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Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and open-sourcemedia player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium.[6] Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most streaming media, such as videos, music, podcasts, and videos from the Internet, as well as all common digital media files from local and network storage media.[7]
It is a multi-platformhome-theater PC (HTPC) application. Kodi is highly customizable: a variety of skins can change its appearance, and various plug-ins allow users to access streaming media content via online services such as Amazon Prime Instant Video, Crackle, Pandora Internet Radio, Rhapsody, Spotify, and YouTube.[8] The later versions also have a personal video-recorder (PVR) graphical front end for receiving live television with electronic program guide (EPG) and high-definition digital video recorder (DVR) support.[9]
The software was created in 2002[10] as an independently developed homebrew media player application named Xbox Media Player for the first-generation Xbox game console, changing its name in 2004 to Xbox Media Center (abbreviated as XBMC, which was adopted as the official name in 2008) [10][7][11][12] and was later made available under the name XBMC as a native application for Android, Linux, BSD, macOS, iOS/tvOS, and Microsoft Windows-based operating systems.[13][14]
Because of its open source and cross-platform nature, with its core code written in C++, modified versions of Kodi-XBMC together with a JeOS have been used as a software appliance suite or software framework in a variety of devices including smart TVs, set-top boxes, digital signage, hotel television systems, network connected media players and embedded systems based on armhf platform like Raspberry Pi. Derivative applications such as MediaPortal and Plex have been spun off from XBMC or Kodi, as well as just enough operating systems like OpenELEC and LibreELEC.[15][16][17][18][19]
Kodi has attracted negative attention due to the availability of third-party plug-ins for the software that facilitate unauthorized access to copyrighted media content, as well as 'fully loaded' digital media players that are pre-loaded with such add-ons; the XBMC Foundation has not endorsed any of these uses, and has taken steps to disassociate the Kodi project from these add-ons, including threatening legal action against those using its trademarks to promote them.[20]
Overview[edit]
Kodi supports many common audio, video, and image formats, playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecasts reporting, and third-party plugins. It is network-capable (internet and home network shares). Unlike other media center applications such as Windows Media Center, MediaPortal and MythTV, Kodi does not include its own internal digital TV-tuner code for Live TV or DVR/PVR recording functionality, as instead it acts as a unified DVR/PVR front-end with an EPG TV-Guide GUI interface which, via a common API, abstracts and supports multiple back-ends via PVR client add-ons from third parties, with those running either locally on the same machine or over the network.[8][15][16][21][22][23]
Plug-ins, using either C/C++ programming languages to create binary add-ons or the Python scripting language to create Script Addons, expand Kodi to include features such as television program guides, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh, online movie trailer support, and Pandora Radio and podcast streaming. Kodi also functions as a game launcher on any operating system.[15][16][21][24][25][26]
Kodi's source code is distributed as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL),[21] it is governed by the tax-exempt registered non-profit US organization, XBMC Foundation, and is owned and developed by a global free software community of unpaid volunteers.[25][26]
Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, XBMC on the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off project 'XBMC4Xbox', which forked the Xbox version of the software and completely took over the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox. The ending of Xbox support by the original project was also the reason that it was renamed 'XBMC' from the old 'Xbox Media Center' name, and why it later was renamed 'Kodi'.[27][28][29][30] The Xbox version of XBMC had the ability to launch console games, and homebrew applications such as emulators. Since the XBMC for Xbox version was never distributed, endorsed, or supported by Microsoft, it always required a modchip or softmod exploit to run on the Xbox game-console.[7][11][12][21]
Hardware requirements[edit]
Kodi has greater basic hardware requirements than traditional 2D style software applications: it needs a 3D capable graphics hardware controller for all rendering. Powerful 3D GPU chips are common today in most modern computer platforms, including many set-top boxes, and XBMC, now Kodi, was from the start designed to be otherwise very resource efficient for being as powerful and versatile framework as it is. It runs well on what (by Intel Atom standards) are relatively underpowered OpenGL 1.3 (with GLSL support), OpenGL ES 2.0 or Direct3D (DirectX) 9.0 capable systems that are IA-32/x86, x86-64, ARM (AArch32 and AArch64), or PowerPC G4 or later CPU based.[15]
When software decoding of a full HD 1080p high-definition and high bit-rate video is performed by the system CPU, a dual-core 2 GHz or faster CPU is required in order to allow for perfectly smooth playback without dropping frames or giving playback a jerky appearance. Kodi can however offload most of the video decoding process onto graphics hardware controller or embedded video processing circuits that supports one of the following types of hardware-accelerated video decoding:[31] Google's MediaCodec API for Android, Intel's VAAPI, Nvidia's VDPAU API, AMD's XvBA API, Microsoft's DXVA API, Apple's VDADecoder/VideoToolbox APIs, and the Khronos Group's OpenMAX API,[32][33]AMLogic VPU,[34]Freescale's i.MX6x series VPU, and Raspberry Pi's GPU MMAL. By taking advantage of such hardware-accelerated video decoding, Kodi can play back most videos on many inexpensive, low-performance systems, as long as they contain a supported VPU or GPU.
Language support[edit]
Kodi includes full internationalization and localization support with full translations into 12 languages; there are projects to translate into a total of 75 ongoing as of 2017.[5]
Fully or partially available languages in Kodi are:
†Fully translated. Other languages still have from 10 to 4,847 strings to translate.
Kodi's structure is such that if the language is not available, or not up-to-date, it can be made by editing simple strings in an XML-file, which can then be submitted to XBMC's project management and bug tracking system tool for use by others, and after version 11.0 XBMC switched to using GetText PO (Portable Object) formatted files for more easily handled translator translations using Transifex web-based translation platform with online crowd-sourced translation services.[35]The Kodi wiki reported that Kodi supported 72 languages.[36]
Core features[edit]Live TV with EPG and PVR/DVR frontend[edit]
The TV feature allows users to watch some TV broadcasts that may be transmitted by a DTT, ADSL, cable, or Internet streaming, depending on the chosen add-on.
From version 12.0 (Frodo), Kodi has a native Live TV with EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and DVR (Digital Video Recorder) features with a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) frontend GUI,[37][38] which enables video capture and playback to and from a hard disk drive with PVR Client Addons for most popular PVR backends (TV tuner card server). These addons can be installed separately as plugins in Kodi.
The PVR backend can either be a DVR set-top box connected to the network or a PC with a digital video recorder software. This software can run on the same computer or on other computers on the same network. The PVR software can turn computers or other appliances into DVRs. The operating system can be Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, and Android devices.[39]
Several types of PVR Client Addons are available:
Video playback[edit]Video Library[edit]
The Video Library, one of the Kodi metadata databases, is a key feature of Kodi. It allows the organization of video content by information associated with the video files (e.g., movies and recorded TV shows) themselves. This information can be obtained in various ways, like through scrapers (e.g., web scraping sites like IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB), and nfo files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library Mode view allows users to browse their video content by categories; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.[8][15]
Video player cores[edit]
Kodi uses one multimedia video player 'core' for video-playback. This video-player 'core' for video-playback is an in-house developed cross-platform media player, 'DVDPlayer', which was designed to play back DVD-Video movies, and this includes support native for DVD-menus, (based on the free open source libraries code libdvdcss and libdvdnav). This FFmpeg based video-player 'core' today supports all widespread mainstream formats. One relatively unusual feature of this DVD-player core is the capability to on-the-fly pause and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG DVD-images or DVD-Video (IFO/VOB/BUP) images (even directly from uncompressed RAR and ZIP archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.[8][15][16]
Audio playback[edit]Music Library[edit]
The Music Library, one of the Kodi metadata databases, is another key feature of Kodi. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file ID meta tags, like title, artist, album, production year, genre, and popularity. Automatically downloading and displaying album covers and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers.[8][15]
Audio player cores[edit]
For music playback, Kodi includes its own in-house developed audio-player, 'PAPlayer' (which stands for 'Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player'), and this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly resampling of the audio frequency, gapless playback, crossfading, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg Chapter support.
