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Kodi 18 'Leia' 64-Bit For Windows Is Finally Ready To Replace the 32-bit Version (betanews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the here-and-now dept.

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: Earlier this year, we shared with you that a pre-release version of Kodi 18 "Leia" 64-bit for Windows was available. There was a big catch, however -- it was not up to par with its 32-bit brother. And so, many people just stuck with the 32-bit version, because, well... why not? It is finally time to make the jump to the 64-bit variant, however, as according to the Kodi team, it is now identical to the 32-bit version from a feature perspective. "The 64-bit Kodi version for Windows is now feature complete and on the same level as 32-bit. From now on the 32-bit installer will include a warning to ask you to install the 64-bit instead. This upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit version is seamless and you just need to install on top of the old version," says Kodi.

80 comments

  1. Kodi is both good and bad... by bogaboga · · Score: -1, Redundant

    It's good because folks get to watch shows/movies on the cheap...bad if you ask the movie studios or the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox etc...etc

    1. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, theft is both good and bad. It's good because folks get to obtain the things they want for cheap, enabling them to spend their money on other things instead. It's bad because the people who make the things they want probably will stop making them if they aren't making money on them.

    2. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      How does that work where a TV license is concerned?

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    3. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not everyone uses it to watch pirated content. I use it as a "jukebox" to play my (legally purchased) collection of FLAC audio files from about 2500 CD's I purchased over the years and piped through my home theater audio system. Tucked all on a cheap Intel NUC with all the content stored on an internal M.2 SSD. It works great!

    4. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Putin's To-Do List AKA Trump's* Honey-Do List
      1) Influence US election - Done
      2) Undermine confidence in US institutions - Done
      3) Drive wedge between the US and Germany - Done
      4) Change Republican platform to excuse Crimea - Done
      5) Cancel TPP to reduce US influence in the Pacific - Done
      6) Reduce access/capabilities of US intelligence services - Done
      7) Undermine US aerospace industry/degrade military capabilities
      a) Cancel plans for more capable/defensible Air Force 1 - In progress
      b) Cancel plans for F-35 that is invisible to Russian radar - In progress
      c) Reduce number of US Navy carrier groups by cancelling new ships- TBD
      8) Cut State Department budget to reduce US influence in the world - Done
      9) Alienate closest US allies with insulting telephone calls and tweets - Done
      10) Cancel US NATO and UN treaties to enable Russian expansion - In progress
      11) Implement immigration ban to increase Muslim hostility toward USA - Done
      12) Remove UN sanctions to enable the $500 Billion Rosneft/Exxon Arctic deal - TBD
      13) Build large border wall to divert funds from US social and military programs - TBD
      14) Instruct supporters to blame US judges for making constitutional decisions - Done
      15) Encourage US hostility toward Iran to make Iran more dependent on Russia - Done
      16) Accuse government of wiretapping to deflect/foster victimization narrative - Done
      17) Accuse news media of bias and claim the media are the enemy of the people - Done
      18) Create international tension to drive up the price of Russian oil for export - In progress
      19) Annex Estonia and Latvia - TBD, Russian troops assembled on the border, but must wait.
      20) Denigrate US actions by promoting false equivalences and praising Vladimir Putin - Done
      *Elected with the help of a foreign government.

    5. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How dare people who spend millions to create content hate it when people don't pay to see it

    6. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      Yeah, theft is both good and bad.

      Please tell me how theft would be good. As we're talking about copyright, the only theft (deprivation of property) here happens when one of the companies GP listed issue fraudulent DMCA/equivalent takedowns, not letting authors share and benefit from their own work, while the company claims the rights with impunity.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    7. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This should explain it

    8. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by SatoriTindalos777 · · Score: 1

      The case for theft is weak at best. It presumes hypothetical revenue losses that companies would have garnered if people had bought the product or subscribed to the service. In most cases I've encountered, people have either been so bad off economically or insufficiently interested in the media that the choice was between viewing it for free or not viewing it. The presumption of theft is antithetical in a society where guilt must be proven rather than just presumed. That's why they use terms like 'the alleged theft' on the news where it hasn't been established, rather than assume legal liability for defamation of character. But corporate media are well aware that if they repeat something long enough, it will get stuck in the minds of their audience.

