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Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

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Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#261

Post by mattowen_uk »

thanatos519 wrote: post #250
mattowen_uk wrote: post #239

My Kodi set-up is a few-years-old copy of LibreELEC[1] set to NOT auto update. I've barely configured it beyond giving the SMB paths to my video collection. I ignore all the meta-data rubbish it wants to add, and just browse to what I want to watch via the text-based list that's built into the default skin. It's all running on a Raspberry Pi 3b hooked into my big home theatre rig. Granted, 90% of my Kodi viewing is D…

I would be happy to complete your Doctor Who collection. It's definitely worth watching all of it.

Thanks for the offer but... I know there's torrents of the whole lot out there, but for me part of the enjoyment is buying the discs (at a slow pace, due to budget), ripping them, and watching them.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#262

Post by hansel_der »

chrisjc wrote: post #222
pksebben wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not exactly "all-purpose", but with laptop in hand and Linux connected to the tv... `ssh user@host cat file.mkv | mplayer` it's more one of those things that spark joy because of how weird it is, but I end up using it all the time.

waiting for a response about how you can then also transcode the video into ascii by piping in an extra command :)

no extra command but happy to ablidge: 'mplayer -vo caca'

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#263

Post by hansel_der »

kuschku wrote: post #232
thefz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've used plex for a number of years and it's "fine" but they keep spending time developing things I don't want and ignoring things the community would like I've stopped using it at home because it keeps on wanting to transcode files for me even if I configured it not to and having gigabit ethernet. And it destroys my server's CPU doing so since I'm not that rich to have a spare video card around.

That's because you put files in that are in formats no browser can play. Next time, try obtaining h264+AAC in mp4 container instead.

this!

if you want your media to be playable basically everywhere, use h264/AVC.

sure a hvec-file would be about half the size but who cares?

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#264

Post by wiether »

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 used to have a laptop connected to my TV that I controlled with a small wireless keyboard. It wasn't VLC but MPC, but mostly the same as you're doing.

Then someone advised me on buying a nVidia Shield on which I put Kodi. And from there it was a completely different experience. Just controlling everything from a remote with my thumb, on a unified interface, with more information (posters, synopsis, status of viewing, resuming, sync with my Trakt[1] profile...) Then I bought a Logitech Harmony remote, so I was able to control my whole setup (TV + soundbar + nVidia Shield) with a single remote.

But I had more and more issues with Kodi, plugins failing, crashes... and with Netflix I took the habit of being able to resume somewhere (browser, smartphone) else what I started on the TV. Something not supported by Kodi because it's only a local player. So I looked at Plex and my experience improved even more.

Now with Plex I have my own "Netflix" so I can start something in a browser at work, resume it on my smartphone in the bus and finish it in my couch on my TV at home. And I can share this with friends and family! I don't have to ask them for a USB key to share files. Or setup a weird FTP access for them to download the files. They have a nice UI to do what they want : consume a media file that they know I have. It's accessible from everywhere : browsers, smartphone, tablets, media box, smart TV... And I can even play my own music on my Sonos players!

There's a lot of things for which I like to hack stuff and all that. But I don't want to have to do that to watch a movie. I want a simple and user-friendly UX. And that's exactly what Kodi and even more Plex offers.

So to me the first and biggest game changer was to have a smartphone-like experience on my TV, with a small device in one hand I was able to switch apps and enjoy my media in a nice UI.

[1] : https://trakt.tv/

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#265

Post by NikolaNovak »

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 am either old school or lazy; I just cannot bother with learning a new system and maintaining it all.the.time. So yes, PC is my hammer, and I just double click on what I want to watch. Ir just works.

(typically when I mention this, somebody will helpfully pipe up that "It's easy! You just need to download this, that and other thing; open up these ports; setup the server and TV on its VLAN; make sure that these drivers and codecs are installed and updated; etc etc etc" with zero awareness of how much extra work it is compared to "double click on movie file" :D )

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#266

Post by raffraffraff »

chrisjc wrote: post #228
raffraffraff wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. So I found that the only way to get a media solution was to compromise. I thought I needed a media server / streamer. Not sure why. Maybe because I started with Plex years ago, and that's what it is. I dropped Plex because I don't trust them, and they force me to log into their service. I switched to Jellyfin because it's the most recommended alternative (and is a more 'free' fork of Emby). But I thought it was…

How does your Rpi connect to the TV, HDMI? How do you control the TV, through CEC? Wondering why you wouldn't consider adding a NAS/SMB into the mix if you were adding a 2nd or 3rd head to the mix instead of syncing across disks?

I have a NAS, but it's old. Perfectly good as a backup though, so I keep the pi in sync with it.

As for the pi, it's connected straight to the TV's HDMI. It has a 7.1 USB audio that connects it to an ancient Yamaha receiver. I have no other media sources, and the TV is one of those digital signage models that has no smart features or tuners. So there's nothing complicated to do really. The Pi puts the screen to sleep when there's nothing playing.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#267

Post by lugorrr »

scubbo wrote: post #240
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…

It does sound like you've had slightly-more-than-average bad luck (I had some similar problems occasionally when I had Kodi on an RPi3, but it's been flawless for a year or so after I upgraded to RPi4), but you're certainly not wrong! One point to consider, though, is that most TVs don't have built-in file managers (or, indeed, NAS-connection capability) - for folks who prefer to watch their media on a big screen, yo…

May i ask what flavour of kodi you're using with your RPi4? OpenELEC, LibreELEC?

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#268

Post by lvass »

mmlkrx wrote: post #188

Right on the homepage it says "Kodi brings your media to life". Apart from piracy, what are legal ways to acquire my own media? When I can't find something on Netflix or Amazon Prime, I typically just buy it on Amazon but Amazon doesn't provide me with a video file. Are there any places I can buy digital media that allow me to download and manage my own media files?

It's just so convenient to backup your physical media and use Kodi to play it. It's 100% legal, I swear I ripped it myself and just happened to lose the original disks.

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#269

Post by jrm4 »

scubbo wrote: post #240
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…

It does sound like you've had slightly-more-than-average bad luck (I had some similar problems occasionally when I had Kodi on an RPi3, but it's been flawless for a year or so after I upgraded to RPi4), but you're certainly not wrong! One point to consider, though, is that most TVs don't have built-in file managers (or, indeed, NAS-connection capability) - for folks who prefer to watch their media on a big screen, yo…

"Most TV's don't have built-in file managers"

Lack of a built in file manager on any device is an excellent indicator of "how bad the manufacturer is trying to reduce your freedom."

Re: Kodi: An Open Source Home Theater System

#270

Post by vivab0rg »

lugorrr wrote: post #267
scubbo wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does sound like you've had slightly-more-than-average bad luck (I had some similar problems occasionally when I had Kodi on an RPi3, but it's been flawless for a year or so after I upgraded to RPi4), but you're certainly not wrong! One point to consider, though, is that most TVs don't have built-in file managers (or, indeed, NAS-connection capability) - for folks who prefer to watch their media on a big screen, yo…

May i ask what flavour of kodi you're using with your RPi4? OpenELEC, LibreELEC?

Not OP, but LibreELEC is pretty much where it's at right now.
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