The PAPlayer audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats and supports most tagging standards. Kodi also has support for most popular karaoke computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G, LRC, and KAR files.[21]
Digital picture/image display[edit]
Kodi handles all common digital picture/image formats with the options of panning/zooming and slideshow with 'Ken Burns Effect', with the use of CxImage open source library code. XBMC can handle CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files, this feature lets users view/read, browse and zoom the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first.[7]
Games Manager and game console emulators[edit]
Development was in progress in 2013 on new core features integrating a built-in Games Manager and Game Launcher front-end GUI with a Games Library, and Game Console Emulator API into XBMC. The code for all was being developed in a separate branch to be incorporated into the mainline tree.[42]
The Games Manager, once integrated into Kodi, provides a unified games manager library and GUI front-end launcher with online metadata web scraping support for information about the games. It also introduces Game Addons as new type of addon with just-in-time emulator installation. Adding a Games Library for Game Metadata, exposing info (current level, number of lives, number of coins earned, etc.) to GUI, as well as extending the Addon API to support Game Client Addons, supporting Kodi's VFS (Virtual File System). It also provides a joystick and gamepad abstraction layer for common joystick API and input clients.[43][44]
RetroPlayer[edit]
Also under development is the 'RetroPlayer' video game console emulator (ROMs) interface, supporting the libretro API and emulator cores (from the RetroArch project, which is its reference front-end). Libretro itself is a modular multi-system game/emulator system designed to be fast, lightweight, and portable.[45]
RetroPlayer supports emulators for most popular retro game consoles, including but not limited to: Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Atari Jaguar, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, the original PlayStation, Sega systems (Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear), plus multiple arcade games via MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) and FBA (Final Burn Alpha), as well as ScummVM and MS-DOS based games.[46][47]
Audio, video, and pictures media formats[edit]
Kodi can play media from CD/DVD media using an internal DVD-ROM drive. It can play media from an internal built-in hard disk drive and SMB/SAMBA/CIFS shares (Windows File-Sharing), NFS, or stream them over ReplayTV DVRs/PVRs, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) or Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) shares, or stream iTunes-shares via Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP). Kodi can take advantage of a broadband Internet connection if available to stream Internet-video-streams like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Veoh, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as Pandora Radio). Kodi includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm and Libre.fm. It has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke function and many audio-visualizations and screensavers. Kodi can upscale/upconvert all standard-definition resolution videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition resolutions.[15][21][48]
Under Microsoft Windows, Kodi supports Directsound and WASAPI; since WASAPI performs no mixing or resampling, it provides best audio quality.[49]
Format support[edit]
Kodi can be used to play/view all common multimedia formats through its native clients and parsers. It can decode these audio and video formats in software or hardware, and optionally pass-through AC3/DTS audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to S/PDIF digital output to an external audio-amplifier/receiver for decoding.[15][21]
Supported formats:
Addons Manager, addons and plugins[edit]
Kodi features several open APIs to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend Kodi with a multitude of addons, such as audio and video streaming plugins for online sources, screensavers, skins and themes, visualizations, weather forecasts, web interfaces, web scrapers, widget scripts, and more. Kodi developers encourage users to make and submit their own addons to expand media content and value-added services accessible from within Kodi.
Kodi/XBMC features, since version 10.0 (codename: 'Dharma'), an Addons Framework architecture and an Addons Manager GUI client that connects to a decentralizeddigital distribution service platform that serves add-on apps and plug-ins which among other things provide online content to Kodi, the 'Addons Manager' (or 'Addons Browser') inside Kodi allows users to browse and download new addons directly from Kodi's GUI.
Many of these online content sources are in over-the-top content high definition services and use video streaming site as sources for the media content that is offered. Kodi has extensibility and integration with online sources for free and premium streaming content, and offers content from everything from commercial video to free educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses. Not all content sources on add-ons are available in every country, however. Due to rights agreements, many content sources are geo-restricted to prevent users in outside countries from accessing content, although some have taken to bypassing the regional restrictions in order to unblock these sources, disregarding the usage rights.[54]
Plugins and scripts[edit]
Kodi features an integrated Python Scripts interpreter for addon extensions, and WindowXML application framework (a XML-based widget toolkit engine for creating a GUI for apps and widgets) in a similar fashion to Apple macOS Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets. Python widget scripts allow normal users to add new functionality to Kodi themselves, using Python scripting language. Current plugin scripts include functions like Internet-TV and movie-trailer browsers, cinemaguides, weather forecast, over-the-top content video streaming services like YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh, MLB.tv, Internet-radio-station browsers such as Pandora Radio, online picture sharing sites like Flickr, TV guides such as TVShow Time, e-mail clients, instant messaging, different timetables, home automation scripts to front-end control PVR software and hardware, P2P file-sharing downloaders (BitTorrent), IRC, also casual games such as Tetris.[15][16][24][25][26]
Metadata extraction and web scrapers[edit]
Kodi has the built-in optional function to automatically download metadata information, cover art and other related media artwork online through its web scrapers that looks for media in the user's audio and video folders and their sub-directories. These 'scrapers' are used as importers to obtain detailed information from various Internet resources about movies and television shows. It can get synopses, reviews, movie posters, titles, genre classification, and other similar data. XBMCGUI then provides a rich display for audio and video files that the scrapers have identified.
Scrapers use sites like The Movie Database (TMDb)[55] or IMDb.com to obtain thumbnails and information on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, CDDB for audio CD track listings, and Allmusic (AMG) and MusicBrainz for album thumbnails, reviews, and metadata.[31]
Fanart.tv has been added to the list of information sources[56] and XBMC can use it to retrieve logos, backgrounds, CDs with transparent backgrounds, album covers and banners among other image types for music artists, TV shows and movies, the popularity of which contributed to XBMC being able to handle new image types.
Skins and themes[edit]
Like the majority of applications that originated from a 'homebrew' scene, modification and customization of the interface using skins is very popular among Kodi users and hundreds of skins and themes are available for users to install. The Kodi skinning engine's flexibility is also advantageous to third parties wanting to create derivative works, as it facilitates rebranding the environment and making deeper changes to the look and feel of the user interface.
As of Kodi version 17, the official default skins for new installs are 'Estuary', for typical home-theater usage, and 'Estouchy' for touchscreens. These newly designed skins replace the longtime default skin 'Confluence', and are intended to present more content on the homescreen, be easier for new users, and bring 'Kodi into the present day of UI design.'[57][58]
Users can also create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites that are used for Kodi skin trading and development.[59] Many such third-party skins exist that are well maintained by the community, and while some skins are originals with unique designs, most begin as a clone or an exact replica of other multimedia software interfaces, such as Apple Front Row, Windows Media Center Edition (MCE), MediaPortal, Wii Channel Menu (Xii), Xbox 360 interface, and others.[60]
In addition to skins and themes users can create a themed package called a 'build'. Within this package homebrew developers are able to distribute a skin and multiple addons. The delivery mechanism used within the Kodi scene is called a wizard with the Replicant Wizard[61] being the most prominent.
Web Interfaces[edit]
Web Interface addons for Kodi normally allow browsing a media library remotely, to handle music playlists from a computer instead of television. Others allow remotely controlling the navigation of XBMC like a remote for remote controlling of an installed and concurrently active Kodi session running on a computer if it runs on an internet tablet or similar device with a touch interface. Others act like a media manager to allow modifying metadata and artwork in XBMC's video and music libraries.
Application launcher[edit]
Kodi has a 'My Programs' section which is meant to function as an application launcher for third-party software such as computer games and video game emulators, all from a GUI with thumbnail and different listings options. However, while this feature was fully functioning on the Xbox version of XBMC, it is still in its infant stage on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, thus requiring third-party launcher plugins to function properly.[12]
Mobile remotes and second screen apps[edit]
There are many software applications for mobile devices available for and associated with Kodi. Some of these mobile apps just works as simple remote controls, while others function as more advanced second screen companion apps, offering additional information about what users are viewing or listening to on Kodi, such as metadata about movie actors and music artists, with links to other works available from those persons in their collection or online.