      The presumed theft argument also presupposes fair courts and unbiased copyright laws, of which we have neither. U.S. courts are not courts of law, and copyright has been extended to roughly a century - an unreasonable and rather biased state of affairs in a society where information technology means the duration of media relevance decreases substantially rather than increases.

    9. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

      I have somewhere north of 3000 DVDs, BlueRays, HD-DVDs (remember HD-DVDs?), CDs, videotapes (both VHS and BetaMax (remember BetaMax?), audio cassettes and records stacked up under the house, just in case anybody asks me about this 3.4-odd terabytes of copyrighted content living on my NAS. Your argument is invalid.

    10. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      Someone can steal physical media from you (ie, a licensed (or not) recording), but can't steal copyright (ie, intangible monopoly rights).

      The definition of theft requires two elements:

      • taking of someone else's property without consent
      • with the intent to deprive the owner

      It's easy to steal a physical medium, but uncommon to steal copyright. For this, you need enough clout to effectively ban the author from distributing the work on his/her own, then distribute it yourself.

      A small-time crook may have luck with a fraudulent DMCA/DMCA-like takedown, but it's MAFIAA members who file takedowns in the millions, with no heed to their accuracy (or sometimes with intentional malice). They also don't follow laws they themselves bought when it comes to distributing works.

      Thus, nearly all instances of copyright theft is committed by this small group of companies. They also have the gall to label their propaganda organizations with names such as FACT.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    11. Re:Kodi is both good and bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cheap NUC with a thousand dollar M.2 drive = not so cheap.

  2. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why the fuck does this link to some hearsay on a third party site? The only link needed is the link to the official announcement on the official Kodi site.

    Brian Fagioli really is a fagioli.

    1. Re:WTF? by donaggie03 · · Score: 1

      So that way Fagioli can lazily steal a paragraph or two from the third party site to use as a summary, instead of writing one himself. IMO, submissions that are all or mostly copied from another site should be banned. If it's important enough to you to submit, then write your own goddamn blurb.

      --
      Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
    2. Re:WTF? by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's actually even stupid-er than that. Fagioli is bylined on the original Betanews site. He is using slashdot to essentially link to/promote his own site. If you look at his submission history, he does this regularly. Hopefully, slashdot is compensated for this promotion, and is not just participating in this pseudo-journalism circle jerk out of laziness, but I am not hopeful...

  3. Plex? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I thought people were using Plex now?

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    1. Re:Plex? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I gave up on Plex before starting a couple of years ago. Seemed like an awesome app for a new Fire TV device (replacing XBMC/Kodi on an aging X-Box). My use case was local play-back from a NAS. Having suffered with sync issues and forced sub-titles, etc. I made life easier (and a lot quicker) but ripping ISOs.

      Was just about to hit "buy" for a life subscription to Plex and discovered they'd removed ISO playback. Lost me there and never looked back. I can understand not wanting to support some functionality but deliberately removing something genuinely useful was odd. Justification I found at the time was a bit we-know-better-than-you too, which didn't help.

    2. Re:Plex? by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Informative

      Some people, sure, but Kodi has a shitton more features and Plex is kinda like a toy in comparison. I mean, with Kodi you can adjust audio/video sync on-the-fly, subtitle-sync on-the-fly, enable/disable audio-passthrough and the format it uses and all sorts of equalizer-settings and whatnot, you can do 3D-playback and oh so much more. Personally, I really happen to like the Trakt-plugin to it, too, so it automatically tracks all the movies and TV-shows I've watched on there.

    3. Re:Plex? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 0

      Some people, sure, but Kodi has a shitton more features and Plex is kinda like a toy in comparison.

      I don't know, most of my friends are using Plex now in their media setups and are using it to share their collections with each other too. I personally just use a PS3 with Netflix and Amazon Prime video for the most part.

      I mean, with Kodi you can adjust audio/video sync on-the-fly, subtitle-sync on-the-fly, enable/disable audio-passthrough and the format it uses and all sorts of equalizer-settings and whatnot

      I've used Kodi in the past, but never knew about this. Although, that might have been to do with the fact that I haven't had a need to look for the above noted features.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    4. Re:Plex? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      I thought people were using Plex now?

