Downloading subtitles

Subliminal is a command-line utility written in Python that downloads subtitles for TV episodes or movies.

While media players such as Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) offer this feature, it's a painful process to pause the video, open the subtitles menu, download the subtitles file, wait until the download completes and so on.
I stream videos directly from my NAS, so that wasn't even an option because the smart TV is unable to store the subtitles file anywhere, it has to be at the same location as the video.

With one little command, Subliminal fetches subtitles from various sources and finds what it thinks is the best subtitles track for the media files you throw at it.

Here's how to install and use it:

1. Try to find if you can install Subliminal directly from your package manager. If so, skip to step 4.
2. Install Python PIP.
3a. Recommended method: using virtualenv(wrapper): mkvirtualenv subtitles; pip install subliminal colorlog
3b. Alternate method: directly on the system: sudo pip install subliminal colorlog
4. Download the subtitles: subliminal -l en -s --color videoOrDirectory anotherVideoOrDirectory...
You can use other flags. These will download a subtitle track in English. The "-s" flag means the file will be named something.srt instead of something.en.srt. I use this option because some players are not able to associate the ".en.srt" subtitles file with the video. "--color" is just for eye candy. You can use "-v" for more messages.

To my knowledge subliminal won't browse directories recursively. You can achieve that effect with:
find . -type d -exec sh -c 'subliminal -l en -s  "{}"' \;

Subliminal is smart enough to detect if the file is a video, and if it needs subtitles.
I was confused with the message "No video to download subtitles for". It will be printed if there was no video in the path(s) you provided and if the video(s) already contain(s) a subtitles track. You can check that with mediainfo.

As with Kodi, you should follow certain naming conventions. It is best to include the full name of the show or movie in the title, and describe the episode as "S01E02" (Season 1 Episode 2) or "1x02". For best compatibility avoid spaces and non-ASCII characters. If you downloaded the video from the Internet, you should however try to keep the filename as it was, including the uploader's nickname and the video quality (HDTV, 720p, 1080p...) There might be a subtitles track for the exact video file you have.