'XBMC Remote for Android' and 'XBMC Remote for iOS' are free and open source official apps for mobile devices released by Team-Kodi/Team-XBMC on Google Play for Android devices and the App Store for iOS Devices, such as iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. These applications act as a second screen[62] and remote control solution which allows for fully browsing the media library and for remote controlling of an installed and concurrently active XBMC session running on a computer via the handheld touchscreen user interface of these device.[63][64]
Several third-party developers have also released multiple other unofficial Kodi remote control apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Ubuntu Touch, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone devices. Some of these remote control apps are made specifically for controlling Kodi, while some universal remote control apps are capable of controlling many different media center and media player applications, and some of these third-party remote apps cost money while others are free.[65]
Official versions[edit]
Due to the dated hardware of the first-generation Xbox game console that Kodi-XBMC was designed for, and a desire to expand the project's end-user and developer-base, many official ports of XBMC to computer operating-systems and hardware platforms have been created. Through the processing power of more recent computer hardware, XBMC can decode high-definition video up to and beyond 1080p resolutions, bypassing hardware limitations of the Xbox version of XBMC.
In recent releases of Kodi-XBMC there is hardware accelerated video decoding for DXVA, VDPAU, VA-API GPU hardware video decoding, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via ARM NEON, and OpenMAX, Broadcom Crystal HD.[16][66] The source code for XBMC is actively updated by developers in a public Git repository, which may contain features and functionality not yet incorporated into the most recent 'stable' releases.
Kodibuntu[edit]
Kodibuntu (formerly XBMCbuntu) was a free Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with Kodi (formerly XBMC) for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. Kodibuntu uses Kodi software for all media playback and is primarily designed for bare-metal installations to achieve instant-on type boot to achieve a set-top box experience on an HTPC. It replaced XBMCbuntu which in turn replaced XBMC Live, the former official Live CD (Linux) distribution.[67]
Kodibuntu was based on Lubuntu, an Ubuntu Linux fork that was 'lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient' than the standard Ubuntu desktop distributions. The Windows XP Media Center Edition Remote and IR-receiver dongle works directly with Kodibuntu out of the box, which means Windows Media Center users with these common peripherals can use Kodibuntu without requiring any additional hardware.[14][68][69]
Following the principles of MythTV distributions and GeeXboX, Kodibuntu is designed to simplify the permanent installation of Kodi onto a computer for use as a dedicated home theater PC. The user can directly install XBMC from the bootable CD onto a USB flash drive or internal hard disk drive, since it comes with a complete instant-on (Linux kernel-based) embedded operating system. When installed on a USB flash drive or internal hard disk drive, Kodibuntu can save settings and make updates to XBMC and the operating system back to that drive.
Native applications[edit]
Kodi for Linux (formerly XBMC for Linux) is primarily developed for Ubuntu Linux and Kodi's developers' own Kodibuntu (formerly XBMCbuntu). Third-party packages for most other Linux distributions are also available, and it is possible to compile XBMC Media Center from scratch for any Linux distribution, as long as the required dependency libraries are installed first. Hardware accelerated video decoding is achieved via the VDPAU API on Nvidia's GPUs, the VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon, S3 Graphics, and Intel's newer Integrated Graphics Processors, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via OpenMAX, ARM NEON, and Broadcom Crystal HD on systems with supporting hardware.[66] Development version of Kodi/XBMC for Linux is available at Launchpad as PPA (Personal Package Archive) for the standard Ubuntu Desktop version 8.04 and later, as well as DEB packages for Debian.
Kodi for OS X(formerly XBMC for Mac) runs natively on Mac OS X Tiger and later, as well as on the Apple TV. 1080p playback can be achieved on Apple computers either via software decoding on the CPU, if it is powerful enough, or by hardware-accelerated video decoding for hardware supporting Apple's VDA API or video decoders such as the Broadcom Crystal HD.[66]
1080p playback on the first-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. 'ATV1') can only be achieved by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD; the user must replace the ATV's internal WiFi adapter with a Broadcom Crystal HD PCI Express Mini (mini-PCIe) card in order to activate this functionality.[66]
Kodi for Windows (formerly XBMC for Windows) runs natively on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 as a 32-bit or 64-bit application. 1080p and Ultra HD (4K) playback can be achieved on Windows computers either via software decoding on the CPU, if it's powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding.
Hardware video decoding via DirectX Video Acceleration[70][71] is supported, although this enhancement only runs on Windows 7 (or later?) since it uses the DXVA 2.0 API, which was not supported in Windows XP.[72]
Kodi for iOS (formerly XBMC for iOS), a full port of Kodi to Apple's iOS operating-system, was released publicly on 20 January 2011. It supported both 720p and 1080p hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264 videos, and was compatible with Apple's iDevices that use Apple A4 or Apple A5 (ARM-based) processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system.[73]
In late 2017 MacWorld UK described how to install on iOS devices before iOS 11 without jailbreak.
Kodi for Android (formerly XBMC for Android) is a full port of the complete Kodi/XBMC application to Google's Android operating-system, officially compatible with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and later versions supporting API Level 14.[74] was first announced and its source code released publicly on 13 June 2012. This is a full port of Kodi's C++ and C source code with all its dependencies to Android with a build-system that was designed to handle multiple processor architectures, like ARM, MIPS, and x86 with the Android NDK (Native Development Kit for Android) without using a single line of Java, and the XBMC.APK is running natively under Android as a NativeActivity application.[75] Hardware accelerated video decoding on Android is currently only officially available for some specific hardware platforms, such as the Amlogic SoC based Pivos XIOS series which have been used as the reference hardware platform during the development so far.[76] XBMC source code must be compiled with Google's official Android NDK revision 10d or later, and be built for the android-17 toolchain (Android API Level 17) using GCC version 4.8, which Kodi for Android code currently requires to compile correctly but is not supported by Google's Android NDK. This is also the real reason why XBMC for Android does not support the original Google TV; since the Android NDK was not made available for older Google TV devices it means that Kodi/XBMC could not be compiled for it today.[77]
Xbox (first-generation)[edit]
XBMC 9.04 (codename: Babylon) point-release version of XBMC for Xbox, now obsolete, was released on 6 May 2009 as the last official version of XBMC for Xbox. The original developers of XBMC have since issued a statement stating they will no longer develop or support XBMC for Xbox as part of the XBMC project as of 27 May 2010. The development of XBMC for Xbox ended because the focus for all Team XBMC developers has completely shifted to the Linux, Mac, and Windows versions of XBMC instead.
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Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, an XBMC version for the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off project 'XBMC4Xbox', who have completely taken over the development and support of XBMC for the original Xbox.[27][28][29][30]
XBMC for Xbox was never an authorized/signed Microsoft product, therefore a modification of the Xbox is required in order to run XBMC on an Xbox game-console. XBMC for Xbox can be run as an application (like any Xbox game), or as a dashboard that appears directly when the Xbox is turned on.[7][11][12][21] Since XBMC for Xbox was part of an open source software program, its development source code was stored on a publicly accessible subversion repository. Accordingly, unofficial executable builds from the subversion repository are often released by third parties on sites unaffiliated with the official XBMC project.[7][12]
Xbox One[edit]
On 29 December 2017, Kodi developers announced via the news section of their official website that a Kodi app had been released for the Xbox One.[78] It is noted that the UWP version will retain the characteristic Kodi appearance, however, many core features are missing or broken.