      I use PLEX and KODI. I found that the music libraries were easier to manage on PLEX, but KODI serves my video library needs. I use the PLEX app inside Kodi for music playback, one reason because no other PLEX client approaches have gapless playback.

    5. Re:Plex? by jon3k · · Score: 2

      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.

    6. Re:Plex? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plex had been a roller coaster for me. The short version of it was back then, only a third-party addon was available to allow me to connect Kodi/XBMC to Plex. Plex update breaks things. Windows upgrade breaks things. Moved to Emby and I am happy again.

    7. Re:Plex? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Is transcoding that big a deal? Even WiFi is fast enough for a few HD streams now, and if the NAS is on a wired connection then you're only using the WiFi spectrum one way. I just share my media via a read-only NFS / SMB / AFP for other devices to access, but I'm interested in what you get from something like Plex on top of this.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    8. Re:Plex? by jon3k · · Score: 1

      For my use case, it doesn't matter much. I've got fast (nfs, which I should mention Kodi supports, unlike Plex) storage and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. But there are some instances where it is nice. For example, if you want to be able to remotely watch your content via a mobile device, being able to convert to lower bitrate that is acceptable on a mobile device would be great. A lot of people don't have very fast upstream on their home connections or don't want to waste their 4G/LTE data allowance if they can reduce it to an acceptable level. Also, being able to transcode to a format that worked natively in a browser, so when I'm in my office I didn't have to use the Kodi client to watch my content would be really nice. Multi-monitor setups and the Kodi client don't really play that well together, at least with my window manager (dwm).

    9. Re:Plex? by KingMotley · · Score: 0

      Personally I would say Kodi is more like a toy in comparison to Plex. Plex can transcode videos on the fly (or in the background as media is imported) so that only the server needs to be powerful enough to transcode instead of each player. Plex is definitely supported on more devices. It can also put copies on a phone for mobile off-line viewing. You can share libraries with other people (Say vacation photos with my dad, etc). It also has an option to put the server in the cloud. Plex also integrates with Trakt via plugin as well.

      I also prefer plex's UI to Kodi's. Kodi does have more plug-ins and customization options, but I'm happier with plex (I have both, but haven't updated kodi in years).

    10. Re:Plex? by Junta · · Score: 1

      I perosnally use emby+kodi. Kodi doesn't have a plex media server alternative, but emby covers that pretty well.

      Plex's proprietary nature bugged me, so emby filled that gap. Both do want you to use a premium online connected account, but plex was really obnoxious about it no matter what. emby is more subdued (though I haven't checked out plex lately).

      Note I use it to manage my own rips, not so much online videos or streaming services.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    11. Re:Plex? by Junta · · Score: 1

      The transcode is more about the various embedded devices not having this or that codec available in hardware, and a puny cpu that can't use pure software codec..

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    12. Re:Plex? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

      I thought people were using Plex now?

      Wrong. Nobody uses Plex.

    13. Re:Plex? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 2

      Personally I would say Kodi is more like a toy in comparison to Plex.

      Kodi is a CLIENT that displays content stored on SERVERS.

      Saying that Kodi is a toy for misunderstanding its role is like saying SSH sucks because the system your connecting to doesn't have enough ram to compile software.

      Plex can transcode videos on the fly (or in the background as media is imported) so that only the server needs to be powerful enough to transcode instead of each player.

      Or any PVR/NAS with interface supported by Kodi. (Essentially ALL of them of any consequence)

      Plex is definitely supported on more devices. It can also put copies on a phone for mobile off-line viewing.

      Kodi can be installed on a phone and access all the same shit as your Kodi client on the sub $50 SBC driving the 4k TV.

      You can share libraries with other people (Say vacation photos with my dad, etc). It also has an option to put the server in the cloud. Plex also integrates with Trakt via plugin as well.

      "The cloud" means Plex's servers. U need an account to do anything with Plex even if all you want is exclusively local.

    14. Re:Plex? by KingMotley · · Score: 1

      Plex can transcode videos on the fly (or in the background as media is imported) so that only the server needs to be powerful enough to transcode instead of each player.

