Kodi Media Player Arrives On the Xbox One (theverge.com)

The Kodi media player is now available to download on your Xbox One, making it one of the best Xbox One exclusives of the year. The Verge reports: Kodi is a very capable player that's highly expandable thanks to third-party add-ons like live TV and DVR services -- something Microsoft isn't going to provide. But Kodi is perhaps best known as the go to app for piracy due to a wide variety of plugins that let you illegally stream television shows, professional sports, and films from the comfort of your living room. This has led to a cottage industry of so-called "Kodi boxes," often built around cheap HDMI dongles like Amazon's Fire TV sticks. While the XBMC Foundation has attempted to distance itself from the illegal third-party plugins, it's also benefited from the exposure. In a blog post, Kodi warns that the Xbox One download isn't finished and may contain missing features and bugs. Fun fact: Kodi began life fifteen years ago as the XBMP (Xbox Media Player). The only way to get the open-source player running on an original Xbox was to hack the console. XBMP eventually evolved into XBMC (Xbox Media Center), which then became Kodi.

Comments

Use a webbrowser?

[Ash-Fox]

Couldn't you use Kodi from a webbrowser like Plex anyway?

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[Anonymous Coward]

That would require you to have some server running on your network which XB1 users are not capable of.

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[Hal_Porter]

My granny runs AmigaOS on her Xbox One. She said once she got the static binary translation running to get decent legacy 68K and PowerPC performance on the 'rather underpowered' Jaguar cores it was all pretty much plain sailing. As she pointed out it's 'not all that hard' to emulate the ECS on the XBox One's GPU once she'd reverse engineered the GPU instruction set.

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[jellomizer]

I expect this was meant as sarcasm. However in 2017 a grandmother over the age of 60 could had been using such technology sense being a young adult and may be use to using such systems at a detail level.
Being the computer programmer or was called the computer operator back in the 70’s and 80’s was a woman’s job. Grandma in 2017 could be expected to have such skills.

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[Hal_Porter]

A lot of the people who worked at Bletchley Park were women and some of them had mad skillz. Of course they swore not to talk about it and didn't break their oaths. Unlike some people I could mention.

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well said that man.

Re:Use a webbrowser?

[jon3k]

Sort of. Kodi isn't client/server it's just a client that streams content from a network source (NFS, CIFS, etc). Plex consists of a server component that performs transcoding to various clients (so is client/server), including a really great web client.

The Kodi web client, called Chorus2 technically supports web streaming, but because it just delivers the video to your browser without any transcoding, relies on your browser support for playing video. The web client also isn't anywhere nearly as robust or well laid out as the Plex interface. And I say this as someone who dropped Plex for Kodi a month or two ago. One big tradeoff in the switch was giving up the web client, it's useless to me. Overall I'm still happier and wouldn't switch back.

Re: Use a webbrowser?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, yeah, ok gelding. You've done your virtue signalling for today.

P.S. "computer operator/programmer" was a typist. They prepared code written by someone else by punching it onto cards, weaving it in to looms of wire or typing it into a console. They didn't write code... except a few rare examples.

This idea that women were programmers and were pushed out by men really is the height of feminists bullshit.

Ad Infinitum

[mentil]

may contain missing features

I'd like to see the release notes to see just HOW MANY missing features it now contains. That list could be literally endless!

Re:Ad Infinitum

[Gravis Zero]

I'd like to see the release notes to see just HOW MANY missing features it now contains. That list could be literally endless!

Yes because there are literally an endless number of features. -_-

Re:Ad Infinitum

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely it contains none of them, otherwise they wouldn't be missing?

Re:Ad Infinitum

[TheRaven64]

Yes, that's his point. The set of features that any given thing does not have is infinite.

Re: Ad Infinitum

[pD-brane]

The universe is fully featured, no missing features. Moreover, if the universe is a universal turing machine, any typical computer should be able to emulate the same fully featured system. Why is it then that Kodi is still not feature complete?!

Does it support add-ons?

[jonwil]

Does Kodi on the XBOX One support add-ons? And if so, does it support any add-on that you want to write or is it limited to those approved by Microsoft? I can't see Microsoft allowing just anyone to write and run code on a retail XBOX One via a Kodi add-on that could then lead to an exploit. I also can't see Microsoft allowing any add-ons on the XBOX One that let you pirate content.

Then again, Microsoft are not Sony and they may not be as worried about hacks (i.e. they dont think someone getting full native x86 machine code execution is a problem or will lead to game piracy or other unwanted things)

Re:Does it support add-ons?