Commercial systems[edit]
The developers of Kodi (formerly XBMC) state that as long as the GPL licensing of the Kodi software is respected they would love Kodi to run on as many third-party hardware platforms and operating systems as possible, as 'Powered by Kodi' (or 'Powered by XBMC') branded devices and systems. They envision Kodi being pre-installed as a third-party software component that commercial and non-commercial ODMs and OEMs and systems integrator companies can use royalty-free on their own hardware, hardware such as set-top boxes from cable-TV companies, Blu-ray Disc and DVD players, game-consoles, or embedded computers and SoC (System-on-a-Chip) built into television sets for web-enabled TVs, and other entertainment devices for the living room entertainment system, home cinema, or similar uses.[79]
Below is a list of third-party companies that sell hardware bundled with Kodi or XBMC software pre-installed, or sell uninstalled systems that specifically claim to be Kodi- or XBMC-compatible. Many of these third-party companies help submit bug fixes and new features back upstream to the original Kodi-XBMC project.[79]
Computer hardware[edit]
ARCTIC is a company based in Switzerland best known for their cooling solutions worked in partnership with the OpenELEC team. On 5 February 2013, together they released a fully passively cooled entertainment system: the MC001 media centre (US and EU version), equipped with the latest XBMC 12 (OpenELEC 3.0) platform. OpenELEC and ARCTIC are planning on their next release, aim to provide a more dedicated builds for the ARCTIC MC001 media centre systems.[80][81][82][83][84]
AIRIS Telebision, sold by Telebision in Spain and designed specifically for the Spanish market, is a nettop based on Nvidia Ion chipset, pre-installed Ubuntu base with XBMC for Linux and a customized AEON skin and Spanish plugins. Other than the modified skin, what is unique with the AIRIS Telebision's XBMC build is that it comes with a digital distribution service platform that they call their 'App Store' which lets users download new Spanish plugins and updates for existing plugins. Telebision also lets users download a Live CD version of their software as freeware, which lets users install their Telebision distribution on any Nvidia Ion based computer.
Lucida TV II, made by LUCIDQ inc, is a nettop based on Nvidia Ion chipset which can be ordered with Xubuntu and XBMC software installed.
Pulse-Eight Limited sells both custom and off-the-shelf hardware primarily designed for Kodi-XBMC, such as remote controls, HTPC systems and accessories, including a custom HTPC PVR set-top-box pre-installed with XBMC that they call 'PulseBox'[85] Pulse-Eight also offers free performance tuned embedded versions of XBMC that they call 'Pulse' which is based on OpenELEC and a custom PVR-build of XBMC that is meant to run on a dedicated HTPC system.[86]
Xtreamer Ultra and Xtreamer Ultra 2, manufactured by the South Korean company Unicorn Information Systems, are nettops based on Nvidia graphics and Intel Atom processors which come with OpenELEC and Kodi-XBMC software pre-installed. The first-generation Xtreamer Ultra uses Nvidia Ion chipset with a 1.80 GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 CPU, while the Xtreamer Ultra 2 uses discrete GeForce GT 520M graphics with a 2.13 GHz dual-core Intel Atom D2700 CPU.[87]
Since 10 September 2010, ZOTAC has been shipping a software bundle that they call ZOTAC Boost XL with all their new motherboards and Mini-PCs, such as Zotac's ZBOX and MAG series of Nettops which Zotac also does demos of with XBMC.[88] This ZOTAC Boost XL software bundle consist of the software applications; Auslogics BoostSpeed, Cooliris, Kylo (HDTV-optimized Web Browser), and XBMC Media Center.[89]
Zotac's ZBOX and MAG series of small mini-PCs are nettops based on Intel, AMD, or Nvidia graphics, and they are all sold in both as complete ready-to-use computer and as barebone computers (without memory and hard drive). Zotac Zbox ID33, ID34, ID81, ID80 and AD04 are all specifically marketed towards the HTPC market, with some coming with slot-loading Blu-ray Disc optical disc drive, and some with a remote control.[90]
The mintBox by the Linux Mint team is an OEM version of the Israeli company CompuLab's fit-PC, which comes pre-installed with Linux Mint open source operating-system and software, MATE desktop, and XBMC. Available in two fanless models, both with AMD APUs, HDMI output port, eight USB slots, two eSATA ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, built-in Bluetooth, and an infrared media center remote control.[91]
Dedicated devices[edit]
PrismCube Ruby by Marusys is a DVB-S2 twin-tuner high-definition DVR-PVR set-top-box running XBMC as its main interface on-top of embedded Linux.[92][93][94][95][96]
The Little Black Box is a Linux kernel-based ARM media player with XBMC as its main interface.[97][98][99][100][101][102]
Marusys MS630S and MS850S are high-definition PVR-ready set-top-boxes with the ability to run Linux kernel-based media players like XBMC, and Marusys is advertising these two devices as compatible with XBMC.[103]
Myka ION is a fanless Nvidia Ion-based set-top device designed to bring Internet television and media stored on the home network to the living room; it comes pre-installed with XBMC Media Center, Boxee, and Hulu Desktop as applications that can be started from the main menu.[104]
The MK-X1 by Modified Konstructs is an Nvidia Ion-based set-top device based on Acer Aspire Revo that comes pre-loaded with XBMC, and the device has a recommended retail price of $300 (US).[105]
Neuros LINK made by Neuros Technology is an open Ubuntu-based set-top device and media extender designed to bring internet television and other video to the television, it comes pre-installed with XBMC Media Center.[16]
BryteWerks Model One Projector is a 1080p HD digital video projector designed for home cinema use; it has an integrated home theater PC running a custom version of XBMC. In addition it features a remote control, as well as a 720p 8.9-inch touch screen panel display on the back of the projector for controlling the system. It also has a built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet adapters, as well as a slot-loaded Blu-ray Disc player, and includes a 500 GB solid-state drive and an additional internal 2 TB hard disk drive can be added.[106]
The Primus by Mediaimpact Technologies is a Linux Mint-based media center and set-top-box that integrates MythTV, Netflix Desktop, Hulu Desktop, and Steam Gaming through Kodi for a seamless home entertainment system ready for the living room. It comes complete with SMK-Link remote control.[107]
Derivatives and forks[edit]
Kodi/XBMC media center source code have over the years become a popular software to fork and to use as an application framework platform for others to base their own media player or media center software on, as if Kodi were a GUI toolkit, windowing system, or window manager. And today at least Boxee, Plex, Tofu, MediaPortal, OpenELEC, OSMC, GeeXboX, Voddler, DVDFab Media Player, and Horizon TV are all separate derivative products that are all openly known to at least initially have forked the graphical user interface (GUI) and media player part of their software from XBMC's source code. Many of these third-party forks and derivative work of Kodi-XBMC are said to still assist with submitting bug fixes upstream and sometimes help getting new features backported to the original Kodi-XBMC project so that others can utilize it as well, shared from one main source.[15][19][102] However some which was initially a fork of XBMC have since fully or partially been rewritten to use closed source proprietary software.[108] For more information see the main 'List of software based on XBMC' article.
Some examples on building on Kodi-XBMC are OSMC, OpenELEC and GeeXboX which are free and open source embedded operating systems providing complete media center software suite that comes with a preconfigured version of Kodi/XBMC and DVR/PVR plugins. They are both designed to be extremely small and very fast booting embedded Linux-based distributions, primarily optimized to be booted from flash memory or a solid-state drive, and specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box hardware setup based on ARM SoC's or Intel x86 processor and graphics.[109][110][111][112][113][114][115]
Similar embedded Linux distributions to OpenELEC/GeeXboX are the professionally made E2BMC and OpenPCTV which are commercial Kodi/XBMC-based software platform for DVR/PVR set-top boxes, with both being designed as a hybrid integration between Kodi media center software and Dreambox's Enigma2 PVR software scripts.[116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123]
Another example is XBMC4Xbox, which is a third-party developer spin-off project of XBMC, with still active development and support of the Xbox platform. This project was created as a fork of XBMC as a separate project to continue having a version of XBMC for the Xbox hardware platform. It was not started by official members of the official XBMC project, nor will it be supported by the official Team Kodi in any way. It started when support for the Xbox branch was officially dropped by Team XBMC, which was announced on 27 May 2010.[27]
Programming and developing[edit]
Kodi is a non-profit and free software community driven open-source software project that is developed only by volunteers in their spare time without any monetary gain. XBMC Foundation and the team of developers leading the development of Kodi/XBMC, 'Team-Kodi'/'Team-XBMC', encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs to the Kodi/XBMC project.