      Or any PVR/NAS with interface supported by Kodi. (Essentially ALL of them of any consequence)

      Such as?

    15. Re:Plex? by ncc74656 · · Score: 1

      The transcode is more about the various embedded devices not having this or that codec available in hardware, and a puny cpu that can't use pure software codec..

      Everything on my server is H.264, which is playable by everything, given enough bandwidth. Transcoding, OTOH, for me is all about watching my stuff over a random hotel's WiFi, which involves sending a stream out your home upstream connection and hoping that the connection on the hotel end isn't throttled into uselessness. At home, it all travels over Gigabit Ethernet and even the 1st-generation Raspberry Pi supports H.264.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  4. Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Editors: Could you not once during the lame summary have mentioned exactly what Kodi is? It's like slashdot is being written by one guy sitting at his high school lunch table for the other guys sitting at the same table.

    1. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol if you think /. readers ever sit with anyone else

    2. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I for one would welcome our single-seating editors!

    3. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The story is from "beta" news. Just sayin'

    4. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Name Kodi is short for "Koch Discounter". It's a chain store for household goods. There are about 200 shops, mostly in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany. There is also an online shop.

    5. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by mjm1231 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The linked article doesn't say what Kodi is either. Welcome to the future, where "news" apparently is only used to tell people things they already think they know.

      --
      Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
    6. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I refuse to click read the article, or read any follow up comments to help gain context.

      I think it is some sort of Imaging editing software from Kodak.

      This is very common on Slashdot, unfortunately. Where some lesser known product gets some attention, and is posted about it like this product is known and used by everyone.

      For the most part as a rule of thumb, in order to not give a summary on what the product does...
      1. It will need to be 1st, 2nt, or 3rd most popular product in its class. (Windows, OS X, Linux) or (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime) or (Android, iOS, Windows (10 years ago we could had used WebOS or PalmOS))
      2. Explain what the product does if it belongs to a class that isn't available to consumers even if it the top used product.
      3. If Slashdot had articles which had explained it within the last 3 days, it is fine to use the name without explanation, otherwise rehash it.
      4. Assume a High School level of education and experience. Not to dumb it down, but after that point adults separate and specialize in things, so you can be talking about things that others have paid no attention too.
      5. Explain the product if the Acronym is similar or the same as a different products Acronym or Name. Eg. If there is a story about the Dodge Ram truck line, While people in the industry may just call it a Ram, on Slashdot it would be confused about RAM (Random Access Memory). So if the article covers how the Ram has been increasing in prices, we are thinking back to the day where RAM was expensive due to illegal actions from Memory maker Samsung.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    7. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's this thing called Google...

    8. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 2

      There are also these things called Lazy Millennial Buffoons who don't yet realize that writing articles online that require or encourage the reader to click away from the site of the article is both tedious for the reader and bad for the site's own sales.

    9. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      There is always the reject table (for 8th grade and under they were 2, one for the boys and one for the girls).
      Where there is often a set of regulars, and the occasional person who had fallen outside the clique where they at least sit down, eat their food, and usually semi-respectful communication.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    10. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't know what Kodi is, why would you be interested in an article about its 64bit vs the 32bit version? Just skip it. Or if you need to know, google it. This is the web, not a book that needs footnotes. And I don't think any Kodi McPhee fans are now jealous of 'Leia', whoever she is.

    11. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

      This. A thousand times this. The title and summary assume that EVERYONE a) uses Windoze and b) uses Kodi.

    12. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Informative

      It used to be called XBMC, i.e. Xbox Media Centre, a media player. It seems like it does illegal streaming too

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      The original announcement for the 64 bit version says

      https://betanews.com/2017/06/0...

      If you intend to use Kodi with add-ons to stream potentially illegal content, you may wish to consider a VPN.

      Or look at this

      https://www.engadget.com/2017/...

