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Actually we can now play pretty much all the 8-bit 1080p30 content we can find, and a fair proportion of 10-bit content too. The GPU-accelerated HEVC implementation was a beast to get working, but it runs nicely now. Checkout Milhouse's Kodi 18 nightlies here:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthre...

Are you kidding? It's not 2009 anymore - why are you downloading torrents? I will admit that Kodi isn't quite as seamless as Netflix, but the options are far superior.

Kodi is for streaming your own rips onto your network. You must acquire your digital content somehow before Kodi can stream it.

Kodi doesn't contain malware it's the illegal add-ons and code overlays. From the site: https://kodi.tv/article/warnin...

https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-n...

"As such, starting today, we are officially changing our name back to XBMC.

But we're not stopping there. We've had a good long run being a multi-platform system, but at the end of the day covering six or more platforms has become far too much of a stress. Android support alone taxes our resources in a way no volunteer development team can ever reasonably be expected to handle. And all the other platforms just makes this worse. So, in an executive decision that we believe the entire community will support, we at Team XBMC have decided to fully embrace our roots.

Starting today, we would like to announce that we are exclusively supporting only the Xbox One"

At least if I type "Kody" into Google, the first result is for https://kodi.tv/.

So, if iTunes goes away....and I wouldn't mind a better interface, but will there be anything left on MacOS that allows me to catalog, rip and manage MY music local?

That's the laugh: There have pretty much ALWAYS been alternatives to iTunes for macOS available from 3rd Parties. I happen to like iTunes; so I don't have much experience with these Applications, but I know they exist, and have for years in one form or another:

Kodi: This was formerly the XBMC Project. It has been available on multiple platforms for years and years. It and Plex (below) are the heavy-hitters in this world, IMHO.

https://kodi.tv/

Plex: Originally grew out of the XBMC Project, as a Mac-specific version of same.
  Probably the most full-featured Media Server/Player Combination. Too many features and platforms to mention here. Also check out the companion macOS PlexAmp lightweight Player.

https://www.plex.tv/plex-labs/...

VLC: Plays anything that even PRETENDS to be a music or video file! Versions available back to OS X 10.0 Cheetah, FFS!!! I don't know if it can Rip; but it sure can PLAY!!!

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/d...

And I found a nice page that aggregates these things, here it is:

https://alternativeto.net/soft...

I'd recommend Kodi with the PsuedoTV Live plugin, which lets you set up channels from your library with various rule sets to determine what is shown and when.

Exactly what I thought of as reading. PsuedoTVLive is pretty much exactly what he is describing.

I'll just recommend an OpenELEC box (I prefer on ODROID C2) for the KODI platform.

I'd recommend Kodi with the PsuedoTV Live plugin, which lets you set up channels from your library with various rule sets to determine what is shown and when.

Xbox One X. Now with Kodi.

Kodi is a great solution for streaming "open" channels and stuff from your local media library, but it doesn't really do Netflix

The Xbox One X does both Kodi and Netflix.

I switched recently from Plex which I had been using forever to Kodi. With the right skin Kodi looks fantastic. The problem is it's not a client/server model like Plex is. You just run Kodi on a client and point it at files somewhere. So you can't do transcoding from the server to the client. And with plex the client can also be a web browser. Chorus2, the kodi web client, is pretty poor and the browser streaming is barely functional and in my experience is dependent on the browser support and media type because there's no transcoding.

But the UI is nice, it's highly configurable and using the shared mysql/maria database you can share your watch status and library between devices (I'm using NVIDIA Shields).

Overall Plex offers a far simpler experience and supports transcoding which opens up some options (streaming to small/mobile devices via the internet) but Plex has gotten pretty shady requiring accounts, almost changing their policy until user backlash and it's not open source. So the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. I'm willing to put in a little extra elbow grease to get Kodi working well to not support Plex because it works well enough for my use case, which is a couple front ends attached to TVs streaming content from a NAS.

I switched recently from Plex which I had been using forever to Kodi. With the right skin Kodi looks fantastic. The problem is it's not a client/server model like Plex is. You just run Kodi on a client and point it at files somewhere. So you can't do transcoding from the server to the client. And with plex the client can also be a web browser. Chorus2, the kodi web client, is pretty poor and the browser streaming is barely functional and in my experience is dependent on the browser support and media type because there's no transcoding.

But the UI is nice, it's highly configurable and using the shared mysql/maria database you can share your watch status and library between devices (I'm using NVIDIA Shields).

Overall Plex offers a far simpler experience and supports transcoding which opens up some options (streaming to small/mobile devices via the internet) but Plex has gotten pretty shady requiring accounts, almost changing their policy until user backlash and it's not open source. So the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. I'm willing to put in a little extra elbow grease to get Kodi working well to not support Plex because it works well enough for my use case, which is a couple front ends attached to TVs streaming content from a NAS.

