![kodi-14-helix-addons[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/LBZkv3X.png "kodi-14-helix-addons[1].png")
I've read the wikipedia page like 5 times and I still have no clue what the fuck this is
I get that it's a media center, but what the fuck is that? Is it just a bunch of media players like mpv and foobar and irfanview rolled into one? I don't think it is because it doesn't sound like it's a direct competitor to those, but I can't gather exactly what it does otherwise. Am I just a dinosaur that can't get with the times or is it purposely arcane? Then again, normies can into it so it can't be that hard to grasp
tl;dr the fuck is this shit and why would anyone use it?
People use it for its ease of use. Normies have an adversion to anything that needs configuration/multiple applications/etc. Kodi bundles everything(file browser, media player, etc.) together and doesn't need much configuration.
At least that's what I think is happening.
>>55089454
I'd argue the primary purpose is media streaming. The core concept to me feels like it's built for you to have an always on server (pc) at home with hard drives connected, and you then stream to your tablet, like Emby or Plex. Difference being that Kodi can connect to sweet pirate addons like exodus and Phoenix
>>55089482
that actually sounds pretty neat but why not just put the files on an SD card? Is streaming really that reliable nowdays compared to reading a file locally?
You can stream TV shows and movies from upload websites that people have linked on their plugs that you can download for kodi. Google search TV adons kodi. Shit ton of info pops up.
kodi is bootleg netflix my dude so u dont need ur 12 year old nephew to show you how to download all your favorite movies and shows
It was originally a replacement for the dashboard software on the Xbox with added media player functionality called XBMC.
Later it became a standalone multimedia UI.
>>55089403
Watch TV without having to pay for a subscription
>>55089536
Because you can't put a 2TB TV show library on an SD card.
>>55089653
Theoretically™ sdxc supports up to 2tb
I'm that asshole that installs this on an amazon fire stick and post it on craigslist as "Jailbroken" along with some other buzz words in the desc. and sell them for $125.
Made a cool 2 grand doing this in my spare time.
>>55089403
It has a ten-foot interface. It's designed for usage on the big-screen with a remote.
What's the best addons for live tv m8s?
>>55089866
You're killing Kodi, nigger.
>>55090747
cCloud
But TV is cancer
>>55089536
>Is streaming really that reliable nowdays compared to reading a file locally?
Well, if you're streaming over your local network, preety much yes.
>>55090747
They're all cancer. the last one i used was DNAtv tho
>>55089454
Kodi is extremely customizable and has so many configuration options they've opted to hide away about 80% of even the ones configurable from within the program UI. It being a configuration timesink is one of the most common complaints.
>>55089482
No, the primary purpose is giving you easy access to all your media in an extensive library format, regardless of how you store it. The always-on server as a requirement is Emby/Plex territory, Kodi lets you organize however you want. Piracy addons are a rather a byproduct than the intended use case.
>>55089536
Of course you can store your files wherever you want.
>>55089624
XBMP/XBMC was not a replacement but an alternative to the original Xbox dashboard. Media player functionality was always the main component, dashboard tasks were just there as a convenience to make it a one-stop shop.
It was always a standalone media center, but ports to regular computers and other devices came much later.
>>55092193
Not always over fucking wifi, but Kodi has buffering settings that'll allow it to operate on even the worst shit networks these days.
>>55089403
What about if someone bought a mini PC for their big tellie so they can watch movies with a good UI for a TV and easy controller/mouse support without configuring files in i3 like a retard.
>>55093738
You're so close to getting it but still missing a little bit. Mice suck for TV use and controllers don't really fit one-handed use and drain way too much battery just being in standby, all big boys use remotes like God intended.
>>55089403
You could say it is essentially a bunch of media players rolled into the same software, but in truth it's more than that and a bunch of media players wouldn't be a plausible replacement for Kodi.
It has a media library, it downloads images/descriptions for your shit, has plugin support for all kinds of things, skins designed for a TV UI, built-in support for playback/"streaming" over various protocols (SMB, NFS, HTTP, etc.), supports various remote control methods (web interface, smartphone applications, actual remotes, control over HDMI, etc.) and is in general very, very customizable.