The online user manual is wiki-based and community driven, and it also works as a basic developers' guide for getting a good overview of Kodi's architecture. However, as with most non-profit software projects, to delve deeper into programming, looking at the actual source code and the Doxygen formatted 'code documentation' comments inside that code is needed.[7]
Architecture[edit]
XBMC architecture overview schematic
Kodi is a cross-platform software application whose core is mainly programmed in C++. Kodi uses OpenGL (or OpenGL ES) graphics rendering under Kodi for both Linux and macOS, while Kodi for Windows uses Microsoft DirectX multimedia framework and Direct3D rendering, as the Xbox version of XBMC did. Some of Kodi's own libraries, as well as many third-party libraries that Kodi depends on, are written in the C programming-language, instead of C++ as Kodi's core, but they are then mostly used with a C++ wrapper and, through Kodi's core monolithic nature, are loaded via a dynamic linkerloader for on-demand loading and unloading at run time.[16][31] Kodi also still partially uses the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) multimedia framework for input on Linux, but its developers are working on completely removing that small remaining dependency on SDL.[124]
Because of Kodi/XBMC's origin with the resource constraints on the hardware and environment of the first-generation Xbox game-console platform, all software development of Kodi/XBMC has always been focused on reserving the limited resources that existed on embedded system hardware, like the original Xbox (which was only a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III and 64 MB of RAM in total as shared memory), as well as the still relatively low resources of embedded system devices today, of which the main hindrance has always been the amount of available system RAM and graphics memory at any one time. This means that Kodi/XBMC is purposely programmed to be very resource- and power-efficient and can therefore run on very low-end and relatively non-expensive hardware, especially when compared to other media center software design for HTPC use.[7]
But because of its origins from the Xbox game-console, Kodi/XBMC's legacy graphics renderer still runs in a more game-loop rendering environment rather than using a fully event-driven and on-demand rendering, meaning that it is almost constantly re-drawing the GUI and refreshing the frames as fast as it can, even when nothing is changing on the screen. This results in very high CPU and high GPU usage, which can be observed on embedded systems and low-end machines, and hence cause high temperatures, high fan activity, and high power consumption unless capped at a maximum frame per second configuration for that specific platform build. Work is however constantly ongoing by the developers to make Kodi/XBMC run using much fewer resources on low-power and embedded systems, which will indirectly benefit all non-embedded systems as well.[31] Efficiency improvements in this area are however being worked on in order to move away from that old style game-loop environment in order to reduce high CPU/GPU usage by the GUI, especially as XBMC usage on embedded platforms with limited CPU/GPU resources keeps growing in popularity. XBMC 11.0 (Eden) introduced Dirty-Regions rendering option for texture support to the XBMC skinning engine as an option,[125] and XBMC 12.0 (Frodo) enabled Dirty Regions rendering to redraw the whole screen on a single dirty region by default on all platforms.[125][126] Work is also in progress for XBMC 14.0 to introduce an abstracted scene-graph deferred rendering for GUI renderer abstraction.[127]
Portability[edit]
Kodi has a portable code base, with its trunk (mainline source code tree) officially available for IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC, and ARM-based platforms.[128][129] The Kodi GUI does require 3D hardware accelerated graphics (GPU) that support OpenGL ES, OpenGL, or EGL, or Direct3D with device drivers that support OpenGL ES 2.0, or OpenGL 1.3 or later with GLSL, or DirectX in order to render the GUI at an acceptable frame rate.
Kodi is thus officially not yet available for MIPS upstream in mainline source code repository from Team-Kodi,[130] nor does it as yet support DirectFB[131] or DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) rendering without OpenGL/GLES hardware accelerated graphics support.[31][131][132] The combination of MIPS, DirectFB, and DRI is a popular architecture used today by simpler set-top boxes like digital broadcasting (cable/satellite) boxes and low-end digital media players, such as those based on MIPS architecture chipsets from Sigma Designs or Realtek.[133] Kodi ports to MIPS is, however, currently being actively worked on by several independent development teams.[130]
Kodi for Linux supports toolchain building systems for embedded development such as Yocto, Buildroot (uClibc), and the Linaro set of Makefiles and patches for easing the generation of cross-compilation toolchains as well as the creation of a file system on embedded Linux systems across a wide range of hardware, kernel platforms, and CPU architectures (x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, etc.).
Python scripts as plugins and addons (widgets and gadgets)[edit]
Kodi allows developers to create addons using a built-in Python interpreter (version 2.6 or higher depending on system[134]) and its own WindowXML application framework, which together form an XML-based widget toolkit for which they can extend the capability of Kodi by creating a GUI for widgets. Python widget scripts allow non-developers to themselves create new add-ons for Kodi, using Python.[16]
Application programming interface (API)[edit]
Other than the application programming interfaces (APIs) available to third-party Python scripts and addon plugins, Kodi features several other APIs for controlling Kodi remotely or from an external application. These APIs includes a JSON-RPC server, D-Bus Server, Web server, UPnP AV media server (with UPnP MediaServer ControlPoint, UPnP MediaRenderer DCP, UPnP RenderingControl DCP, and UPnP Remote User Interface server), and a custom multi-protocol Event Server[53] for remote controls.
GUI-engine and skinning (themes)[edit]
Kodi/XBMC is noted as having a very flexible GUI toolkit and robust framework for its GUI. With its underlying complex graphical design and layoutlibrary (named libGUI in Kodi/XBMC), it provides a simple abstraction layer between the application code and the interface, while allowing extremely flexible dynamic layouts and animations that are easy to work with and makes it possible to create completely unique skins for XBMC.[59] The skin files are written in XAML, using a standard XML base, making theme-skinning and personal customization very accessible.[60]
Software limitations[edit]
Kodi's own internal cross-platform video and audio players (DVDPlayer and PAPlayer) cannot officially play any audio or video files that are protected or encrypted with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies for access control, meaning audio files purchased from online music stores such as iTunes Music Store, Audible.com, Windows Media Player Stores, and video files protected with Windows Media DRM or DivX proprietary DRM. Such files can be played only by using another media player supporting DRM, or by removing the DRM protection from the file.
Reception[edit]
Kodi won a Lifehacker Award in 2014 for 'Best Media Player' in their entertainment selection.[135] Kodi won two SourceForge 2006 Community Choice Awards.[136] In the 2007 Community Choice Awards, Kodi was nominated finalist in six categories.[137] Also in the 2008 Community Choice Awards Kodi won an award for Best Project for Gamers.[138] With Microsoft's decision to discontinue Windows Media Center (WMC) starting Windows 10, htpcBeginner.com voted Kodi not only as the best WMC alternative but also in many ways better than WMC.[139]
History[edit]
Xbox Media Center (XBMC) was the successor to the Xbox Media Player (XBMP) software. Xbox Media Player development stopped on 13 December 2003, by which time its successor was ready for its debut, renamed as it was growing out of its 'player' name and into a 'center' for media playback. The first stable release of XBMC was on 29 June 2004, with the official release of XboxMediaCenter 1.0.0. This announcement also encouraged everyone using XBMP or XBMC Beta release to update, as all support for those previous versions would be dropped, and they would only support version 1.0.0. Not featured in XBMP, the addition of embedded Python was given the ability to draw interface elements in the GUI, and allowed user and community generated scripts to be executed within the XBMC environment.[7]
With the release of 1.0.0 in the middle of 2004, work continued on the XBMC project to add more features, such as support for iTunes features like DAAP and Smart Playlists, as well as lots of improvements and fixes. The second stable release of XBMC, 1.1.0, was released on 18 October 2004. This release included support for more media types, file types, container formats, as well as video playback of Nullsoft streaming videos and karaoke support (CD-G).[7]
After two years of heavy development, XBMC announced a stable point final release of XBMC 2.0.0 on 29 September 2006. Even more features were packed into the new version with the addition of RAR and zip archive support, a brand new player interface with support for multiple players. Such players include PAPlayer, the new audio/music player with crossfade, gapless playback and ReplayGain support, and the new DVDPlayer with support for menu and navigation support as well as ISO/img image parsing. Prior to this point release, XBMC just used a modified fork of MPlayer for all of its media needs, so this was a big step forward. Support for iTunes 6.x DAAP, and Upnp Clients for streaming was also added. A reworked Skinning Engine was included in this release to provide a more powerful way to change the appearance of XBMC. The last two features include read-only support for FAT12/16/32 formatted USB mass storage devices, and a 'skinnable' 3D visualizer.
