The Powerful Media Player ‘Kodi’ Is Here, and This Is Why You Should Care

On Tuesday, we posted an article about popular media player VLC media player coming to Apple TV. As was pointed out in the article, while VLC is a wonderful app, it doesn’t serve much of a purpose for casual television and movie watchers.

VLC is more popular among users with large, diverse media libraries – music, shows, movies and more across several different formats. For media nuts, VLC is a godsend. However, true media nuts may want to get deeper with their media players – they may want more features and flexibility. While there are several other options out there, one very powerful and highly customizable option has been gaining popularity for quite some time – Kodi.

What is Kodi?

Kodi is an award-winning free and open source media center that can be installed on a wide variety of machines, including Linux, Windows, Android, OS X, and iOS. Kodi, originally called XBMC, or Xbox Media Center, was initially developed as a media application for the original Xbox gaming console. Over the years, however, it has evolved into a fully-featured home media center and server, available on a variety of devices. The software essentially turns any computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet into a feature-rich media streaming center.

What can Kodi play?

Kodi, similar to VLC, can play a dizzying array of media files. Kodi users can stream movies, television shows, music, podcasts, and even games. All of your content is available on any Kodi-enabled device on your network.

Some of the apps, or “plugins” for Kodi also enable the streaming of television channels from around the world – want to watch the Manchester United soccer game, but it’s not airing in the US? There’s probably a plugin for Kodi where you can find it and watch it live. Keep in mind that some of the Kodi plugins may stream content illegally, and iDropNews certainly does not condone any illegal behavior. If you choose to go that route, you’re on your own.

Features?

As far as features go, Kodi can’t be beat. Kodi is highly customizable, to the point where it’s almost intimidating. Not only can you listen to music, watch movies, TV series, and live television channels, view photos, listen to podcasts and more, but you can also change “skins” to modify the look of your user interface, and with the huge library of community-created plugins, the sky is the limit.

Kodi also supports literally hundreds of remote controls and game controllers, or it can be controlled via web browser, or an app on your iPad or iPhone. The possibilities are endless.

How do I get Kodi?

Kodi sounds almost too good to be true. And with things that sound too good to be true, there’s always going to be a catch. What’s the catch? You’re going to have to channel your inner DIY-er, and muster up the confidence to fiddle around with things that you don’t normally fiddle with.

While installation on an OS X device is relatively simple, installation on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch requires you to “jailbreak” the device first – something that requires much more in-depth consideration and work than can be covered in this article.

Just recently, Kodi became available for the new Apple TV without jailbreaking the device but be aware that fiddling around with the software on your device could result in some less than desirable outcomes. For those who don’t want to risk breaking their expensive Apple equipment, Kodi can be installed on the Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which, with a bit of tinkering and DIY spirit, can be put together for $15-50.

Is it worth it?

The initial setup for installing Kodi takes a bit of a time investment – possibly a significant time investment if you’re not used to tinkering with technology. However, once it’s set up, it’s extremely easy to use and convenient.

The user interface is very nice out of the box, and if there’s something you don’t like about it, it’s reasonably simple to change. Discovery of media is very simple, and browsing through content is quick and easy.

Once it’s set up, your Kodi experience can be as simple or intricate as you’d like to make it. It’s very powerful.

How can I get started?

The best resource is the Kodi website itself – kodi.tv. The Kodi Wiki Manual includes step-by-step instructions on how to do almost anything with the software, from set up to modification, and the Kodi community forums contain a wealth of knowledge if you happen to get stuck somewhere.

If Kodi sounds interesting to you, visit their website and browse around. If you decide to install, it, let us know how it goes, and how you feel about the software. For those who are already experienced Kodi users, share your favorite features, and anything interesting you’ve done with the software. Good luck!