I use it to play video on my TV, generally from my own home server but I also have a few addons that allow streaming from some other websites. I recently set up an Emby server and my Kodi HTPC now shares the same media library, fucking around with file names and shit for 2 applications to properly scrape my library was too much of a PITA. Now I can get Emby to correctly identify shit and rest assured that Kodi will also identify it correctly.
>>55089403
You can stream movies/series/sport
Fucking retard
>>55093998
That's not what Kodi is about, fucking retard
any of you guys get buffering problems when using the exodus plugin for kodi? are there any good alternatives?
>>55094076
Downloading your media before playback instead of trying to stream shit encodes from slow-ass file lockers is a good alternative.
>>55094116
it's not as convenient tho senpai
>>55094147
It is even more so if you automate it
>>55089403
Think of foobar or itunes or something. Instead of opening explorer and double-clicking an mp3 you want to listen to, and then repeating that action on another mp3 when that mp3 is done playing, foobar and itunes instead present a 'library view' of all the mp3s on your pc and automatically retrieve metadata about them from the internet which allows you to filter by genre, year, etc. etc. etc.
Kodi is like that but for movies and television shows.
>>55094147
Not that guy, but how the fuck is getting shit quality video that buffers convenient exactly? You could download your file in a few minutes and then watch it with 0 issues or interruptions and as a bonus you may still have it around if your internet shits itself for some reason.
>>55094175
Is plex same?
>>55094195
Yes.
I think with plex you can 'handoff' whatever you are doing to different devices too, like PC to TV to phone. Maybe I'm wrong though.
>>55094175
>Kodi is like that but for movies and television shows.
And music.
>>55094195
Plex is proprietary fucking trash. Use Emby if you need a client-server setup.
>>55089866
If true then well done
>>55089403
if you set it up right like the tvadons.ag way you can stream virtually any movie/tv show even stuff that's supposedly exclusive to netflix or whatever, it's pretty much all available
>>55094267
At garbage quality, sure.
>>55094195
Plex is made up of multiple components. There's a Plex server and there are Plex clients. The Plex server handles your media library and scraping and clients connect to the server and stream media. The server itself also has a web interface that is used for management as well as actual playback, so you can stream your entire library to any browser. Plex can also do live transcoding, so if your media file isn't in an appropriate format for the device running the client, the server can convert it on the fly, while you're watching. Transcoding can also be useful if you're streaming over a slow connection and the bitrate of the file is too high. Emby does the same things pretty much, except it's not proprietary and generally more configurable/flexible. Plex may be somewhat more polished but if you want a server type setup I recommend trying Emby first.
Kodi doesn't need a server component to do its thing, the same application handles the library and actual playback, but it can be used with Emby (and Plex) via addons.
>>55094183
well for one ting, no dcma worries, and it can do more than just stream, it can track what you're watching, and also be set up to work with torrents and rss to auto download stuff as it becomes available
>>55094296
garbage quality is generally only for shit that's still in theatres
I really fucking wish there was Foobar2000 for video files, or musicbee.
Kodi isn't it ;_;
>>55094324
if you mean like library management, you might look into datacrow,
One thing I recently found out is that you don't need to use the internal kodi media player for playback. You can configure an external player like mpv, but of course configuring the internal player is easier from within kodi.
>>55094339
Can I set it up so that it fetches a film poster, information of production/film crew + summary of plot + poster?
Thats roughly how I have my foobar setup, I tag files with plugin that fetches TON of information from Discogs, with big album art etc.
>>55094315
>garbage quality is generally only for shit that's still in theatres
No, every shitty streaming sites deals in abysmal encodes with artifacting out the ass, shit-eater.
Just set up sickrage/sonarr and couchpotato and you'll have a much better experience than those awful piracy add-ons.
>>55094315
>no dcma worries
The addon isn't magic, wherever it gets the movie, you can very likely just download it yourself
As for automated downloads, those are different things entirely.