The release of XBMC 2.0.1 on 12 November 2006 contained numerous fixes for bugs that made it through the 2.0.0 release. This also marked the change from CVS to SVN (Subversion) for the development tree.
On 29 May 2007, the team behind XBMC put out a call for developers interested in porting XBMC to the Linux operating system. A few developers on Team-XBMC had already begun porting parts of XBMC over to Linux using SDL and OpenGL as a replacement for DirectX, which XBMC was using heavily on the Xbox version of XBMC.[140][141]
Development on the Git codebase is continuing and the versioning scheme has been changed to reflect the release year and month, e.g., 8.10, 9.04, 9.11, 10.05.
On 27 May 2010, the team behind XBMC announced the splitting of the Xbox branch into a new project; 'XBMC4Xbox' which will continue the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox hardware platform as a separate project, with the original XBMC project no longer offering any support for the Xbox.[27][28][29][30]
On 2 January 2011, XBMC moved the source code repository from subversion to git, hosted at GitHub.[142]
On 1 August 2014, an announcement was made of release 14 and name change to Kodi.[143]
Releases[edit]
This is a release history with condensed change-log lists for the most important added or removed notable new features, functions, and changed in each stable version of Kodi/XBMC.[144][145][146]
Organization and licensing[edit]
The XBMC Foundation is the organization behind the Kodi and XBMC projects. It is legally represented by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), which assists the Kodi/XBMC project and its developers in legal matters such as intellectual property. It also assists with economic issues such as handling donations and sponsors that help the project with expenses for dedicated hosting service and activities such as going to developer conferences, trade fairs and computer expos to tech demo Kodi, meeting with potential new developers, and marketing the software.[162][163][164][165]
Kodi's source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, and is hosted through Git repositories.
Use for illegal streaming[edit]
Third-party add-ons allow users to stream copyrighted content without the permission of its copyright holder. Some Kodi distributions and hardware devices, often marketed as 'fully loaded',[166] are pre-loaded with the software and such add-ons.[167][168] As a result, some users have incorrectly associated these products and add-ons as being affiliated with the Kodi project.[169][20] In June 2015, Amazon Appstore pulled Kodi, as it can be 'used to facilitate the piracy or illegal download of content', even though the software is not bundled with such content. XBMC Foundation president Nathan Betzen disagreed with the assumption, stating that 'We always say we don't care what our users do with the software, and we stand by that position. But we sure do hate it when companies destroy the name of our software in order to make a profit.' He also considered it ironic that Amazon would ban the app, given that it, in his opinion, helped to bolster the popularity of Amazon Fire TV products. It was also pointed out that Amazon still distributed Kodi distributions with infringing add-ons via the same storefront.[20][170][171] As of February 2019 the ban still appears to be in effect,[172] however, users can sideload APK using apps such as Downloader and ES File Explorer.[173][174]In December 2015, the Amazon Fire TV Stick experienced a stock shortage in the United Kingdom that was speculated to have been associated with its use with Kodi.[168][20]
In February 2016, the XBMC Foundation reiterated its stance on third-party Kodi products meant for the streaming of unlicensed content; Betzen explained that the reputation of the Kodi project had been hurt by its association with third-party products whose sellers 'make a quick buck modifying Kodi, installing broken piracy add-ons, advertising that Kodi lets you watch free movies and TV, and then vanishing when the user buys the box and finds out that the add-on they were sold on was a crummy, constantly breaking mess.' Betzen warned that although it is open source software, the name 'Kodi' and its logos are registered trademarks of the XBMC Foundation, and that the foundation intended to strictly enforce its trademark rights to prevent their unauthorized use, especially in association with information and devices meant to enable access to unlicensed content.[169][20]
In April 2017, following an April Fools' Day stunt where the Kodi website was taken down and replaced with a fake domain seizure notice, Kodi's developers stated that they were considering working with legal third-party content providers to officially support their services within Kodi, to counter the perception that the software is primarily used for piracy.[166][175]
In March 2018, Google removed 'Kodi' from its autocompletesearch query, citing that the term was associated with copyright infringement, but failed to remove autocomplete terms for modified, piracy focused versions of Kodi (that unlike Kodi are illegal) [176]
See also[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kodi_(software)&oldid=901067494'
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Over the past decade, Kodi has become the most popular media center for home entertainment. The great open-source software has been quite tricky. However, in a recent guide, we figured that it can become quite simple with a few Add-ons. In this guide, you can find out the most wanted new tricks regarding all of the Kodi settings, without exception, and eventually how to become experts of this ultimate media centeronce and for all.
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Table of Contents
All the Kodi settings
Kodi settings constitute a challenge which requires effort and patience, since learning all about them isn't exactly considered easy to do.
Even though, as we've seen, watching movies has become a very simple procedure with Kodi's precious Add-ons, more research of the home system is necessary if one wants to have a decent understanding of it.
Keyboard shortcuts
The media center supports many keyboard shortcuts. This way, we have the opportunity to perform any action we like, much faster than we would otherwise be able to.
Naturally, shortcuts may turn out to be especially useful for TV Boxes that come with a wireless alphanumerical keyboard.
All the shortcuts concern the Latin characters on a typical keyboard. We are mentioning them briefly.
How to navigate Kodi without exiting the movie
It often happens that when a movie begins, we realize that we have forgotten to adjust a setting or simply that we have to return to the main menu for a while.
In such cases, there is no need to exit the movie and start the whole process from scratch after we are done with the Kodi settings or tasks we remembered we had to take care of.
All we have to do is pause the film...
...and then by pressing 'Esc' or 'Backspace,' as we saw in the keyboard shortcuts, we can navigate through the Kodi sections without exiting the movie.
Next, after we have finished with whatever we had to do inside Kodi's environment, we click on 'pause', as we see below, or on a blank space of this screen in order to enter the movie or the series screen.
External subtitles addition
The Add-on for movies that we use, in most cases, will get us subtitles online. However, Kodi gives us the option to add the subtitle files that we have externally stored if we wish to.
All we need to do is transfer the SRT file of the subtitle to a USB stick, which is connected to the device where Kodi runs.
Next, we follow the five simple steps that we can see in the pictures below.
How to correct subtitles
In most cases, we will not face any problems with the subtitle synchronization during the movies. But there might be a few available subtitle files for some unknown films online which may not be properly synchronized.
In this case, we click on the 'subtitle offset,' as we can see in the following pictures. On the bar that will appear on the upper section of the player<, we move the cursor right or left, until we find the proper synchronization of the subtitles.
Here, through the use of pictures, we present the simplest Kodi player settings that we have to adjust. Once we finish, we press 'Esc' or 'Backspace' to return to the movie.
Player settings
If we do not have a powerful sound source in the device where we run Kodi and the movie has a low volume, we can significantly increase it through the media center.
In this case, we move on to the three simple actions that we can see in the pictures below.
If we are not happy with the brightness and contrast of the movie, we can adjust it through Kodi's player once again. All we have to do is follow the three steps seen below.
Black bars on the movie screen
On the same window, we can also set the view mode of the movie, in case the aspect ratio is 4:3 or something like that.
It is very common to notice black bars on the top and bottom sections of the movie screen. If this occurs and it bothers us, we need to select 16:9 aspect ratio.
