Kodi - Home Theatre Software

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Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

I recently discovered Kodi and instantly fell in love with this piece of software, I thought others might find it interesting as well. It's free, open source, easy to set up and the possibilities that it offers are practically endless. It runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. However, the true power of this software lies in all the add-ons that can be installed, they offer some VERY interesting content. It also won an award from Lifehacker last year for "Best Media Player" when it was still called XBMC (Xbox Media Center).

There's a full list of features here http://kodi.tv/about/.

One feature that I think most people would be interested in is that it allows free(!) viewing of any live TV channels across the world, even in 720p or 1080p quality. I mostly use it to watch football and other sports on US and UK channels/streams in HD quality, they play perfectly and never get taken down unlike regular live streams.

Installing everything is the easy part, only takes a few minutes when following the tutorials below. First step is to obviously download and install Kodi. http://kodi.tv/download/

After that all that's needed is to simply add a few add-ons depending on the content that we are interested in.

This tutorial shows how to install Vdubt25 which is one of the most popular sports add-ons.
https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-instal ... kodi-xbmc/

Another tutorial for a very popular sports/movies/shows add-on that has a bit of everything.
https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-instal ... -for-xbmc/

Tutorial for the best movies/shows addon for those who are interested in that.
https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-manual ... -for-xbmc/

There are more tutorials here for sports addons that have Premier League on them.
https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-watch- ... sing-xbmc/

It's also a good idea to install the "add-on installer" and then installing new add-ons becomes even easier, but that list is missing some pretty good add-ons that I mentioned above, although it does have Phoenix and Genesis.
https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-manual ... -for-xbmc/

Here are a few articles for those wondering about the legality of Kodi and its add-ons.

http://wtvpc.com/2015/04/27/is-kodi-leg ... questions/

http://www.techhive.com/article/2926004 ... -easy.html

http://www.husham.com/streaming-content ... streaming/
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marksmeets302
Posts: 527
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:37 pm

Kodi is awesome!
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Shamrock
Posts: 205
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:41 am
Location: Perth Wester Australia

download from here
www.tvaddons.ag/tvmc-release
this has addons pre installed and is still free.
PeterLe
Posts: 3715
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

Evening
I got an Amazon firestick with this pre loaded as a present for Christmas...
Just wondered how far behind live the football is? (I only trade after a goal anyway, so not crucial)
(great for free film content in 1080p too a lot of stuff)
Regards
Peter
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Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

Hi Peter

There's quite a bit of delay on football, similar to regular streams, so it's not very useful for trading unless your trading style is not too dependent on delay. People like Kodi mostly because of the sheer amount of content and addons that are available, and of course because it's all free :)
PeterLe
Posts: 3715
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

Thanks Kai
I thought that would be the case, so Ill still keep my Sky Sports Subscription too. It pays for itself really.
Great for the movies though! (Think Ill cancel the Netflix too)
Cheers
Peter
andyfuller
Posts: 4619
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm

Is this an app you just download onto the FireTv stick? Do you need to do anything to the stick such as routing it?

I have had a stick for a while but not got Kodi on it.

Cheers guys.
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Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

Andy you can find instructions on how to install Kodi on your FireTV stick here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoQgNH5b8No

http://www.htpcbeginner.com/install-kod ... fire-tv/2/
andyfuller
Posts: 4619
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm

Cheers mate, will give it a bash in the next few days.
PeterLe
Posts: 3715
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

Andy
This is right up your street.
We watched the new Everest movie last night in 1080p perfect. All the latest movies are on there ( my son watched blackmass with Jonny Depp)
My Firestick came ready with kodi load and is menu driven ( has a similar navigation look and feel to Apple TV ).
My nephew bought a new Firestick and loaded it up himself. His doesn't navigate the same way as mine does (he navigates to the add on sections X then to various folders, it it doesn't look as slick etc) but he can still get the same content.
Regards
Peter
Last edited by PeterLe on Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
trueblue75
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:02 pm

I cancelled sky a year ago when a bought an android box. Watch any football i`m interested in also horse racing.
Great for my 4 year old son to watch things on too.
andyfuller
Posts: 4619
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm

Cheers - hoping to have some time today to have a go at getting it up and running.
PeterLe
Posts: 3715
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

andyfuller wrote:Cheers - hoping to have some time today to have a go at getting it up and running.
Andy
Did you ever take a look at this?
I updated the build last night. I'm going to get a firestic for my son for his birthday and load it up with Kodi/Add ons. (I cant remember which web site i was on, but when I was looking to buy one, one web site had sold around 100 firesticks that day).
You can foresee a time when Sky wont have the stangle hold on subscribers (At one point I was paying around £90/Month!, I would imagine the average man in the street would find this expensive)
In the same way that Blockbuster went bust, you can see how it will affect Sky in the future...OK they wont go bust, but Im sure it will hit their profits..maybe there's a long term trade in there! ;)
regards
Peter
andyfuller
Posts: 4619
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm

Hi mate - I haven't got around to doing this yet. It is on my list to do but finding the time to do it is the tricky bit.

I did start to look at doing it but at the time my hard drive was so full I didn't have the space to download the file so ordered an external hard drive but then kind of forgot about doing it with one thing and another - I shall try and get it done over Easter.

Let me know how you go with it.

Such things will effect Sky to an extent but tbh I don't think it will have a long term impact on them like it has with Blockbuster. The thing with block buster was that it was superceeded by a change in technology that made access to what it sold easier, i.e. streaming.

Many people, myself included, are happy to pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime and I use their services as they provide an easy solution, where as via Kodi I could probably get the same content for free but Kodi requires a level of technological knowledge that most people just can't be bothered with and are happy to pay a premium for someone else to do the work for them and present it in a simple to use solution, i.e Sky, Netflix, Amazon.
shrishri
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2019 8:25 pm

What recent Kodi add-ons are best for watching shows and movies?
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