I just share a folder in Wangblows.
Every computer in my house can connect to it.
I don't understand why I'd need Kodi or Plex.
am I dumb
>>55094356
What's the name of that plugin?
>>55094392
foo_discogs
https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_discogs
Amazing tool for me as I have a media library consisting of more than 50,000+ songs..
>>55094389
>am I dumb
Yes.
>>55094356
according to the website, yes, personally I'm still playing around and getting used to it so can't speak for how well it does those things yet
>>55094415
>ava SE Runtime Environment 8u91
meh, I stick to browsing with file explorer, hate everything related to java
>>55094389
What do you use to play shit? Some regular media player? That's fine, but you're missing out on various things. The only essential is watching the video, sure, but there are things which are nice to have that you're missing out on (media artwork, descriptions, a proper TV UI, synchronized libraries/progress across all devices, a control method appropriate to a TV/non-PC device, etc.)
>>55094398
Thanks buddy, I'll be checking it out
>>55094466
I use MPC-HC with madVR/Lav splits.
>>55094468
No problem, You do nowadays need a discogs account for it to work.
>>55094154
how do you automate it? I've been meaning to script this but haven't gotten around to it
>>55094480
>I use MPC-HC with madVR/Lav splits.
That's what I use on my desktop, but it's not really appropriate in terms of ease of use/UI on a TV.
>>55094428
I'm still looking around for a decent library manager, just came across media center master and gonna give that a try
>>55094481
Set up Sickrage (or alternatively the Reddit software Sonarr) for TV and CouchPotato for movies. Configure what sites they should look for downloads, point them at your favorite torrent/Usenet client, add the shows and movies you want and sit back.
I basically never need to touch anything except when adding new shows or movies for the software to look for, it all just shows up in Kodi.
>>55094539
I have a wireless keyboard and mouse. I just don't understand the point.
>>55089454
There is nothing wrong with not wanting to waste time on configuration.
Ease of use and simplicity should not be a realm strictly for the most normie but rather the aim of all design, you fucking autistic cunt.
>>55089403
It's an alternative to XMBC, just a media center.
>Click magnet link.
>Click 'OK' in torrent client
>Done
>Available through folder sharing in my household
>This is too hard or complex for some odd reason for many people
IDGI
I JUST DONT
>>55089866
Does this actually work?
>>55094583
Keyboard and mouse isn't a good input method for TV use. MPC's interface isn't good for TV use. Browsing through files in Explorer isn't any good on a TV. If you like it then just keep doing it, I don't give a shit. Some of us are elevated from plebeian sensibilities and act accordingly.
>>55094644
They're the same software
>>55094653
This has nothing to do with the topic matter
>>55094686
Like, click the file open with mouse. That's it. Why the need for fancy unoptimized programs?
>>55094686
Nah I mean selling them on craigslist, seems like a decent gig, does it actually sell well?
>>55094694
>Why the need for fancy unoptimized programs?
>unoptimized
It runs pretty well even on the abysmal RPi hardware. It's not suckless but still, this software is so much more than a dumb video player.
If clicking tiny icons with a mouse is such a great user experience, why don't TVs come with mice instead of remotes or game consoles come with them instead of controllers? Why don't you choose channels on your TV by clicking a small-ass little icon in some shitty file explorer clone with your faggot wireless mouse? Because both the UI and input method fucking sucks on a TV controlled from the couch.
>>55094560
>Sonarr
You dont need sonar to download rss feed.
>CouchPotato
It could barely find 1 out of 10 films in acceptable quality.
>>55094856
I have absolutely no issue clicking .mkv or throwing BDMV folder to MPC when I watch them through television.
Maybe that's just me then.
>>55089536
I keep a intel nuc (has an i5-4250u) on at all times just for plex.
I leave it on when I visit my parents as well that lives around 600km away from where I do and it works just fine over that distance. Have friends that live even further away saying it streams fine to them to.
Have 6 people connected to my plex, none of which have complained (although most of them just use it for latest game of thrones episode every monday). Have automated the entire shit with deluge, sickrage and couchpotato.