      Apparently there are third party plugins which allow you to stream stuff for free, though the MPA/MPAA-led Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment etc are on the case.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    13. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by donaggie03 · · Score: 1

      Kodi probably meets condition 1. Either Kodi or Plex would be 1st and 2nd in their class, although I'm not sure anymore which would be considered 1 or 2. Anyway, Kodi is fairly well known in nerd culture; it's not some obscure little program no one has heard of before. It makes sense the submitter thought most readers would know what it is. He also linked to the kodi website, which should help the rest. Regardless, this site is geared toward the nerd/tech culture, not general audiences, so there's no expected need or obligation to write submissions at a third grade level. If you want to know what something is, look it up. If it's not that important to you, then don't. I've done it plenty of times when the submission focused on some obscure science-y stuff.

      --
      Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
    14. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You whiny. Little. Shit.

      It's like wikipedia doesn't exist in your perfect world.

    15. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. It will need to be 1st, 2nt, or 3rd most popular product in its class.

      So it was fine NOT to explain what it does, as Kodi definitely is THE media player. Of course many people still know it by the name XBMC.

    16. Re: Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the idea is: The summary should help you assess if you want to read or be part of a conversation about something. Including details like what âoeWhat Kodi isâ seems kinda of important to assessing that.

    17. Re: Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have to Google what something is, than the author isnâ(TM)t telling a complete story. "Popular media playback app Kodi" would have fixed it with 4 words.

    18. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Because I am interested in Cross-compatibility programming designs. And compared to Sun Micosystems, Apple and most other vendors. Microsoft transition to 64bit is very rocky. I originally though the initial push to .NET other then competing with Java, however running slower then a normal compiled app + only running on windows (in short taking the worst parts of Java and C++ and putting them together) was the fact that the .NET run-time would be 64bit upwards compatible. Which is wasn't because you will need to compile your .NET Code again for 64bit.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    19. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Ok, I googled it. A home theater solution. I guess I need to add an other condition. It needs to be a technology that is popular within 5 years.
      Home Theater software has been old-news for a long time. And Kodi wouldn't be high in this class. We have Apple TV, XBox and Chrome cast (in no particular order) as the top 3 in this.

      However for the most part Home Theater media software hadn't really gotten to much attention.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    20. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is Slashdot, news for nerds. If you don't know what Kodi is, or you're too stupid to Google it, this isn't the site for you.

    21. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Kodi has been in the mainstream press a lot recently, because there are third-party add-ons that provide streaming from illegal sources and a bunch of providers have been selling 'Kodi Boxes' that have these preinstalled. Oh, and again because a few of these came with decidedly substandard power supplies that were a fire risk.

      It's been on Slashdot a bunch of times, including at least one article about when they had to change the name from XBMC over trademark issues.

      Basically, if you haven't come across Kodi, you've not been paying attention.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    22. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple TV, XBox, and ChromeCast suck huge hairy donkey balls compared to either Kodi or even Plex.

    23. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      The Name Kodi is short for "Koch Discounter". It's a chain store for household goods. There are about 200 shops, mostly in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany. There is also an online shop.

        I didn't know the Koch brothers ran a discount store!

    24. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plex is a piece of shit. I used it for a week then deleted it and bought an Apple TV.

    25. Re:Is There No Adult Supervision Here at All? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the fuck is XMBC?

  5. What is the Kodi? by bigdavex · · Score: 4, Informative

    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/

    --
    -Dave
    1. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any word on when the Xbox One port will be ready now that it has transitioned to 64bit?

    2. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, that's a bad advertisement.

      So, to put it in short form:

      It's a Winamp wannabe that works on "smart" TVs and phones.

      Seriously, "entertainment hub?" Sober up, it's a media player.

    3. Re:What is the Kodi? by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      Functionality? Buzzwords. VLC does all that for me, Media Player does too. What does Kodi actually do that makes vlc irrelevant?

    4. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most media players are terrible at managing your library, Kodi is quite good at it.

    5. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A nicer interface for using from your couch.

    6. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Primarily it streams internet searchable illegal content in a convenient little box the size of an appletv. It gained rise amongst those who still believe that streaming is not downloading and therefore legal. /facepalm

    7. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not a replacement for VLC. The point of Kodi is for people who want to control their collection with a remote-friendly interface instead of a mouse friendly one. It also offers a lot of things for organization and visual optimization that VLC just doesn't concern themselves. VLC is great but it doesn't even support the "next file" option of other players like MPC.