[mentil]

I'm sure the Kodi code runs in userland, so at worst it'd lead to a userland exploit, which is unlikely to be interesting. It could theoretically chain to a kernel exploit, but there are likely other userland exploits out there (in the Web Browser etc.) that could be used instead. Microsoft let anyone run their own apps coded in XNA on the Xbox 360 and AFAIK that didn't lead to any kernel exploits. Besides, the retail Xbox One was intended to be usable as a dev box, so letting users run Kodi plugins is nothing compared to full dev access (if that ever actually happened, I'm unsure, but it was mooted).

Re: Does it support add-ons?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can take an Xbox one and use it as a dev machine for the SDK, but it's a one way conversion that requires a factory reset / wipe to revert. So once converted, it gets a new version of dotNet and won't play well with commercial apps.

Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[phayes]

Is Kodi just arriving on the Xbox One?!? It has been on the Playstation since the PS3.

https://kodiinstall.com/instal...

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[tlhIngan]

Is Kodi just arriving on the Xbox One?!? It has been on the Playstation since the PS3.

[Link deleted]

Link deleted because it's just installing Plex and showing how to use that. A bit of brilliant SEO though - it mentions installing Kodi and only when you get to the actual instructions it says "You're going to use Plex because Kodi is not available".

The only real way to get Kodi on PS3 is hacked firmware, while Xbox One has an official you can install it right from the Microsoft Store app.

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[supremebob]

I'm actually surprised that Microsoft let them put Plex in the XBox store. Let's face it... most people use Kodi to install plugins for viewing pirated content, and that will likely cut into Microsoft's movie and show rental revenue.

Microsoft also has a bad history with these guys. Don't forget that Kodi started life as XBMC, an app that only worked on modded XBoxes. They tried block installation of this software for years!

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[phayes]

The kodinstall.com link i gave details Plex, not Kodi, sorry for being the proximate source of confusion.

However you refer to Plex & Kodi too. Are you surprised that Kodi _and_ Plex are in the xbox store, that Plex has been in it for a while or that Kodi is now in it too?

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[Anonymous Coward]

obviously you don't use Kodi as if you did or hell if you even read your link you would know it doesn't work on ps4.

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[Anonymous Coward]

They tried block installation of this software for years!

MS was perfectly happy to let you install movie players on the original XBox, as long as they followed the product guidelines. They actually sold xbox dev kits to guys working on things like divx players. Their issue with xbmc was it only worked on modded xboxes and didnt pay them license fees.

Re:Kodi has been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[Dutch Gun]

The guys in last place tend to be the most accommodating. I'm going to take a guess that Microsoft's movie and show rental revenue is almost non-existent before Plex/Kodi was offered, so it's not like it really mattered.

Nope

[phayes]

Lol, read the article I cited & it shows how to install Plex, not Kodi.

Anyone know if there are plans to port Kodi to the PS4?

Re: Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt they will port to PS4 because itâ(TM)s a windows platform application which PS4 is not

Re:Kodi

[lucm]

Is for pirates and brigands.

And even for that it's becoming useless now with so many sources requiring "pairing" your device. A doomed ecosystem.

Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Please. Stop misusing language in this way. Yes, as we've seen, cars can be used to run over innocent people (a sinister tradition shared, as many others, by Djihadists and Ku-Klux-Klan). Are you going to describe a car as a "running-over-people-device" because of that?

What about a kitchen knife?

Now a semi automatic rifle, OTOH...

Re:Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when did the KKK have a tradition of running innocent people over with cars?

Or are you just using "KKK" to refer to some people you don't like? Normally I wouldn't be pedantic, but "misusing language" and all...

Under Pressure

[Anonymous Coward]

MS will remove it.

Re:Under Pressure

[Harold Halloway]

Don't be silly, Microsoft have assisted Kodi in the conversion to UWP and then to XB1.

Re:Kodi has NOT been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[phayes]

I initially came in to ask if there was a Kodi port to the Playstation as well, googled kodi+playstation, came up with that link, posted that & then read it.

I had to reread the article three times because I couldn't believe that an article on kodiinstall.com could NOT be about installing Kodi & was instead about Plex which is how you beat me to acknowledging that.

I don't have a Xbox or a PS anymore but am curious: Why no Kodi on PS? Is there a technical reason? Opposition from Sony who want's everyone to use it's own stuff?

Re: Kodi

[Anonymous Coward]

I have kodi on a number of devices around the house connected to the network and to a digital TV card, a large collection of music and photos. I can watch live and recorded TV on any device. Set TV to record. Play music while showing photos on the main TV. There's the catch up players such a the bbc. Though limited in number. All this for free. It has been a bit of a fiddle now and then but it is a great experience. The only pirates and brigands were those in a captain pugwash episode.

On the subject of piracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't pirates use vp9 and opus for their videos? It's so much better than h.264 and aac.

Re:On the subject of piracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

because the onboard video players in boats normally only supports h264. And Linux is not popular in Somalia.

Re:On the subject of piracy...

[damnbunni]

The same reason non-pirates don't: because the vast majority of playback devices do not have hardware acceleration for vp9 and opus.