The two following actions demonstrate how to tackle such cases:
Image flicker
If the screen flickers or we cannot see our videos on Kodi on Windows, we might need to update the graphics card.
In this case, we right-click on the Windows icon on the taskbar, and select 'Manage devices.' Then, we update the driver of the screen adaptor, that is, the graphics card we possess, as we see below.
If nothing happens, or there is still an image flicker on Kodi on Android, we need to follow the route below in the Kodi menu.
Main menu → Settings (cog icon) → Player settings → Videos, and we deactivate hardware acceleration DXVA2, as we see below.
If the problem continues, then on the same unit and window, we select 'Enable HQ Scalers' and set it to 100%. Then, we change the render method from 'Auto detect' to 'Software'.
Then, we restart Kodi and the computer or the TV Box.
Add/remove favorites
We might have noticed that by opening the favorites unit, we cannot right-click to remove the things we no longer need, because there is no 'remove' option.
What we have to do is simply click on the indication from the favorites section...
...and on the new independent window that will open, right-click on the respective indication for 'move', 'rename', or 'remove' that will appear.
We can 'add to favorites' by right-clicking on the item we want to add.
How to change color
If we are no longer happy with the default color of the Kodi shell and we want something different, we can change it.
Go to 'Main menu' and we select 'Settings (cog)→ Interface settings → Skin → Colours.' There, we can choose any color we prefer.
Limited speed connections
If our internet connection is relatively slow, what we have to do is go to 'Settings(cog) → System settings → Internet access,' and activate 'internet connection bandwidth limitation.'
Next, we select our type of connection.
If we're not doing all that well in that field, we can greatly improve the streaming speed if the TV Box is connected via Ethernet cable and not Wi-Fi.
Furthermore, with low-speed connections, and in the case that the buffering problem remains, it will help a lot if we select regular resolution (SD) for the movies on Kodi, avoiding 1080p.
We can find this setting in the tools of the respective movie Add-ons, on the 'Play' section. There, we can set the maximum quality at 480p, as we see in the following picture.
How to avoid buffering (video interruptions)
Until recently, the ideal all-in-one tool which had automated all theAdd-ons, Builds, and many more, was undoubtedly the well-known and very effective Ares Wizard.
At the end of May 2017, the 'Wizard' had to face lawsuits with companies in the U.S.A. and it stopped working. However, recently, the very useful maintenance department returned, along with an automated way of eliminating buffering for Kodi.
How to get Ares Wizard
Automatic buffering improvement
If we come to the conclusion that the annoying buffering is here to stay, we can open Ares Wizard and cautiously proceed to the six actions that we see in the following pictures.
These actions will create the best setting for the device cache, and will most likely eliminate the buffering.
Once we restart Kodi, we can often delete our cache through Ares Wizard, by selecting the following indications.
If we can not eliminate the buffering even with all the mentioned improvements, we need to know that many ISPs decrease their connection speed if they detect illegal streaming, even though they refuse to openly admit doing so.
In other words, we may have high-speed internet when trying out a 'Speedtest', for instance. When we try to download a torrent or watch something online on Kodi, however, our speed will dramatically decrease.
In case these buffering isuues appear often on the Add-ons, despite having a good connection and using the tool we saw earlier, then perhaps we need to detour the ISP limitation.
As a matter of fact, we should hide our online activities from the internet services provider that has seen what we are doing. In this particular case, we need to use a VPN for Windows and Android, preferably a paid one for better results.
How to create a screensaver
Kodi settings offer a range of choices, which allow us to set our own screensaver. We can achieve that by going to 'Settings (cog) → Interface → Screensaver → Screensaver mode.'
Next, we can select among various screensavers by clicking on 'Get more.'
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One of the most interesting options is the Apple TV screensaver, Aerial, with impressive photographs from famous cities around the world. Equally remarkable is Google Earth, and Picture Slideshow, which we can fill with our photographs.
How to change the film display
The customization of the display of the add-ons and the films can become even more impressive if we drag the mouse pointer to the left or click on the options we can see in the this picture.
Then, we can change the view mode either to 'Wall' if we want to see all of the movies in thumbnails...
...or to 'Poster' if we want to see the plot of each film separately.
Audio adjustment
With the Kodi settings, we can change the audio of the whole media center. We go to 'Settings → System settings → Audio → Navigation sounds,' and we select the second indication, as we can see in the picture below.
Then, by clicking on 'Get more,' we can select the sounds we prefer. For instance, if we have a TV Box, Android sounds might be more suitable.
How to transfer all our personal videos and movies to Kodi
It is certain that most of us keep our personal videos and pictures on our PC and other portable smart devices. Not to mention the films that we have saved on our hard drives.
With Kodi settings, we can transfer all those to the media center with all their thumbnails. This way, we will have a single complete home entertainment media center.
To perform this transfer, at the default Kodi shell in the video section, we select files...
...and then click on 'Add videos'...
...before clicking on 'Browse.'
From then on, Kodi will guide us on how to sort our multimedia with relevant notifications.
Once this pleasant and straightforward procedure is over, all our videos and multimedia will be in the section where we set them, under 'movies,' 'TV series,' etc.
On the 'set content' window, a customization menu opens, as seen below.
Once Kodi is on, as it is set by default, we will be able to see the films which are on our hard drives. The subtitles will start being downloaded when the movie or the episode starts.
Any personal video that we have not moved to the movies and series will appear once we click on the videos section.
We can also add the personal videos that interest us the most to our favorites, as we would do with any other multimedia.
How to create multiple profiles
Kodi profiles are useful if all the members of a family use the media center on the TV Box.
This way, we can protect the content with a password, ensuring that our little friends or anyone nosy enough will not tamper with it or change it by accident. The process is quite simple.
Starting from the main menu and by clicking on the respective icon for the Kodi settings...
...we select the profile settings, as we can see in the picture below.
From that point on, we can change the profile name, add our picture, and a password if we wish so. If we want even better control due to small kids, we can select the corresponding section of the parental control.
Furthermore, we have the chance to lock the individual Kodi settings, and at the same time, set it to ask for a password before it starts operating.
Kodi Add-on settings
We can find all the main add-on settings for films and series, like Incursion and Placenta, which we saw recently, in the tools section.
Providers and downloads for offline film viewing
After what we presented in the previous guide about the Add-on tools, we are now presenting the main Kodi settings for the Add-ons with pictures, so that movies can load faster. Also, we will figure out how to download them for online watching.
If any errors occur while downloading, it might be thanks to the servers and their location. In such cases, a VPN is the only solution.
Add-ons Library
We can add all the films and TV series to the libraries the Add-ons offer us. Even though we may put them on the favorites, it is inevitable that at some point, we will lose track because favorites tend to pile up.
The library is the best solution, since, among others, it gives us direct access to the movies and series, without wasting time or getting lost in translation. Here are the simple steps with pictures.
Kodi maintenance
Assuming we've spent all this time fiddling with Kodi's settings, something going wrong resulting in us losing all of our progress should sound like a doomsday scenario right about now. Therefore, we need to prevent such situations with daily backups.
Manual Backup on Windows and Android
After we have made sure that Kodi is off, we find the Kodi folder on Windows, which is located at the following places:
Kodi for Android:
Androiddataorg.xbmc.kodifiles.kodi
At this point, we must note that for Android, this Kodi folder is hidden. To make it appear, we need to have installed a relevant app which activates hidden items, as is the ES files manager. Then, through the app, we need to activate 'show hidden files.'
Kodi from Microsoft store:
C:Users(username)AppDataPackagesXBMCFoundation.Kodi_4n2hpmxwrvr6pLocal CacheRoamingKodi
Kodi installer downloaded from the software page:
C:Users(username)AppDataRoamingKodi
Here, we should note that instead of '(username),' that we see earlier, we have to use our Windows username. Also, just in case, let's activate the hidden items on Explorer.
From then on, we only have to move three folders to a safe external place, such as another hard drive or a USB stick. Namely,'userdata,' 'media,' and 'addons.'