    8. Re:What is the Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, 'Kodi boxes' use Kodi the to pirate the same way 'Linux seedboxes' use Linux to pirate -- Kodi is a 10ft interface (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-foot_user_interface) for multimedia browsing and playback from (almost) any source, and you can write a plugin if one doesn't exist.

    9. Re:What is the Kodi? by KingMotley · · Score: 1

      It's more of a media manager. It tracks what you've watched already, can add in ratings of things in your media library so you can say get a view of media that you have that you haven't already watched and sorted by it's rotten tomatos or imdb rating so you watch the good stuff first. It also puts a pretty UI on top instead of picking movies from a file open dialog box or file explorer. It can add links to "extras" around the media, like a trailer, or cast interviews from YouTube, show links to other movies the cast was in, or create a theater like experience where it shows trailers for other media you have just before starting a movie.

    10. Re:What is the Kodi? by ncc74656 · · Score: 1

      Functionality? Buzzwords. VLC does all that for me, Media Player does too. What does Kodi actually do that makes vlc irrelevant?

      It fits on a Raspberry Pi that you can tuck away behind the living-room TV where no one will see it, which can then be controlled with a Playstation 3 Blu-ray remote (which connects over Bluetooth, so line-of-sight isn't needed) that has familiar media controls on it like "play," "pause," and "fast-forward", and a directional pad for selecting things. It's much more like a piece of A/V gear and its remote than a desktop PC and its keyboard and mouse. Its WAF (wife acceptance factor) is correspondingly higher than a beige box under the TV.

      That you can outfit a TV like this for under $100 doesn't hurt either. Not quite as cheap as a Chromecast or a Roku stick, but cheaper than an Apple TV, and more flexible than any of them.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  6. WTF is Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    And why should I care? Epic fail.

    1. Re:WTF is Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      turn in your mother fucking nerd card now

    2. Re:WTF is Kodi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder why you even clicked on the story if you don't care.

  7. Kodi is like male full frontal in films by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't like, but the chicks dig it, so you say, as long as I get a piece to-nite, it's okay, warts and all be damned! That's kodi.

  8. Stability issues on Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The past version of Kodi has been regularly freezing up and tying up CPU resources so that even pushing CTRL+ALT+Backspace takes forever to respond.

  9. Why is this so important? by sunking2 · · Score: 1

    I mean I get that eventually it would be caught up but they are trying to make it sound as if this is some monumental event that has a ton of advantages, while failing to list any. I can't really think of any. It's not like anyone is running a pure 64bit system and kodi is not resource intensive either cpu wise or memory wise. Why should anyone care if its 32 or 64.

    1. Re:Why is this so important? by Mr307 · · Score: 1

      This was my first thought as well.

      Does this program whatever it is have a need for large memory use and why? After reading some comments (the summary was useless), it appears to be some kind of media library whatever thing so it probably does not demand a 64 bit version but some people still think its faster or better in some way.

    2. Re:Why is this so important? by tepples · · Score: 1

      So long as a particular workload doesn't use pointer-heavy algorithms (which video decoding doesn't), the performance benefit of x86-64's additional general purpose registers is likely to outweigh the data cache hit of larger pointers.

    3. Re:Why is this so important? by Mr307 · · Score: 1

      SIMD is a fair boost for applications that can use it as well. Many 32bit programs are faster than 64 due to a few reasons as noted.

      I suspect most people just see 64 vs 32 and think it must be mo gooderer in all cases.

  10. What did this article cost to publish? by HyperStasis · · Score: 1

    Id like to subject the readers to an article that doesn't explain what they are talking about, or even why I should be excited. Well, more than one really, I have thousands of misspelled "articles" such as:

    Loapet 2 is out. It's differant from Loapet 1 in that it now has a 2 instead of a 1, and that is just amazing folks. How does slashdot think this will affect them in the future??

  11. Who is "Kodi"? What is "Leia"? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    Who knows? Who cares?

  12. Deceptive Headline! ONLY 32-bit for Windows 7! by Cay+Lenz · · Score: 1

    I just checked the "kodi.tv" website, and for Windows 7, the 32-bit version is the ONLY one that is available!