legacy-arrflix/processes/subtitles/README.md

Subtitle acquisition process — v1

Last updated: 2026-05-09 Status: v1, partial — passed American Dad S01 (7/7 eps), broke on S02E01 due to season-numbering mismatch. v2 design pending.

This recipe is written for Claude Code to execute. Each step lists the exact command, what to verify, and what to do on failure. Background reference for how Jellyfin and the OpenSubtitles plugin work together lives in docs/03-subtitles.md.

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Prereqs (verify before running)

Check	How
OpenSubtitles plugin v20 installed + Active	`docker exec jellyfin ls /config/plugins
Plugin creds saved (Caveman5)	docker exec jellyfin grep -E 'Username|CredentialsInvalid' /config/plugins/configurations/Jellyfin.Plugin.OpenSubtitles.xml — expect Caveman5 and false
TV library has SaveSubtitlesWithMedia=true, SubtitleDownloadLanguages=["eng"], RequirePerfectSubtitleMatch=false	curl -s -H "X-Emby-Token: $TOK" http://localhost:8096/Library/VirtualFolders
Free-tier quota remaining today (≥ episode count, else plan multi-day)	docker logs --tail 200 jellyfin 2>&1 | grep "Remaining downloads" | tail -1 (free = 20/day, resets 00:00 UTC)
Source files have audio language tag	ffprobe sample episode

If any prereq fails, stop. Fix it before running the recipe.

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Step 1 — Probe the source

Pick one episode of the target show. Run ffprobe on it:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 'docker exec jellyfin /usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffprobe -hide_banner "<path-to-mkv>" 2>&1 | grep -E "Stream|Duration"'

Record in the run log:

• video codec + resolution + frame rate
• audio language tag(s)
• whether any subtitle streams are embedded
• container

Decide based on probe:

Probe result	Branch
English audio, no embedded subs	"simple" path (this recipe)
Foreign-dub audio, no embedded subs	"foreign-dub" path (deferred to v?)
Embedded English subs already present	skip — Jellyfin will use them
Embedded PGS/VobSub bitmap subs	"OCR" path (deferred to v?)

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Step 2 — Resolve series + episode IDs

TOK=<jellyfin-admin-token>
SERIES_NAME='American Dad'
ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items?searchTerm=${SERIES_NAME// /+}&IncludeItemTypes=Series&Recursive=true&Limit=3'" \
  | python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(x['Id'],x['Name']) for x in json.load(sys.stdin).get('Items',[])]"

Record series Id. Then list episodes:

SERIES=<series-id>
ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items?ParentId=$SERIES&IncludeItemTypes=Episode&Recursive=true&Fields=Path,ParentIndexNumber,IndexNumber'" \
  | python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(e['Id'],'S%02dE%02d'%(e['ParentIndexNumber'],e['IndexNumber']),e['Name']) for e in json.load(sys.stdin)['Items']]"

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Step 3 — Validate season numbering against OpenSubtitles

⚠️ Critical, added in v2 (currently provisional — see CHANGELOG): some shows are catalogued differently across services. American Dad is the canonical example: Hulu/DSP carriers split the original Fox 23-ep S1 into Hulu S1 (7 eps) + S2 (16 eps). OpenSubtitles indexes by Fox airing order. The plugin queries by (parent_imdb_id, season, episode) so library-side Hulu numbering returns 0 results past the first 7 episodes.

How to check:

1. Pick the first episode of season 2 in the library.
2. Run a RemoteSearch/Subtitles/eng against it (Step 4 below, but read-only).
3. If results > 0 — numbering matches OpenSubtitles. Proceed.
4. If results == 0 but the show exists on opensubtitles.com — numbering mismatch. Stop. Fix metadata first or use the v2 direct-API path (TBD).

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Step 4 — Fetch subs per episode

Per-episode loop. Helper script lives at processes/subtitles/lib/sub-fetch.sh (promoted from /tmp once stable; see CHANGELOG v0→v1).

TOK=<token>
EP=<episode-id>
MEDIA_DIR='/home/user/media/tv/<Show>/Season XX'
MEDIA_BASE='<Show> - SxxExx - <Title>'

# 1. search
RAW=$(ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items/$EP/RemoteSearch/Subtitles/eng'")

# 2. pick best non-HI/non-MT/non-AI/non-Forced match, prefer 23.976fps, then highest DownloadCount
SUBID=$(printf '%s' "$RAW" | python3 -c "
import json,sys
subs=json.load(sys.stdin)
clean=[s for s in subs if not (s.get('HearingImpaired') or s.get('MachineTranslated') or s.get('AiTranslated') or s.get('Forced'))]
if not clean: clean=subs
fps2398=[s for s in clean if abs(s.get('FrameRate',0)-23.976)<0.01]
pool=fps2398 if fps2398 else clean
pool.sort(key=lambda s: -s.get('DownloadCount',0))
print(pool[0]['Id'] if pool else '')")

# 3. download (returns 204)
ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -X POST -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items/$EP/RemoteSearch/Subtitles/$SUBID' -w 'HTTP %{http_code}\n'"

# 4. plugin saves to /config/metadata/library/<shard>/<itemId>/<base>.eng.srt
#    NOT next to media (manual-pick path ignores SaveSubtitlesWithMedia).
#    Move it into place:
SHARD="${EP:0:2}"
ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker cp \"jellyfin:/config/metadata/library/$SHARD/$EP/$MEDIA_BASE.eng.srt\" \
  \"$MEDIA_DIR/\""

Verify after each batch:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 'ls "<media-dir>/" | grep -c eng.srt'

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Step 5 — Clean up duplicates + library scan

The metadata-cache copy and the media-folder sidecar both register as subtitle streams in Jellyfin (counted twice). Delete the cache copies:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 'docker exec jellyfin bash -c "find /config/metadata/library -path \"*<show-name>*S0[1-9]E*.eng.srt\" -delete -print"'

Trigger a validation-only refresh so Jellyfin sees the new sidecars:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -X POST -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items/$SERIES/Refresh?MetadataRefreshMode=ValidationOnly&Recursive=true'"

Confirm one episode has exactly 1 external eng sub stream:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 "docker exec jellyfin curl -s -H 'X-Emby-Token: $TOK' \
  'http://localhost:8096/Items/<sample-ep-id>?Fields=MediaStreams'" \
  | python3 -c "import json,sys; subs=[s for s in json.load(sys.stdin).get('MediaStreams',[]) if s['Type']=='Subtitle']; print(len(subs),'sub streams')"

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Step 6 — Quality gate

For the run to pass:

• Coverage: every episode has a matching <base>.eng.srt sidecar
• Sync sample: at least one episode of each season is opened in Jellyfin web and subs visually align with audio (±1 s) on a known dialogue line
• Flag check: no .sdh.srt, .forced.srt, or .hi.srt files (machine pick should have filtered)
• Stream count: Jellyfin shows exactly 1 external eng sub per episode

If any check fails, log it in runs/<show>.md under "breakage" and propose the recipe amendment in CHANGELOG.md.

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Quota hygiene

Free OpenSubtitles.com account = 20 downloads / day, resets 00:00 UTC. Plan large series across multiple days, or switch to VIP (~$3/mo, unlimited).

Quota check:

ssh user@192.168.0.100 'docker logs --tail 200 jellyfin 2>&1 | grep "Remaining downloads" | tail -1'

When quota hits 0 the API returns 0 results, indistinguishable from a real miss. Always check quota before declaring a "no subs" failure.