Find and Download Subtitles While Watching a Movie on VLC Player!

I often watch movies on my computer. It runs on Windows 7 and my favourite movie player is VLC player (Video Lan). One very useful reason to do so, is the feature of downloading subtitles from the internet and synchronizing them with the movie I am watching.

I came across a nice Add-on for VLC Player, which allows the user to download subtitles of a movie while watching the film.

Using Subtitle Finder

VLC_Subtitles_Finder

  • First make sure your VLC player is updated. The latest version can be found from here.
  • Now visit Subtitles Finder, and download the (subtitles-mod.lua) file on your computer.
  • If only code is shown, copy-paste it into a notepad and save the file as subtitles-mod.lua. Make sure File Type is selected as ‘All Files’, otherwise the file might end up being saved as a .txt file.
  • This file has to be added into VLC Folder in Program Files on your computer. Below is the exact path where the file has to be added.

Windows (all users): %ProgramFiles%VideoLANVLCluaextensions

Windows (current user): %APPDATA%VLCluaextensions

  • Now while you are watching a movie on DVD and do not find subtitles in English or any particular language then you can simply click on View >> Subtitles >> Download.
  • We have the option of searching but most times the subtitles are found without any trouble. Click on “Load Selected Subtitle” as you can see in the image above.
  • For older version of VLC player, you might have to look up the Subtitle Finder by clicking on View >> Extensions >> Subtitles.

Next time I am watching a movie, especially in a foreign language, this VLC extension will surely be most useful.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Subtitles Finder | Download VLC

19 Comments

Gautam October 3, 2011

Tried this. Didn’t work. Can’t see the option of Subtitles under View menu..

Aditya Kane October 4, 2011

@Gautam: Do you see Addons as an option then? It might be under that option. What exactly can you see under view menu? also which version of VLC are you using along with Windows OS – makes a difference to its layout.

Gautam October 6, 2011

Hi Aditya, View shows all the default sub-menus which come with VLC. I have downloaded latest VLC as u mentioned in the post i.e version 1.1.11, OS is Win 7 Home Basic.

Aditya Kane October 7, 2011

Try to look under Tool >> Plugins and Extensions : You should find Subtitles as Extensions. If it is not there the addon was not installed properly.

Gautam October 6, 2011

Being precise I see all sub-menus in the screen-shot in the post except “Subtitles”. Also there is no Addons menu either, same as there is not one in the above screen-shot.

Giri December 23, 2011

Super. Its working fine for me 🙂 Thanks lot for your help

Shashank December 31, 2011

The wikipedia info addon didn’t worked on my windows 7 despite saving the code in .lua extension,
Any suggestns…?

Aditya Kane December 31, 2011

I have used Wikipedia and Subtitles addon on Windows 7. Maybe update your VLC player version.

PovilasP October 18, 2012

Hello 🙂

Does it still supposed to work? Because then I press “Load selected subtitles”, VLC player shows me somehting like this: „Your input can’t be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘zip://http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/http://dl.opensubtitles.org/en/download/subad/4620541!/White.Collar.S04E02.Most.Wanted.HDTV.x264?2dFQM.srt’. Check the log for details.”

I’d guess that VLC changed too much and this plugin needs very simple update. Is it working for anybody else?

plaincircle May 15, 2013

i am also having the same problem as yours..i dont know if they have already updated it or not.

niccolo October 19, 2012

I get the same result as PovilasP. My VLC version is the 2.0.3 Twoflower. Anybody can help? Thanks

karl October 26, 2012

i tried this after search it says nothing found

Robert Morales January 11, 2013

I just updated my VLC to tho the one on this site. I’m running Windows 7 and I can’t see an “extension” folder where I’m supposed to save the Subtitle file. Help…anyone!

Sk8ter January 29, 2013

I prefer media player classic it has a built in mechanism to search and download subtitles … works better .

ekta abraham March 6, 2013

hey i din get da windows part can u plss explain it to me???

miss March 30, 2013

This file has to be added into VLC Folder in Program Files on your computer. Below is the exact path where the file has to be added.

Windows (all users): %ProgramFiles%\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\extensions\

Windows (current user): %APPDATA%\VLC\lua\extensions\

i’m really dont understand this..will u explain it preciously…a lot tq for ur kindness in helping…

Edgar Yépez April 7, 2013

Hello, I followed the instructions but inside the lua folder there is no folder named: extensions. I tried to create one but the system didn’t allow it. It tells me that I need to ask permission to the administrator. how can I do that? Please help me, Thanks so much…

ADITYA CHAKRABORTY May 20, 2013

hi aditya do i need a net connection while watching movie in my saved folder with using opensubtitle setup

Aditya Kane May 20, 2013

you need a net connection as it will source the correct subtitles from the internet