[sygyzy_nbr]

According to the wiki page, XBMC supports a variety of subtitle formats but is very specific on how it wants them titled.

Most movies downloaded come with subtitles in a RAR format. Let's use an example of a movie called "Tron"

Movie File: Tron.avi
Subtitle File: Tron.rar

Inside The Tron.rar are two files: Tron.idx and Tron.rar. Inside Tron.rar is Tron.sub

According to the manual, XBMC does accept rarfiles but it must Tron.idx and Tron.sub inside.

So a fresh download, even if properly named would never work in XBMC right? As is, Tron.avi + Tron.rar (which includes another rar inside plus the idx) won't be recognized by XBMC. To get it to work, one would have to repackage the sub rar file by extracting the embedded Tron.sub file out of the embedded Tron.rar and make a new rarfile with Tron.sub and Tron.idx

Why is this the case? Why wouldn't either XBMC change to support this "industry" standard? Or if XBMC's way is correct, why wouldn't release groups change how they package subtitle files?

Or am I doing it wrong?

[YodaEXE]

I gotta say, I've NEVER seen the files packaged that way, and with 300+ movies on my drive, I would have noticed. Are you sure you're not just getting them someplace weird?

[sygyzy_nbr]

How do you see them packaged?

I am pretty sure I am not getting them somewhere weird. All of my movies come this way. I am pretty sure you and I get them from the same 1-2 sources ...

[pecinko]

To get it to work, one would have to repackage the sub rar file by extracting the embedded Tron.sub file out of the embedded Tron.rar and make a new rarfile with Tron.sub and Tron.idx

Why is this the case? Why wouldn't either XBMC change to support this "industry" standard? Or if XBMC's way is correct, why wouldn't release groups change how they package subtitle files?

Xbmc's PR manager is kind of busy right now, but will contact release groups afterwards in order to arrange for some standard to be accepted. There's no way we can tolerate this!

Aren't you expecting too much?

[clubwerks]

I have 5000 TV episodes and 500 movies and the only subtitle files I've ever seen are the .idx/.sub pair, .srt and .txt. 95% of what I see for external subs are .srt.

[sygyzy_nbr]

I guess maybe it must be my bad luck then. BTW, I really didn't mean XBMC developers should drop everything and fix this problem. I just was confused why groups are releasing subs in this way (.sub in rar inside another larger rar)

[jmarshall]

I presume you've tried directly with the rars that the actual movie came in, without touching anything?

[sygyzy_nbr]

I presume you've tried directly with the rars that the actual movie came in, without touching anything?

I have not tried with the subtitle rars the movies come with because according to the wiki, XBMC does not support this format. I will try it tonight. This thread may be a moot point then.

Until then, you guys wanted a real example. Here's one:

The.Losers.DVDRip.XviD-ALLiANCE

There's a subtitle rar included named alli-losers-xvid.subs.rar

Inside the rar are two files:
alli-losers-xvid.idx
alli-losers-xvid.rar

Inside alli-losers-xvid.rar is the file alli-losers-xvid.sub

The wiki says the rar should have a idx and a sub file.