KODI - How to Enable, Download, and Add Subtitles

[Jai Dee]

Looking to add subtitles in Kodi and enable subtitles on any movie or show you want? Let us show you the easiest way to add subtitles in Kodi.

Are you looking to add subtitles in Kodi and enable them in any video file you stream? There is a very nice built in service from opensubtitles.org that works great on Kodi and makes things work pretty smooth. Even better, you can get Kodi subtitles in multiple languages.

 

If you want to learn how to enable subtitles in Kodi, follow our guide below.

 

How to Enable, Download, and Add Subtitles in Kodi

1. Fire, visit opensubtitles.org and sign up for a free account. Open Subtitles is the largest user-contiubuted subtitles website on the internet and Kodi has some awesome integration with it.
2. After you have a username and password setup, head into Kodi and from the Kodi main menu:
   1. ON Kodi 17 Krypton: Select Add-ons > Add-on Browser 
   2. ON Kodi 16 or earlier: Select SYSTEM > Add-Ons
3. Select Install from Repository > Kodi Add-on repository > Subtitles > Opensubtitles.org > Install
4. Wait for Add-on enabled notification
5. Click on Opensubtitles.org and click Configure. Enter in your username and password in this screen and then click OK.
6. Back at the main menu, navigate to SYSTEM > Player Settings > Language > Preferred Subtitles Language and select the language you would like to receive subtitles in. Note, your options level must be set to “expert” if its not already.
7. Play a movie in any add-on. When the movie starts playing, click on Subtitles in the play bar, click Download. Choose opensubtitles.org from the list to automatically search and pull in subtitles from the site.
8. Once downloaded, make sure they are set to Enabled. You can press “t” on your keyboard to manually enable and disable them as well.

 

And that’s how you add subtitles in Kodi.

 

Read more and get more good tips from koditips here.

[Jai Dee]

Here is a link to the ArialUnicode ttf file that you need to get perfect Thai font subtitles (as well as many other languages).

 

It's a 22MB file and you need to copy it to your Kodi/media/fonts directory.

[Jai Dee]

Once you've copied the arialuni.ttf file to the correct location within Kodi you can set up your Thai subtitles as follows:

 

From the main Kodi menu select System then select Player settings:

 

 

Scroll down to Language then on the right hand side of the screen under Subtitles select Preferred subtitle language:

 

 

Scroll down the list and select Thai.

 

 

Go back and scroll down to select Font to use for text subtitles:

 

 

Select arialuni.ttf. 

If you don't see this font listed then you have not copied it to the correct location.

 

 

Go back and scroll down to Download Services and select Languages to download subtitles for:

 

 

Scroll down the list and select Thai.

 

 

Your settings should now reflect that you can download subtitles in both English and Thai.

 

 

[JHolmesJr]

I have got the open sub add-on that doesn't require log in...

 

also use sub scene which is just as good. as well as podnapisi.

[Jai Dee]

If you have successfully signed up for your free opensubtitles.org account, configured Kodi to use the opensubtitles addon, and correctly configured your player settings as above, it is a simple task to get either English or Thai subtitles for your movie.

 

When you selected movie is loaded and streaming select the subtitles icon and select Download:

 

 

Then select your preferred subtitle.

Make sure that you carefully check the movie name and year before making your selection.

Here's the Thai language subtitle selection:

 

 

Here's the English language subtitle selection:

 

 

And here's the movie playing with the subtitle selection of your choice:

 

 

 

[Peterw42]

Great thread, I would also add there is also a standard kodi system/ services addon called auto subs, press play and its goes and looks for subs automatically

[Peterw42]

1 hour ago, Jai Dee said:

Here is a link to the ArialUnicode ttf file that you need to get perfect Thai font subtitles (as well as many other languages).

 

It's a 22MB file and you need to copy it to your Kodi/media/fonts directory.

Depending on kodi version and platform, sometimes the fonts directory is a hidden directory, in some cases may need to be created.

[Jai Dee]

Just now, Peterw42 said:

Great thread, I would also add there is also a standard kodi system/ services addon called auto subs, press play and its goes and looks for subs automatically

I haven't seen that addon in the Team Kodi Addon Repository (currently version 2.5.10).

 

Where did you get it Peter?

[Peterw42]

5 minutes ago, Jai Dee said:

I haven't seen that addon in the Team Kodi Addon Repository (currently version 2.5.10).

 

Where did you get it Peter?

yes, it is in an older version kodo repository xbmc fondation 2.4.9 (currently running Kodi 16 trying to sort out a problem), maybe its been removed. Its not under subtitles addons its under services addons

 

 

[janclaes47]

To enable subtitles in a movie addon you have to enable it in the specific addon settings, and it will automatically add the subtitle in the language of your choice without you doing anything.

 

To add subtitles to a downloaded movie, you need to enable "auto download subtitle" in the screen shot above, and again it will automatically add the subtitle as soon as you start playing the movie, given that you named the movie file correctly.

 

For Thai subtitles Garuda AD-TT is better, since it is only a very small file and support Thai and Western script, because Arialuni does not support all format that Thai subtitles can be written in.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2017 by janclaes47

[Jai Dee]

Yep... found it under Service Addons in the Team Kodi Repo.

 

[Jai Dee]

Just now, janclaes47 said:

For Thai subtitles Garuda AD-TT is better, since it is only a very small file and support Thai and Western script, because Arialuni does not support all format that Thai subtitles can be written in.

That may be the case if you are only concerned with Thai and English subtitles, but Arial Unicode is one of the most versatile multi-language fonts in the world and contains Arabic, Greek, Cyrillic, Begali, Tamil, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean amongst others.