Like I said earlier, I use my media center as a remote streaming device that also auto-fetches new episodes of series I watch so that I dont have to bother with that shit when Im not at home. Whenever I am, I can access my media easily.
>>55094892
Does your RSS feed download in progressively better qualities according to your per-show rules, rename and move files around according to your settings, notify Kodi to scrape metadata for it and send a push notification to your phone? Show a calendar of upcoming episodes? Search across multiple sites? Add shows from your watchlists on Trakt and IMDB? Allow easily adding new shows or movies from your tablet?
If CouchPotato couldn't find your movies in good quality it's because you didn't specify proper quality restrictions and sites to source from.
>>55094905
>Maybe that's just me then.
Yes, keep enjoying your pleb shit.
>>55095139
Pleb shit? Because I don't waste time tinkering around useless UIs and menus, and just prefer to throw the folder over MPC?
Do you really take pride in doing things the hard way?
>>55095063
That makes sense, I don't need these for reasons you explained since I barely watch anything when I'm not at home. Sounds nice though
>>55094712
Nigger
What's the best kodi build with pre-installed addons and is there a software to create this kind of build?
>>55095155
You're too much of a pleb to comprehend what I've been talking about so there's no gain for either of us in continuing this conversation.
Don't call me retard, but if plex is for home server use, how do you use kodi? I mean let's say i have a movie archive on my pc. How i could make it play on tv with kodi? Hdmi cable? Flash stick/portable hard drive? And also there isn't kodi on my televisions app store, does it mean i can't use kodi unless i buy an android stick?
>>55095439
>Don't call me retard, but if plex is for home server use, how do you use kodi?
However you want
>I mean let's say i have a movie archive on my pc. How i could make it play on tv with kodi? Hdmi cable?
That works
>Flash stick/portable hard drive?
That also works. I'd rather recommend LAN sharing though
>And also there isn't kodi on my televisions app store, does it mean i can't use kodi unless i buy an android stick?
Does your TV run Android? If not, you'll need another device to run it, yes
>>55089403
its xbmc (xbox media center). They just changed the name.
If you havnt heard of that newfag/10.
Ive never used it myself, but I think its a mediaserver / media streaming client, and a media viewer kinda like windows photo viewre and windows media player all rolled into one.
Its not in direct competition with those you listed because nobody uses it for all that stuff. People prefer individualized specilized programs for music || videos || media streaming.
>>55089403
It manages your library in a way that allows usage data to be shown. Like what episodes you already watched and resume on a certain time.
In combination with Sonarr it automatically shows me the latest added tv series which is my main use.
It has all of the hardware decoders packaged with it. Try getting a pi and watching your Chinese cartoons without kodi.
Also it accepts NFS and smb so the size of the SD card is a null issue. Mongo retards.
First, you must have a social life to need a media player. It's useful when you have lots of friends at home.
Video can't play with kodi jarvis and my nexus7.
Is it normal?
>>55098723
>Implying you need friends in order to have the autistic urge to manage your chinese cartoon collection
Normalfags out
What's your skin of choice /g/?
I can't find any that isn't either looking like shit or broken to some degree
>>55099583
either confluence or arctic zephyr
be sure to check the themes' settings, often something you don't like about it can be changed (there might even be off-by-default things you like)
>>55099583
In my opinion there's still not a single other skin coming even close to Aeon Nox
>>55099583
unity
i use popcorn time, is that bad?
>>55099790
I use unity, but the time search during videos seems to be broken unless I use the mouse.
It makes it difficult to rewind quickly when using another peripheral.
Yet I can't find another one that looks as good as it does.
>>55094694
I don't want to leave a computer on just to watch something on my TV.
>>55089403
It's more similar to Apple TV, FireTV, First Generation Xbox, PS3 style of UI for consuming all media. It's designed for the living room in mind, and it's meant to make navigating through your media easier.
Say you consume Anime, Movies, Porn, music. Kodi can manage all those medias for you in a media library to play in anyway you want.