Kodi wants to entertain you
Kodi spawned from the love of media. It is an entertainment hub that brings all your digital media together into a beautiful and user friendly package. It is 100% free and open source, very customisable and runs on a wide variety of devices. It is supported by a dedicated team of volunteers and a huge community.

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub that can be installed on Linux, OSX, Windows, iOS and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls.

It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet. Our forums and Wiki are bursting with knowledge and help for the new user right up to the application developer.

https://kodi.tv/

Anti-consumer, anti-choice cr@p like this is

...only going to get worse once the broadband providers get in on it.

What happened today? Google took their ball and went home, like a spoiled brat. So, sideload Kodi, and install the YouTube Add-on. Alternatively, (and less brain power required) skip the Starbucks habit for a few days and buy another streaming device. I can't imagine HDMI ports are a precious commodity, when a faux reproduction (it's emulator based) of a 26 year old gaming console is so popular, retailers can't keep it in stock.

In a post-net-neutrality tomorrow, it's only a matter of time before the broadband providers start taking sides in these content provider turf wars. You'll long for the days when the fix was quite so simple.

IMO Roku makes the best hardware box specifically because they have no significant streaming service, so it's in their best interest to ensure it works well (or at least acceptably) with all the streaming services that matter.

Absolutely agree. Other than an Intel Compute Stick and Kodi, the Roku is the better/best option as it's cheaper, works really well, comes with a remote and a great interface, and doesn't require your credit card number for roping you into one preferred source of content. Bonus, it is friendly to lots of paid content if you want it, like Sling or HBO. And as the Roku platform becomes more popular, there's more incentive for Roku apps to work well (as opposed, unfortunately, to Kodi apps which are often hit-and-miss).

But to a lot of investor-people, the real money is in subscriptions, not in a one-time sale of a device that might last years. This sucks for consumers who just want to buy something and just use it. And how many content subscriptions can a person have anyway, until they're paying as much or more than they would for full-out cable or satellite TV?

If Roku continues to make great boxes that don't come with strings attached like Apple TV or FireStick, then I don't care what else they do. Otherwise, you may be best off just pulling an older PC out of the closet and hooking it to your TV with a wireless mouse and keyboard.

I don't see any mention, so I thought I'd add that Kodi (formerly XBMC) seems to be the way to go now for FOSS media centre software. To be honest, I haven't tried it myself, but it will be the first thing I try when I get a round tuit one of these days...
see also

How about a proper link https://kodi.tv/download/849 and this https://mediaexperience.com/xb... and of course this http://kodi.wiki/view/Official.... I am sure most of you can do what ever you feel the need to do there in after.

What's the point of buying these devices? It's terribly trivial to buy an Amazon FireTV Stick and install Kodi on it. I did it to play with it as a frontend for my MythTV system, but setting it up for pirate streaming can't be any more difficult. It's not like it requires rooting the device or anything like that.

My desktop PC runs Fedora Linux with a KDE UI and it is very easy to install Kodi (it's part of the rpmfusion-free-updates repository). For those running a Debian based distro you just need to install the appropriate repository and install (google is your friend :-) here). Of course, you can always go to the Kodi website and install that way but for us Linux users a repository install is so much better since you will automatically get updates which you can install at your convenience.

Personally, I prefer VLC to Kodi although Kodi IMHO looks more polished but to each their own.

See https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-v...

There is flix4kodi (sourcewhich launches Chrome in full-screen, and worked for me about a year ago.

And of course recent posts indicate that it is no longer working :-(.

I'd love to be able to use Kodi for all of my media viewing - ideally including live TV as well. If Kodi had a Netflix plugin, we'd use Kodi in place of the crappy Netflix player built into the TV.

There is flix4kodi (sourcewhich launches Chrome in full-screen, and worked for me about a year ago. But then of course you'll probably need a mouse and/or keyboard (which I don't need otherwise) to navigate inside the browser window instead of using a remote or the Kore smartphone app, and Chrome on Linux was still limited on 720p last time I tried. And since Netflix didn't really have anything I wanted to watch at the time, I haven't used it recently.

If they had an Amazon Video plugin, we'd ditch the Amazon FireTV box too. If there was a decent way to hook up a MythTV server and Kodi, then we could ditch the satellite box too. We'd be down to a couple of raspberry pis to do the lot. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Yep, I really wouldn't mind paying for Prime Video to watch The Grand Tour, but I'm not going to watch anywhere but on my TV, and the only thing connected to it is Kodi on Linux. If Prime Video worked well on Kodi on Linux, I would definitely trial it ...

I thought the PVR branch was merged into recent versions of Kodi, and I thought it supported two backends, one of which was Myth?