And the savings in file size isn't worth the longer encode times and higher CPU use if you have to transcode on the fly (for instance, if your media server is streaming to a device that only supports h.264.)

Re:On the subject of piracy...

[sanf780]

VP9 is supported by Xbox One X, at least. This is the reason why YouTube works with 4K streams on this latest revision of the console.

Re:On the subject of piracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Good for Xbox One X. Every other device? Maybe not. It's called lowest common denominator for a reason.

Re: On the subject of piracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because if youre not paying for anything in the first place why would you use anything thats inferior? Mp3 and dos became the de facto standard for the same reason.

Re:On the subject of piracy...

[Anonymous Coward]

because they want something that actually works on most devices and doesn't tax the performance of the device just to run the same content.

Re: Kodi has NOT been on the PS3/PS4 for a while

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the problem though, you had it backwards - read your shit and understand it before you post it.

Re: Kodi

[Computershack]

And if you were truly being honest you would admit you have used it to view pirate content.

News flash

[Anonymous Coward]

XBox Media Center supports Xbox.

Re: Kodi

[c6gunner]

I've used Microsoft Windows to view pirated content. What's your point?

Fun Fact: I helped XBMP become a dashboard

[BenJeremy]

Back in the original Xbox homebrew days, I was the only one putting out an open source dashboard (Media X Menu, MXM), and the XBMP guys needed a quick and dirty FTP Server. I let them use my code, which got them by until they upgraded to another Open Source FTP Server that was a bit more robust than mine (I think they ended up with Filezilla).

Re:Fun Fact: I helped XBMP become a dashboard

[cerberusss]

Mod parent up. It's this stuff why I am visiting Slashdot for over 18 years now.

Re:Fun Fact: I helped XBMP become a dashboard

[Anonymous Coward]

Then help me understand - exactly what did you get of out grand-parent's post?

Re:Fun Fact: I helped XBMP become a dashboard

[HalAtWork]

Thank you :)

Re: Kodi

[Anonymous Coward]

If ripping blurays and dvds makes me a "pirate" then argg me matey. Everything else I can get on netflix/amazon (via prime membership).

Yeah right

[HalAtWork]

Just as PC is best known as the platform for pirates. Give me a break. Kodi is a great front end for PVRs and the best home theater software, for playing back your DVDs and BDs from a NAS, and streaming videos from various legal plugins for hosted content from good quality web sites like IGN and GiantBomb, as well as music and other broadcasts streamed online. Associating it with piracy is very incorrect, reductive, and an extreme disservice.

XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice, they can call this product XBMC again !

asking for a friend

[cascadingstylesheet]

So what's a good pre-baked Kodi box? Asking for a friend ;)

Re:asking for a friend

[Anonymous Coward]

The Nvidia Shield TV is probably one of the best there is out there. Trivial to add Kodi from the google play store and it can handle up to 4K HEVC files with HDR if your tv supports it. You can also get DTS:X and Atmos passthrough if you have a receiver. Nvidia is also quite good at keeping it updated. It is currently running android 7.1 and Nvidia pushes out updates for android security fixes.

You can also check the Kodi website which lists hardware partners that sell Kodi boxes. If you get some cheap android box, you will likely end up regretting it pretty quickly. Check the Kodi forums for a number of posts from people who can’t use the latest version of Kodi because their box is stuck on android 4.4, or is using some chipset with bugs and/or just plain crappy.

Re:asking for a friend

[Anonymous Coward]

You make it sound like it's actually Android that's just not a good platform to run Kodi on.

Re: asking for a friend

[Anonymous Coward]

Android is fine, but starting with Kodi v17, they made the minimum version 5.0. You can read through the Kodi teamâ(TM)s blog archive to read their reasoning on this.

What you get are a lot of fly-by-night Chinese companies that either do an extra run beyond what they were contracted for, or just slap together that is made as cheaply as possible. There will never be any updates for the device, support will be non existent, the device will be underpowered, wonâ(TM)t support all the features it claims, a few have been shown to be fire hazards, and everything else you might imagine. Itâ(TM)s not absolute, but thereâ(TM)s a lot of truth to the saying âoeyou get what you pay for.â

You get the shield or one of the devices listed on the Kodi site, you know youâ(TM)re buying from a company dedicated to making a device that works well with Kodi.

Gave it a try yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

Gave it a try yesterday and it is an alpha build of the upcoming Kodi v18. It is pretty rough around the edges, but now that they have a working base to build off of, I expect it will improve quickly. Will not beat the nvidia shield tv as a dedicated media player, but it will add some much needed utility to all those Xbox One consoles out there.

primitive

[Anonymous Coward]

Cant run several instances of it.
Cant have several streams concurrently.
It look like a 90s glitz together with Winblowz and piracy