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Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

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Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#121

Post by prmoustache »

nonbirithm wrote: post #100
progman32 wrote: post #93

This may be unpopular, but after using Kodi and similar software for many years (and enjoying it!), I just gravitated back to the basics. Want to watch a movie? Navigate to it in my file manager and play it with VLC. Music? Just use Winamp 2 or Audacious. I realized I was messing with odd HDMI passthrough issues, database issues, audio sync, broken plugins, stressing about tagging, etc etc every movie night much more…

This is fair, but I've found that I want to watch my content on a television instead of my computer monitor, since I already have everything set up. Unfortunately, it seems that there aren't many good options for just playing files on the network natively using Android TV alone. It seems that a lot of people reach for Plex or similar in this situation, but setting up Plex requires a separate computer to serve the fil…

I use a beamer instead of a tv but it is not complicated to dedicate a small computer like a gigayte brix or an old laptop and use the tv/beamer as the screen. Be it with kodi or using regular apps doesn't make a huge difference these days. With the advent of hidpi monitors, all modern OSes support scaling the icons/text/widgets so it is perfectly viewable from a few meters of distance.

I use a wireless keyboard+trackpad combo as a remote which I leave out of the way inside my living room table when not in use.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#122

Post by senko »

progman32 wrote: post #93

This may be unpopular, but after using Kodi and similar software for many years (and enjoying it!), I just gravitated back to the basics. Want to watch a movie? Navigate to it in my file manager and play it with VLC. Music? Just use Winamp 2 or Audacious. I realized I was messing with odd HDMI passthrough issues, database issues, audio sync, broken plugins, stressing about tagging, etc etc every movie night much more…

> Want to watch a movie? Navigate to it in my file manager and play it with VLC.

That's how I use Kodi on an (otherwise) headless HTPC (a RPi) connected to my TV. You don't need to build and maintain a content library, plugins, etc. Select Videos - Files, navigate to a folder, select the file and enjoy.

> What are people's favorite "killer apps" for software like Kodi? Is it just convenience and I've have had bad luck?

Control via a TV remote and no need to hook up my laptop to the TV every time is a killer convenience feature for me.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#123

Post by _ZeD_ »

progman32 wrote: post #93

This may be unpopular, but after using Kodi and similar software for many years (and enjoying it!), I just gravitated back to the basics. Want to watch a movie? Navigate to it in my file manager and play it with VLC. Music? Just use Winamp 2 or Audacious. I realized I was messing with odd HDMI passthrough issues, database issues, audio sync, broken plugins, stressing about tagging, etc etc every movie night much more…

I would never use kodi over mplayer on my pc.

...but on a raspberry, running libreelec and with a bluetooth remote? that is the real kodi killer use case

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#124

Post by probably_wrong »

parineum wrote: post #49
labster wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intellectual property is theft by the corporations — it is literally charging us to partake in our own culture. And if you’re a creator and create something derivative, expect tens of thousands in a legal judgement against you just because you’re a creative fan. Even decades after the creator is dead, and can no longer benefit.

>it is literally charging us to partake in our own culture If I create something it's not your culture unless I decide to share it.

Just by creating it? Indeed, that doesn't necessarily make it my culture.

However, it does become my culture once my entire city is plastered with posters for it, its music plays on every radio twice a day, my children play with toys based on its characters, and/or conversations with my friends refer to it years after the thing came out.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#125

Post by _joel »

jra_samba wrote: post #62

I bought 3 OSMC Vero 4k boxes ( https://osmc.tv/vero/ ). Basically a dedicated Kodi box on ARM hardware. Nothing but a happy customer, I use them to play content from my dedicated home server over SMB2.

I've had one for about 3 years since the 4k version originally came out and it hasn't missed a beat. Support has been good too, fully available dev builds and community interaction for getting more cutting edge (don't forget it's based on debinan) stuff like wireguard kernel support up and running etc (now all included in default builds)

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#126

Post by mackrevinack »

thesausageking wrote: post #19

How does this compare to Plex?

don't quote me on this but i think kodi/xbmc started back before smartphones weren't really a thing. people mostly had 1 desktop computer and they would watch movies on their monitor or with the computer plugged into the TV.

plex was made later on when having multiple devices (desktop, laptop, phone, tablet etc) was a bit more common, so now instead of having all your media stuck on one device you instead run it on a server and connect to that server using an app on each device.

so that's the fundamental difference between them anyway. one is mainly design to be used on 1 devices while the other is design to be used on many

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#127

Post by halkony »

puchatek wrote: post #101
denkmoon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy is a moral obligation.

Not consuming media offered by a corrupt system would be plausible. And there would be plenty of choices to source content directly from artists. Or make your own. Pirating content is just something people do because it's technically feasible. To silence the cognitive dissonance and justify the behavior towards their peers and reconcile it with the rest of their character (presumably they would not steal physical obj…

This is true AFAIK. Growing up in a lower economic class, I'd engage in piracy simply because modern computers make it trivial. At first it was for entertainment, but over time it exposed me to programming. Piracy ended up being a gateway to building my career, so I'm thankful for that much. Even if it's kind of ironic.

I have and will gladly pay money for authors/developers that really get me excited, though consuming so much interesting content for free can make me pretty jaded. To a pirate, paying for certain software might as well be giving a donation.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#128

Post by karlshea »

rcoilliot wrote: post #114
progman32 wrote: post #93

This may be unpopular, but after using Kodi and similar software for many years (and enjoying it!), I just gravitated back to the basics. Want to watch a movie? Navigate to it in my file manager and play it with VLC. Music? Just use Winamp 2 or Audacious. I realized I was messing with odd HDMI passthrough issues, database issues, audio sync, broken plugins, stressing about tagging, etc etc every movie night much more…

The issue with Kodi is, in my opinion, the same as with setting up a mame cab for playing roms : Perpetual Work In Progress. Users are spending way more time configuring, optimizing, and eventually breaking the whole thing than actually enjoying it. On my side, i'm playing my content with my AppleTV through a Plex server on a Nas, using wired network, and I couldn't be happier. Using a professionnal, closed, solution…

> Users are spending way more time configuring, optimizing, and eventually breaking the whole thing than actually enjoying it.

When I used Kodi that was part of the appeal.

But then I had two Kodi boxes and media on a NAS and wanted them to sync played status. Eventually Emby with the Kodi Sync plugin was the way to do that instead of trying to share a database.

But then I got an Apple TV 4K, and the Emby app runs on that too, and now same as you it’s what I end up using.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#129

Post by Fuzzwah »

Smoosh wrote: post #79
LeoPanthera wrote: post #23

I run LibreElec on a Raspberry Pi, which is a just-enough-OS for Kodi. It works great, and is even a good choice for playing music over HDMI, because unlike some other music-playing distributions, it doesn't use ALSA, and simply bit-bangs the decoded audio out of the HDMI port. Works very well.

There's also OSMC, which is minimal Debian + Kodi.

I'm such a fan of osmc. I used to run it on a raspberry pi, and then switched to their vero2 box when they released it.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#130

Post by LilBytes »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #23

I run LibreElec on a Raspberry Pi, which is a just-enough-OS for Kodi. It works great, and is even a good choice for playing music over HDMI, because unlike some other music-playing distributions, it doesn't use ALSA, and simply bit-bangs the decoded audio out of the HDMI port. Works very well.

I'm part of the LibreElec converts. Great package.
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