>

BTW, since when http://kodi.tv/ was seized? I don't use it but i don't remember seeing anything about they losing their website.
"This domain name has been seized by ICE - Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C 981 and 2323. "

it's an April fools joke.

Probably that, they'll block the items that make it dead easy to watch pirated content, just like Popcorn Time. Any computer can be a pirate box with kodi, if they sold Intel NUCs loaded with kodi and those plugins it would also be pulled. Or at least it is the sane thing to do.

BTW, since when http://kodi.tv/ was seized? I don't use it but i don't remember seeing anything about they losing their website.
"This domain name has been seized by ICE - Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C 981 and 2323. "

And, what on earth does Kodi have to do with that? It is free (as in free to use) software that's even open source so unless Kodi is coming after them, what's the deal?

It's boxes preloaded with Kodi and plugins to access pirated content.

And you getting confused is the reason Kodi themselves are going after them.

Because it's casting a negative light on Kodi (the project) - the last thing they want is to be known as the "piracy player". Several developers are threatening to leave because of it, and the forums are being hounded by people angry when their plugins stop working, assuming that Kodi wrote said piracy plugin. They've resorted to banning people who ask about pirate boxes.

What is the actual source of the broadcasts that come in from these 3rd party plugins....???

Is it traceable to the end user?

Is it coming in on something akin to bittorrent?

I don't see money being generated at all from this, so, wondering the motivation to put this "illegal" streaming out there?

Usually it's a hijacked server providing the streaming source, and whether it's tracable or not depends on the server's settings. Perhaps the owner gets advice it's been jacked and simply wipes it. Or perhaps they turn it off for a full forensic analysis and see if there's any useful information on it.

It's unlikely to be bittorrent, it's likely just hacked servers.

As for the motivation well, it's selling the plugins - for $20, get free TV "for life". Of course, once the server is gone, it's gone, But if you can sell access to those servers for a few weeks, it's good enough.

Anyhow, it's likely the Kodi team is behind a lot of the busts - they are against the whole "pirate box" deal and will prosecute anyone. The alternative is to let Kodi die because it's being associated with an activity that is casting it in a negative light.

1. My guess is your computer is far away from your TV, otherwise you could hook it up with an HDMI cable.

2. Probably illegal. I don't think it's as traceable as a torrent. It's like if you download a pirated program illegally from some web page.

Kodi's just a piece of software to play videos. It's the plugins that get you the illegal content btw. Kodi boxes are pretty much a scam ("It’s gotten bad enough that core Kodi developers have threatened to quit in protest.") and you're better off buying a Raspberry Pi and installing Kodi and the unofficial plugins themselves, because they're similar except the RPi has a better community around it and it's a general purpose computer, which can't be said for Kodi boxes.

Also, I understand you wanting to stay legal, but AFAICT the content providers don't want freely accessible content. Unfortunately for consumers, content providers restrict access to particular programs in specific markets so as to control pricing and TV rights negotiations. For example, if you buy a DVD in the US then bring it home to watch in Australia, there's a good chance it won't work because DVD players in Australia are set to region 4, while discs in the US are encoded as region 1. The same is true of many video games.

Front-end is Kodi on OpenElec running on a CuBox-i. Back-ends are several VMs. One VM is running a MythTV Back-end server recording from a roof antenna connected to a couple of HDHomeRun boxes saving to a mounted NFS QNAP 12 TB array. Other VMs run Sonarr, Sabnzbd and Sickbeard. Sorarr is also using a Transmission back-end, while Sabnzbd is using a Usenet subscription. Occasionally I also use Netflix and Vudu on a Roku stick which I turn on only when I need it. I white list every device and every port individually, and all things that could be considered borderline legal go through a permanent VPN link on my pfSense VM. Rock solid setup.

I've been running LibreELEC/Kodi pre-alpha nightly test builds by Milhouse on an Asus Celeron Chromebox.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthrea...
http://kodi.wiki/view/chromebo...

I'm very happy with the performance. I also have a Popcornhour C200. Kodi on the Chromebox runs circles around the Popcornhour.

And the XBMC Foundation is trying its best to break this perceived association.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box...

The Kodi developers hate those plugins, because they only work for a few months then break. And then the users come and flood the Kodi forums complaining about it.

The Pirate Boxes are killing Kodi.

It's apparently getting so bad the Kodi dev team is considering quitting completely - they don't want to support this crap (especially since the pirate box sellers don't support them) and are forced to (i.e., Kodi is crap). So they're using legal avenues to do so - basically they've acquired a trademark so they can file trademark takedowns.

These days I can do just about anything I need with KODI (formerly XBMC aka XBox Media Center) including record from tuners. No thanks to using a console for my media consumption.

