Ray by OpenSubtitles.com

[tirdg 1]

I'm not sure if this is on anyone's radar, but I would love a plugin to make use of the new Ray project by OpenSubtitles.

See the kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/techspecs/ray-watch-anything-understand-everything/description

There appear to be multiple usage modes, but integration into existing media servers like Emby is clearly one of them.

I think this is a perfect use case for AI and I also happen to think the state of subtitles (functionality, sync, subtitle creation, translation availability, etc.. ) is scandalously bad considering it's 2026. This will be a huge improvement that approaches something close to perfection right away. 

I also think they're approaching the project ethically by using models responsibly and only when necessary (when human-created subtitles don't exist). I also believe the generated subtitles for a given title are stored back to OpenSubtitles meaning theoretically once a given title has been analyzed and the subtitle files have been created, future calls for that subtitle would just be a download from OpenSubtitles just as we would expect. 

I think it's a great idea and look forward to using it in Emby!

[ebr 16597]

1 hour ago, tirdg said:

I also believe the generated subtitles for a given title are stored back to OpenSubtitles meaning theoretically once a given title has been analyzed and the subtitle files have been created, future calls for that subtitle would just be a download from OpenSubtitles just as we would expect. 

Correct.  Which means that, since we already have OS integration, we will be taking advantage of this anyway.

To me, this appears to be a clever way of them getting more contributions to their site.

[justinrh 285]

On 6/5/2026 at 7:51 AM, ebr said:

we will be taking advantage of this anyway.

Is this thru the Open Subtitles plugin or something else?

[ebr 16597]

22 hours ago, justinrh said:

Is this thru the Open Subtitles plugin or something else?

Through our normal use of Open Subtitles.

[justinrh 285]

4 hours ago, ebr said:

Through our normal use of Open Subtitles.

Where can I learn about this?  The Emby docs mention plugins being required for external subtitles.

[Neminem 1826]

Just now, justinrh said:

Where can I learn about this?  The Emby docs mention plugins being required for external subtitles.

I guess you can't since this is a FR and not reality.

[justinrh 285]

I was responding to ebr's comment about Emby's 'normal use' about built-in OS integration.  Maybe I misunderstood ebr? 

[ebr 16597]

19 hours ago, justinrh said:

Where can I learn about this?  The Emby docs mention plugins being required for external subtitles.

Open Subtitles

[justinrh 285]

Righto.  "This requires the loading of a plugin and proper setup of your libraries which is shown below."  So if it takes a plugin, I don't understand the "Through our normal use of Open Subtitles." part when I asked if it required a plugin.  

[ebr 16597]

Sorry, I understand how that could have been confusing.

What I meant was that - through our use of the OS site (with the plugin) - we will take advantage of all the new subs available via this new method.

[Neminem 1826]

But the plugin will not upload subs to the project.

[ebr 16597]

40 minutes ago, Neminem said:

But the plugin will not upload subs to the project.

No but the net effect of Ray being out there is going to mean that OS will very quickly have subs for most items - at least, that is what they are hoping. 

[tirdg 1]

On 6/9/2026 at 1:11 PM, Neminem said:

But the plugin will not upload subs to the project.

Not as the plugin currently functions. My feature request is to expand the functionality by allowing the full use of the new "Ray" feature by open subtitles. Anyone who uses OS will benefit from the new method by which subtitles are being generated because it will fill in all the gaps. But there are a lot more functional use cases for deeper integration: fixing subtitle offsets, generating SDH sound descriptions for a host of titles that pre-dated the practice and blending them into existing subtitles, translation. Honestly, translation could be done in the video itself with currently available technology by changing mouth movements and regenerating dialog in new languages. Lots of possibilities. Not all of them will be the right choice, but I would love to see movement toward some of these new technologies to see what creative things come out of it. 

[ebr 16597]

41 minutes ago, tirdg said:

My feature request is to expand the functionality by allowing the full use of the new "Ray" feature by open subtitles

Unfortunately, that opens a huge can of worms for us because it now is uploading information about your library to a 3rd party.

If OS is successful with this "Ray" project, then this will take care of itself because the information will get there through them.

[tirdg 1]

55 minutes ago, ebr said:

If OS is successful with this "Ray" project, then this will take care of itself because the information will get there through them.

I'm not sure OS does the actual populating of their DBs themselves. It's my understanding that it's a community effort. So, really, we will only benefit from this if the community around subtitles (including Emby) specifically doesn't take the attitude of "others will do it". We're the ones that do it unless I'm just totally wrong about what OS is (and I may be).

If I'm watching or otherwise in possession of a film title without subs available (or with inadequate subs available), my hope would be to have a workflow built into Emby server (or maybe even from the frontend) that allowed a user to initiate the generation of subs which results in a complete file in your local filesystem, but which is also submitted to OS.

[ebr 16597]

1 hour ago, tirdg said:

I'm not sure OS does the actual populating of their DBs themselves. It's my understanding that it's a community effort

"Ray" is a new player created by OS and it automatically creates and uploads subtitles to their database. 

[tirdg 1]

That's not all it is. It's specifically being developed with an API/webhooks for developers. The primary use case for which is precisely what I'm talking about here. Emby could theoretically create their owner player with Ray integrations. Or Emby could post media info to a webhook every time a new file hits your filesystem and OS would return a complete subtitle file. That's not far off from how emby already handles automatic subtitle downloads but by using Ray webhooks, you would get a generated file if one didn't exist before which would probably require additional information passed to OS. That level of detail isn't known, so I'm speculating here, but the idea of Ray integrations into media players isn't speculation. 

I've also heard concepts thrown around on Reddit about the idea of a companion that kind of 'watches' the movie with you. Basically someone you can ask questions to that is aware of where you are in the movie so as to avoid spoilers. "Hey that didn't make sense just now. Did I miss something?" Ray might respond with what you missed, or a timestamp of where you might jump back to see it. Ray may also tell you that you didn't miss anything and that you just need to be patient. I watched a movie just last night where I asked my wife a question like that and we just had to rewind a few seconds to catch it, but I've definitely been 'in too deep' before to just rewind and hope I find what I missed because naturally I don't know where it might be. This would be great in ebooks too, but I digress. 

Lot's of interesting ideas out there for technology like this. Guess I was just wondering if Emby has any intention of approaching it or if there is a reason they don't want to.