If the media folder does not appear, it is still OK, because the other two are the important ones.
It is worth giving this file that we moved the folders to a relevant name to the Kodi backup so that we will remember what it contains and be able to find it in a heartbeat.
These folders constitute the whole backup of whatever we have done up to that moment on Kodi, along with all the Kodi settings. Obviously, it is worth performing it often, so that the three folders can replace the older ones on the external drive.
If something goes wrong along the way, this is the most reliable way to bring them back to the same Kodi folder inside Windows where we copied them from.
We can perhaps use a Windows backup tool to make the transfer process automatic.
Kodi Backup and Reset with a third-party tool
In the past, we could back up and reset Kodi with specific add-ons, which have now stopped working.
Nowadays, one of the best tools is the Community Portal, which is great as far as maintenance on Kodi is concerned, and more specifically, it offers an automated backup and reset.
How to add the Community Portal
Main tool sections and settings
Here, we will briefly mention the main sections and actions we have to perform to have the best possible results regarding Kodi backups with Community Portal.
Instant Kodi switch-off on Windows and Android
A frequent little snag that we face with Kodi is that it sometimes takes way too long to switch off. The Community Portal incorporates a function that turns it off in a heartbeat with a single click.
All we have to do is follow these steps:
Don't forget to add 'Force Close Kodi' to our favorites.
How to turn your Android smartphone into a Kodi remote control
Our Android device can be used as a remote control for Kodi if we have a TV Box or Apple TV.
This way, we can watch online movies and manage everything through Kodi, from our smartphone.
Play Store offers two top remote control apps, Kore and Yatse.
Kodi settings for remote control
Before we come back to the smartphone and the respective app, we need to adjust the necessary Kodi settings for the remote control.
First, we go to Settings (cog) and then to Service Settings...
... and right after that, we select the name we wish. Typically, we keep 'Kodi.'
Right below that, we will see 'Zeroconf.' This setting allows Kore to trace Kodi automatically. However, Apple's 'Bonjour,' needs to be installed through the hated iTunes.
If we have not installed it already, it is better not to choose Zeroconf, to avoid getting lost in the Kodi settings.
Then, we go to 'control,' and select the remote control through http, plus the two fields of the remote control that we see in the picture.
We write down the port number that we see on the indication No4 because we will need to enter it into Kore later.
To finish, we click on 'UPNP/DLNA' and select the advanced settings down on the left, so that all the options will appear on the tab. We click on all five that we spot on the right of the screen and return to the smartphone.
Next, if we have an active VPN on our devices, we deactivate them temporarily and then restart Kodi. If we do not have VPNs, we move on to the next steps.
Return to the main menu and click on 'Settings → System Information → Briefly,' and write down the address that we see next. Later, we will have to enter it into Kore, along with the port that we saw before.
Kore
It is the official remote control of the Kodi team, and nowadays, it has become very efficient regarding simple remote controlling from our Android device.
Once we open Kore, it will almost instantly recognize Kodi on the PC, without us having to perform any action. However, this will happen only if we have activated the famous 'Zeroconf', for which we need to have installed iTunes on our PC.
However, if we have a TV Box or we don't have iTunes, we have to manually add the digits of the address and the port that we wrote down earlier into Kore.
This way, we only have to click on 'Next', and then we should type 'Kodi' on indication number 2. Then, on the 'Address' field, we enter the digits of the address, and on 'Port,' the respective ones of the port.
Then, by clicking on 'Test'...
...we will be notified that the Kore remote is ready to use and that we now have the remote control of Kodi from our smartphone.
Every time we open the app, the touchscreen remote control that we can see in the following picture will appear.
Free Plex TV on Kodi
Plex media server can transform all our videos, photographs, and music that we have on our PC, by changing this image...
... to the following, entirely different screen.
There is no doubt that Kodi is the ultimate media center for online movies, and summatively, the best for our home entertainment. The only feature it was missing was the automated management of all the videos that we have stored on our PC or external hard drives.
With Plex, the online movies and our multimedia will get an excellent new company.
Of course, we are referring to all the movies and personal videos that we have on our computer. Everything will appear automatically on Kodi, sporting the beautiful look that we see in the following picture.
Automated display of all our personal collections
The addition of Plex to Kodi took place recently, at the end of 2016. The great thing is that we don't have to do anything at all if we have already installed and used Plex media server on our PC in the past.
All our Kodi Libraries
With Plex, all our collections of movies, series, and videos that we have on our PC will be ready for view, along with their covers, subtitles, and information.
Also, the Plex server on our Kodi gives us the opportunity to see all the newest information on the leading actors, the cast, and the crew. Naturally, Kodi offers many of these features, as we saw with the addition of our collections and multimedia.
It is particularly encouraging that the paid Plex pass, which is still a little costly, is no longer required. It used to be necessary, but we could cancel our subscription at any time before the end of the month.
So, since we are crazy about our multimedia organization, first, we have to create an account here to add the now free Plex TV to Kodi.
Then, we will have to install Plex, unless we already use it.
How to add Plex
To add Plex to Kodi, we have to use 'search.' We search for 'Plex' in the add-ons search bar.
Then, we select 'Script-Plex,' which we can see below, to install it.
Once the download is complete, and we open it, the 'sign in' window will emerge...
...where a four-digit code will be given to us to enter in the browser, on the following address.
Once this is complete, we will get the relevant indication that we see below. From then on, we will not need any other settings, because we have adjusted all of them on Plex media server.
Furthermore, thanks to the cooperation with Kodi, subtitles will appear automatically. For even better results, we can activate the subtitle downloading to save them in the same folder with the movie file.
How to make Kodi portable
By turning Kodi into a portable application, we can carry the media center, its add-ons, and our favorites everywhere with us.
Furthermore, we will be able to run it on any other computer, ours or friends', without setup.
USB drive
All we need is a USB stick. Also, if we have a heavy build, a decent PC with good processing power and at least a 4GB memory is required.
In this case, we need to have performed the necessary format on the USB Drive.
The next step is to visit Kodi's website and download the 'Installer' edition. Make sure not to select the version next to it from the Windows store.
Once the download is complete, we have to install the file.
Once we start the procedure, two or three emerging windows later, we will get to the one we want. There, we should select the folder where we will install the media center.
At this point, we click on 'Browse.' This way, we will change the default destination folder, which is usually the drive where we run Windows.
On the next emerging window, we select the USB stick that we have connected to the computer.
Once the Kodi setup is complete on the USB stick, we should make sure not to select 'Run Kodi.' We only click on 'Finish.'
Kodi shortcut
From Windows, we open the USB stick.
Once we spot the Kodi application in the folder, we right click on it and select 'Create shortcut.'
Right after that, we will see that a file with the name 'Kodi-Shortcut' has been created.
By right-clicking on the shortcut file, we can rename it to 'Kodi-Portable' or to whatever we like.
Then we right-click once more on Kodi - Portable, and then select 'Properties.'
We add '-p' to the already existing Kodikodi.exe that we find there, and we leave a gap after .exe. The name will have to have the following form:
D:Kodikodi.exe -p
Then, we click 'OK.'
From that point on, we will see a new folder with the name, 'Portable data.'
When we click on the 'Kodi - Portable' shortcut that we have created, the media center will run through the USB or the external storage and not from the hard drive where we run Windows.
Then we can install any add-on or build we want. Everything will be inside 'Portable data.' Obviously, if we disconnect the USB from the computer, Kodi will stop running.
Moving on, we can create one more file shortcut on the Desktop for even faster access to Kodi, when we connect the USB stick.
We need to remember that the speed of Kodi on the USB stick will be slower than the respective one we had on the SSD.
Do you know of any other useful Kodi settings?
By gradually learning all of Kodi's settings, we will be in a position to solve most of our problems concerning this great media center.
At the same time, we will get the satisfaction that we finally learned its tricky menu by heart, turning difficulties into a fun and educational experience.
If you have any questions or want to share your views on Kodi, let us know in the comment section below.
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