>>55089403
It turns your computer into a smart TV with streaming. /thread
>>55102241
A smart TV would wish it could do a percent of what Kodi can.
>>55102531
Doesn't matter. People buy raspberry pi to install kodi and have free tv over the internet. That's it.
>>55089403
10 foot interface.
>>55089403
Kodi's main use is as a client for torrent streaming like popcorn time.
Kodi's main problem is that the services you have to subscribe to, to get the torrents change every day and this has lead to 1000s of conflicting sets of installation instructions all over the net.
>>55089403
Just bought and setup Raspberry Pi 3 B with external Transcend 1TB 25M3 USB-HDD for uncle as a mediaplayer. Of all the choices out there I opted OSMC, osmc.tv. Yet another Kodi-dedicated distro, it just werks(tm), he can control the Kodi whatnot with his telly's remote, HDMI CEC-support ftw.
Why? Uncle happens to live in middle of wilderness where even mobile phones hardly work, yet alone intarwebs.
He likes movies, telly series, music media just as anyone else but needed easy to use UI, RPI3's next to nothing power consumption and 0db operation were just bonus.
So do I need a smart tv or whatever or can I just use any tv if I have a raspberry pi?
>>55089403
>mfw people on my local craigslist want to charge $25 to install this on a TV stick for free movies/tv
>>55089663
And yet expensive as hell. HDDs are cheap, so it's way more economical to toss media on an older box with a pair of 2tb drives working as a NAS.
>>55089403
1. Buy a Raspberry Pi (2 or 3)
2. Install Kodi on it
3. Plug it into your TV (it supports HDMI CEC, so you can use your TV remote to control Kodi)
4. Obtain a media file in a completely legal manner.
5. Use a DLNA server to share the media file on your local network
6. Use Kodi to watch said media file on your TV
Blam, you've just got your own Smart TV that can deal with subtitles embedded into streamed files (I'm looking at you, Samsung), will get updates for years to come (I'm still looking at you, Samsung) and seems to have a decent YouTube plugin (Samsung, you should be taking notes)
>>55104055
Important caveat: the Pi cannot seem to handle the HVEC x265 codec which is a significant drawback if you torrent a lot. The problem will worsen over time as it replaces the old standard.
>>55104119
not even a pi 3? is this where having a tv box or whatever would be useful?
>>55104119
My i7 3770 can't even handle HEVC, how the fuck is a raspi supposed to be able to?
>>55103049
You're a good nephew, but how does your unc torrent or stream if the internet sucks where he lives?
>>55104200
Obviously but many people aren't even aware of the problem or that the new standard is getting more popular.
>>55104160
I have a Pi3 and yep it's totally unusable for that codec. Any x264 or BDMV will run smoothly though.
>>55095155
>"useless UIs"
>uses mpc instead of mpv
opinion discarded
>>55103049
He doesn't. But there's more than enough media in that external hdd to watch and listen - yet should he need anything, he calls or sends me sms - next time I visit him. I'll just copy the new stuff from my laptop to his external hdd.
>>55094229
I don't know why everyone itt is pushing kodi so hard. The reason it's slowly getting harder to get the good stuff is all these normies. Let the babbies get plex.
>>55094229
What skin is that??? I use Titan, it's simple and clean enough.
>>55104200
That's weak. My NUC does 1080p 10bit x265 without any trouble.
>>55104692
>The reason it's slowly getting harder to get the good stuff is all these normies.
And what exactly is 'the good stuff'?
>>55094076
do you use the Exodus repository, so your addon is always up to date?
have you updated your URLResolver?(choose the version from the Exodus repo)
>>55089403
the only channels that work are nasa and tranny porn
>>55105806
and nasa doesn't have a space program anymore
here's a preview of what you'll get with kodi
http://vaughnlive.tv/honoka056
>>55094678
yes, I really do this.
It's harder in the city since there's more people selling them. I sell them in a resort town to old white folks.
>>55105418
At 60+ Mbps? Does this sample play smoothly for you?
http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=144
>>55106232
I said 10bit at 1080p, then you link some 4K shit? Maybe not, I don't know. The site you linked is so slow it's gonna take a while to download the file and find out.
