Login to opensubtitles.org has failed -code Question

[AndyK]

Does opensubtitles.org access use some other DNS or other strange method to access opensubtitles ?

I am asking because:
MPAA bought a Norwegian court ruling to block opensubtitles.org
So it is blocked, and people use VPN to have a non-chinese, non-censored internet.

Using VPN , gives proper access to that site using a web browser, but SMPlayer, 18.5 ... 18.10 will fail every time with "Login to opensubtitles.org has failed"
now: DISconnecting from said VPN, makes browser fail , but SMPlayer can sometimes access opensubtitles.com , very unreliably, and sometimes...but still - this is opposite of the expected outcome.

So does SMPlayer use some other method, custom DNS or something like that ? - if so, it would be nice to disable it for use with VPN.
Additional info: It seems that ONLY SMPlayer fail when using VPN, FileBot works fine (proving the VPN is not to blame)