Now might be a good time to consider migrating your HTPC to Kodi, then. From what I've read so far, both OpenELEC and Kodibuntu seem like good choices -- whereas Kodibuntu is basically just an Ubuntu distro customized for Kodi, OpenELEC was built from the ground up to run Kodi on HTPC hardware like an appliance. Alternatively Kodi also runs on Windows, if you still feel that MS only beats you when you deserve it.

Now might be a good time to consider migrating your HTPC to Kodi, then. From what I've read so far, both OpenELEC and Kodibuntu seem like good choices -- whereas Kodibuntu is basically just an Ubuntu distro customized for Kodi, OpenELEC was built from the ground up to run Kodi on HTPC hardware like an appliance. Alternatively Kodi also runs on Windows, if you still feel that MS only beats you when you deserve it.

My 1st gen RPi does a good job as a media center. Lots of I/O for that.

I'm running Kodi on a First Gen Intel Mac Pro 2x2 Xeon. Plenty for what I need. I've got a lot of hard drives plugged in for various libraries, some Firewire. I do all the ripping on my Linux system that has a bunch of optical drives and actually outperforms the Mac on that task.

I'm thinking about switching it over to Linux, a lot of the Kodi plugins don't work and I'm not sure if that's because it's on a Mac or the plugins just suck. I'm going to test them on my Linux box first.

I use the Yatse Remote for my phone, a Rii Keyboard as the "common remote", and I have the HTTP remote enabled so my wife can operate it from her fruit phone (I can't explain how the remote disappears so often).

Also my now elderly LG BluRay player with UPNP and DLNA support is on my desk in my office - it's not very reliable anymore but I can use it to play anything on the server on an extra HDMI monitor I have. It wasn't reliable enough to leave in the living room anymore, but okay tor occasional geek use.

I really need a new TV. I've still got a 36" Dimatron CRT with a VGA to S-Video converter box. At least the setup in my office actually does HD.....

Whilst this is currently true, the situation is improving rapidly. I've been periodically testing the OpenELEC Kodi Jarvis alpha builds on my Raspberry Pi 2.

The previous time I tested it (a month or so ago), 720p HEVC was just playable - ~100% CPU on both cores, but only dropping the occasional frame. The time before that, 720p HEVC was unwatchable. But with build #1016 (which includes FFMPEG 2.8.1) I was getting smooth playback and averaging around 60% CPU on both cores.

HEVC will obviously never have the same hardware requirements that h264 does now, but there is a lot of work currently going into reducing the requirements.

Of course, I'd much prefer that royalty-free codecs take the fore.

For you information XMBC is now known as kodi http://kodi.tv/

If I could find a suitable alternative to Windows Media Center

Kodi?

I agree about Linux being fundamentally far better for the entire world. However, it seems that everything in Linux is poorly documented. Microsoft's documentation is very poor, but Linux documentation is considerably worse. That creates a HUGE barrier to using Linux.

Not many people want to spend a week trying to discover how some Linux program works. For example, XBMC, now Kodi, media center.

Anyone interested should look into one or more of the following alternatives. They don't add any ads to the experience as far as I know. The exception being Tivo, but my understanding is that their ads don't interfere with watching the content. Each of these alternatives have varying levels of openness and freedom ranging from truly FOSS to not FOSS/OSS at all...

Ceton's products: http://cetoncorp.com/
Silicon Dust's products: https://www.silicondust.com/
Kodi's offerings: http://kodi.tv/
Tivo's products: http://www.tivo.com/

They rebranded as Kodi a while ago Kodi.

If you're still using a media center PC I would suggest getting an Amazon Fire or other small Arm box. Ours handles everything just fine.

Too many other and better free choices available.

...care to elaborate? I actually agree (Kodi is my media centre of choice), but I'm genuinely curious to hear some opinions about what else is out there.

Kodi started life as XBMC. Full-featured, open source, free, what's not to love?

Well, the xbmc team did completely give up on trying to use hardware acceleration with the AMD prioprietary fglrx driver and switched to the OSS radeon driver in late 2013.

# 2014-08-03 15:37:45 CEST

domain: kodi.tv
reg_created: 2014-05-29 19:59:29
expires: 2015-05-29 19:59:29
created: 2014-05-29 21:59:29
changed: 2014-08-02 18:00:42
transfer-prohibited: yes
ns0: a.dns.gandi.net
ns1: b.dns.gandi.net
ns2: c.dns.gandi.net
owner-c:
nic-hdl: CF3454-GANDI
owner-name: XBMC Foundation
organisation: XBMC Foundation
person: Team XBMC
address: '340 S LEMON AVE #7222'
zipcode: 91789
city: WALNUT
state: California
country: United States of America
lastupdated: 2014-05-31 12:39:05