck!

[Rulo]

This is a great feature of Boxee; I hope you can get it working again in the next build.

[misterLietaert]

Hi

I successfully patched both files, but I still get the 'unable to connect' message...
Maybe the servers are still fully loaded of overloaded, or could it have to do something with my location (Belgium)?

[dadein]

Hi

I successfully patched both files, but I still get the 'unable to connect' message...
Maybe the servers are still fully loaded of overloaded, or could it have to do something with my location (Belgium)?

@2ge, this is failing again today for me too.

[iraebrasil]

I've never been able to use opensubtitles in boxee.

I'm glad that people are working on it.

I see the problem with the URL changing. This kind of problem could be avoided in the future by not hardcoding the API on the sourcecode. Boxee already logs in every time we open it, so when it does Boxee could check if there are new configurations to be downloaded. This way none of the functionality that depends on online APIs would need a new build or a patch to be fixed if some service changes.

In other thread one user requested to have the ability to login in opensubtitles via boxee with his registered account. I was imagining if Boxee could possibily do that the same way it does with twitter and facebook. Is it possible? Is there a benefit in doing that?

[2ge]

@dadein: please, when you get timeouts, try this

- make sure www.opensubtitles.org is working, for example yeaterday we was doing some backups, and in the night is all the site turned off for 30 minutes.
- try again

timeouts on new host normally shouldn't happen.

[malmeida]

It would be a pitty to see boxee give up on one of its killer features for non-english speakers: the ability to quickly download subtitles.


I don't know if the idea is to forget about this feature completely, but anyway: wouldn't restricting the subtitle query to only some languages help in terms of the site's server workload?

I always thought a good idea would be to:
1) Have the option to select 1-3 languages in the settings. I really don't care if there are russian or hebrew subtitles, I don't speak it

2) Perhaps have the option to auto-download the subtitles if they are synced (say, when the show/film is being recognized in boxee).

Just my 2 cents

[dadein]

@dadein: please, when you get timeouts, try this

- make sure www.opensubtitles.org is working, for example yeaterday we was doing some backups, and in the night is all the site turned off for 30 minutes.
- try again

timeouts on new host normally shouldn't happen.

Looks like was trying to do this while you were doing your backups.

Works fine today!