Use actual filename for subtitle searches in Kodi [feature request]

[jant90 15]

It seems that the movie title is being used when searching for subtitles inside Kodi (so when using Kodi's subtitle plugin) while using the Emby plugin. However, I find I get better subtitle matches when using the actual filename instead.

 

A workaround is using local paths instead of the plugin redirect but this is not so easy for remote Emby servers (outside of the local network). I tried to use path substitutions by using a FTP server, and while this works Kodi doesn't always stream video's that well over FTP (resuming after a little pause sometimes causes Kodi to hang). Example of a working FTP path substitution:

D:\Movies\ ftp://Username:Password@host.com:21/Movies/

However because FTP wasn't working that well with Kodi I changed to HTTPS by using Apache server and using password protected directory listings (this already is my preferred method of streaming over the internet, even before I found out about Emby). So I figured if path substitutions work with FTP they should work with HTTPS as well, so I entered:

D:\Movies\ https://test:test@host.com:443/media/Movies/

However over https I think this doesn't work because of URI formatting (spaces need to be escaped to %20), the Kodi log shows this:

15:49:01 T:7272   ERROR: CCurlFile::Open failed with code 404 for https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@host.com/media/Movies/Ant-Man (2015)/Ant-Man.2015.1080p.BluRay.x264-SPARKS.mkv
15:49:01 T:7272   ERROR: XFILE::CFileCache::Open - failed to open source <https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@host.com/media/Movies/Ant-Man (2015)/Ant-Man.2015.1080p.BluRay.x264-SPARKS.mkv>
15:49:01 T:7272   ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening [https://test:test@host.com/media/Movies/Ant-Man (2015)/Ant-Man.2015.1080p.BluRay.x264-SPARKS.mkv]
15:49:01 T:7272  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
15:49:01 T:1316   ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@host.com/media/Movies/Ant-Man (2015)/Ant-Man.2015.1080p.BluRay.x264-SPARKS.mkv]

I believe this way I tried all the alternative setups in which I use Emby ánd have Kodi use the filename to search subtitles. However none of them are really an ideal situation.

 

TL;DR

Of course I tried all of this in the first place because I simply want Kodi to use the filename when searching for subtitles. In fact I would prefer to keep settings and setup as simple as possible by using the default plugin redirect so keep al Emby features and let Emby handle the remote streaming process over HTTP(S).

 

So I would like to request this as a feature for Emby for Kodi: pass along the actual video filename to the Kodi subtitle searcher (instead of the movie / series name) to get better matching subtitles.

 

Thanks for reading .