>>55106529
Oh, I missed the 1080p bit. Well then yeah, who the fuck cares?
>>55106618
I dunno, there are more HEVC 720p and 1080p encodes out there than 4K for the time being.
After downloading this file and starting playback Kodi only reported 1 frame drop and 2 skips, but it was all displayed as a garbled mess, so no go there. I've got another Z8300 shitter box that's supposed to do hardware H.265 decoding so it'll be interesting to see if that fares better.
>>55103889
>TV stick
>>55103889
Brings you more shit than you'd guess. Shitload of people calling all the time about things not working etc.
Source: Uncle tried selling DVB-S Dreamboxes
where is a good place to get all the stations?
>>55108836
better yet, which ones do i need?
>assuming everyone already has a server for all their files
Isn't it pretty expensive so A build a second server machine and B have it running 24/7?
Also, how do file server?
>>55108856
thanks a lot.
I don't really watch tv anyway
>>55108965
That's why you get cheap hardware with little power consumption like a Raspberry Pi or a Banana Pi
>>55109159
how do I turn it into a server? I'm already using it for my kodi client
>>55109194
>how do I turn it into a server?
You leave it on
>>55104200
>>55104055
>>55104119
>>55104236
>tfw finally get back in the game
>tfw hdmi port goes out
>tfw xbone has hdmi
>tfw when transfered 5 gb over broken usb port at 12 mbps to watch in hd on the tv
>tfw xbox says "codec isnt supported" an hour later
>tfw rencode for the first time on a 2007 cpu for a couple hours
>tfw still says codec isnt supported
What the fuck is going on in a video file? can someone fill me in?
there codecs, containers, and what else?
what is what?
Kodi is the dumbest fucking name.
>>55111498
Just fork and rename it little dumbass.
>>55089403
It's basically a media player and library generator with a 10 foot interface, meaning it's designed for the big screen and to be controlled with a remote control instead of having to rely on traditional computer input devices.
>>55094267
Isn't TV Addons getting shady?
>>55113042
tvaddons have always been shady. Unofficial addons generally have shit code quality and can fuck up your install completely.
>>55111354
This question would have been better off in >>>/g/sqt, but oh well.
A media file is primarily a container for several different tracks. The container might be Matroska (.mkv, or as a variant .webm), MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4), MPEG-TS (.ts) or Ogg (.ogg).
Such a container might contain a video track, one or more audio tracks and often a subtitle track.
A video track will be encoded using a video codec, such as MPEG-4 Part 10 (aka H.264 aka AVC), HEVC (aka H.265), Google VP8 or VP9, MPEG-4 Part 2 (aka DivX), Theora and others; and will also have some associated format metadata (e.g. pixel format, color space, transfer function and so on)
Most video codecs also permit different “profiles”, for example H.264 has Main, High, High10 and more. (The difference between these profiles is e.g. allowing more advanced compression features or different signal formats, for example High10 allows using the 10-bit yuv420p10 instead of the usual 8-bit yuv420p)
An audio track will be encoded in an audio codec such as AAC, DTS / DTS-HD, Opus, Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or others, and will have a fixed number of channels and other metadata.
Finally, a subtitle track also has a different format, popular examples are Advanced SubStation (.ass), SubRip Text (.srt), WebVTT, VobSub or others.
So for functioning playback, your media player has to be compatible with all of the following in combination:
- The container format used
- The video codec used for the video track
- The profile used for said codec
- The image format the video was encoded with
- The audio codec
- The channel layout of the audio codec
- The subtitle format (if present)
>>55089866
I do this too
bought a lot of nice PC parts for my build
I charge double what a fire stick costs
or just the cost of the fire stick if they bring one to me
Plex + Sonarr masterrace
Kodi just takes too long to work well
>>55116540
But plex is very expensive.
Even adobe products are cheaper!
I downloaded it and tried it.
It's just a media player. I couldn't do anything more with it than I could before.