[Peterw42]

14 minutes ago, Jai Dee said:

Yep... found it under Service Addons in the Team Kodi Repo.

 

Good, it doesnt do much but its good for the GF as I keep switching versions and skins, and she often cant find the download sub button

[Jai Dee]

Just now, janclaes47 said:

For Thai subtitles Garuda AD-TT is better, since it is only a very small file and support Thai and Western script

 

I just tried it out in the same movie as before... the Thai script looks better actually as the characters are less bold and chunky.

You can get the TTF files here.

 

[janclaes47]

1 minute ago, Peterw42 said:

Good, it doesnt do much but its good for the GF as I keep switching versions and skins, and she often cant find the download sub button

But why you need a separate addon for it?

 

All the movie addons have an auto subtitle setting, and the "download first subtitle" setting in player settings takes acre of it when you stream a movie from your media server.

[Jai Dee]

Just now, janclaes47 said:

But why you need a separate addon for it?

 

All the movie addons have an auto subtitle setting, and the "download first subtitle" setting in player settings takes acre of it when you stream a movie from your media server.

 

Good advice. 

 

Peter, you can change your versions and skins as much as you like provided you have your addon settings fixed.

 

[Peterw42]

2 minutes ago, Jai Dee said:

 

Good advice. 

 

Peter, you can change your versions and skins as much as you like provided you have your addon settings fixed.

 

Yes  thats right but the GF doesn't always recognize the new player or which button is the sub button, she can press play then auto subs brings up a choice of subs.

[Jai Dee]

Just now, Peterw42 said:

Yes  thats right but the GF doesn't always recognize the new player or which button is the sub button, she can press play then auto subs brings up a choice of subs.

 

I know what you mean... different skins/builds have different appearing controls for the same video addon.

For example, here are the subtitle icon locations for the same Elysium addon for the same movie on 3 different builds:

 

 

 

[Peterw42]

1 hour ago, janclaes47 said:

But why you need a separate addon for it?

 

All the movie addons have an auto subtitle setting, and the "download first subtitle" setting in player settings takes acre of it when you stream a movie from your media server.

Yes thats right, i used to have everything setup that way but often would get the wrong sub and then have go and do a manual search, I will switch back and try it

[janclaes47]

1 hour ago, Jai Dee said:

 

I know what you mean... different skins/builds have different appearing controls for the same video addon.

For example, here are the subtitle icon locations for the same Elysium addon for the same movie on 3 different builds:

 

 

 

 I guess you like Beauty and the beast. :-)

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

Yes thats right, i used to have everything setup that way but often would get the wrong sub and then have go and do a manual search, I will switch back and try it

 

You could install Keymap addon and assign a key to the subtitle menu.

[janclaes47]

2 hours ago, Jai Dee said:

 

I just tried it out in the same movie as before... the Thai script looks better actually as the characters are less bold and chunky.

You can get the TTF files here.

 

That was one of the reasons why I recommended the Garuda font, as I had tried the Arial Uni as well.

 

Another reason is that Arial Uni doesn't support all subtitle formats. I don't recall which one but a certain format used for Thai subtitles would show as squares.

 

I read somewhere that Garuda supports 21 languages.

[sotsira]

Ok everyone, now that i've read this thread, i'm not sure which option to use ?

 

I'm running Kodi Krypton 17.3 through the Ares Wizard and using the Pulse Tv build.

 

Can i still get a Thai subtitles set up using the Pulse Build ?

Edited July 11, 2017 by sotsira

[Jai Dee]

On ‎11‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 10:43 AM, sotsira said:

Can i still get a Thai subtitles set up using the Pulse Build ?

Yes, no problem.

 

Do you mean that you are using the Pulse build for Kodi 17.3 from the Ares Wizard as per the screen capture below, or are you using a Pulse TV box?

 

[sotsira]

Hi Jai Dee,

Yes i'm using the Pulse Build as per the screen shot you posted through the Ares Wizard.

[Jai Dee]

In that case you should have no problems adding Thai subtitles to your build.

Just follow the step by step instructions in this thread.

If you have any problems just send me a PM and I'll try to help you out.

[sotsira]

On 7/9/2017 at 1:12 PM, Jai Dee said:

Here is a link to the ArialUnicode ttf file that you need to get perfect Thai font subtitles (as well as many other languages).

 

It's a 22MB file and you need to copy it to your Kodi/media/fonts directory.

I'm having trouble finding the correct location in Kodi to copy the ArialUnicode ttf file.

Where can i find the media/ fonts/ directory ?

[Jai Dee]

Just now, sotsira said:

Where can i find the media/ fonts/ directory ?

Using Kodi 17.3 on my Windows 10 PC, it is in the following directory:

 

[Jai Dee]

On an Android box you should be able to find the Fonts directory here:

 

Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata/Kodi/media/Fonts/

 

Reference

 

/Edit: And you should try the AD-TT-Garuda-Regular font as janclaes47 recommended... it's much smaller than the ArialUnicode font and cleaner on screen too.

[JaiMaai]

If the folder is missing from the Android box just create it making sure the F in Fonts is capitalised.

Sent from my SM-P555 using Tapatalk

[sotsira]

Ok guys, i've got the subtitles working fine in English, but when i try and select Thai subs,

they always show small squares instead.

 

I've downloaded Arialuni ttf file to my download folder but i can't get it to go to Kodi

so is that why it's showing squares?

 

When i follow post 3 i'm not seeing arialuni ttf as an option, only arial ttf. is showing.

 

N.B I'm using a MacBook Pro.

Edited July 13, 2017 by sotsira