[TimoV]

Hi everyone,

Let's start off by saying that I've been a Kodi user for quite some time now, heck, I'm writing this while watching some YouTube through my HTPC running Kodi.

But looking at the general trend of smart TVs with all their different operating systems (Tizen, Android TV, Firefox OS, etc...) and the explosion of devices that you can plug into your TV to get access to services (like Netflix, YouTube, etc...) and even local media if you want (Plex f.e.), I am left wondering where Kodi fits into this.

Why would someone go to the trouble of installing Kodi on a HTPC while they could buy an Android TV (box) and get access to services without the hassle + their local media? With a Razer Forge, you could even stream your games, eliminating the "I want to run Steam on my HTPC" matter...

Now, I'm not here to bash on Kodi, I'm not here to say that "OMG PLEX IS AWESOME!!!!1111", yes I know that running your games locally on the HTPC is better than streaming... but I want to discuss what the future of Kodi is in this world full of devices that want to make it easy to access content on your TV.

For me, there were some use cases that I could only use Kodi for in the past. But each year, I see the number of "unique" use cases go down because of devices being announced by other companies.

I'm still using Kodi because it's so versatile, I'm a tinkerer, I love trying out Kodi on new devices, new OS'es with new skins and new addons. I'm trying to invent new use cases for my HTPC every day so I can increase it's functionality. That's why I'm still using Kodi today.

But is Kodi just going to be used by people like me? Tinkerers? Geeks? People who love changing/updating/messing with their devices? Or is there a possibility for Kodi to be a viable alternative to things like Smart TVs, Android TV, etc... or something else like this?

What makes Kodi unreplaceable or better than other devices/software on the market for you?

Allright... really wanted to write this down, it is a thought that has been going through my head from the beginning of CES, so I really want to know your opinion on this !

[Ned Scott]

Normal XBMC/Kodi has always been for the tinkerers. Easy to use once set up, but needs that initial set up.

However, there are other ways we've seen the software used. For example, Kodi is used by thousands of people everyday without knowing about it in hotel rooms that have been set up by at-visions. Some TV providers have included customized versons on their set top boxes that are already set up to use their TV tuners. A company that deals with after market car entertainment systems recently contacted us for help.

Plus. Kodi is easily installed on various Android boxes, like the Fire TV. It can live along side the causal systems and be used for basic playback without complicated set up.

In other words, it's a big world and there's room for all kinds of things. Even if "typical" usage is mostly by power-users, it's not the limit :)

[BORIStheBLADE]

Hi everyone,

Let's start off by saying that I've been a Kodi user for quite some time now, heck, I'm writing this while watching some YouTube through my HTPC running Kodi.

But looking at the general trend of smart TVs with all their different operating systems (Tizen, Android TV, Firefox OS, etc...) and the explosion of devices that you can plug into your TV to get access to services (like Netflix, YouTube, etc...) and even local media if you want (Plex f.e.), I am left wondering where Kodi fits into this.

Why would someone go to the trouble of installing Kodi on a HTPC while they could buy an Android TV (box) and get access to services without the hassle + their local media? With a Razer Forge, you could even stream your games, eliminating the "I want to run Steam on my HTPC" matter...

Now, I'm not here to bash on Kodi, I'm not here to say that "OMG PLEX IS AWESOME!!!!1111", yes I know that running your games locally on the HTPC is better than streaming... but I want to discuss what the future of Kodi is in this world full of devices that want to make it easy to access content on your TV.

For me, there were some use cases that I could only use Kodi for in the past. But each year, I see the number of "unique" use cases go down because of devices being announced by other companies.

I'm still using Kodi because it's so versatile, I'm a tinkerer, I love trying out Kodi on new devices, new OS'es with new skins and new addons. I'm trying to invent new use cases for my HTPC every day so I can increase it's functionality. That's why I'm still using Kodi today.

But is Kodi just going to be used by people like me? Tinkerers? Geeks? People who love changing/updating/messing with their devices? Or is there a possibility for Kodi to be a viable alternative to things like Smart TVs, Android TV, etc... or something else like this?

What makes Kodi unreplaceable or better than other devices/software on the market for you?

Allright... really wanted to write this down, it is a thought that has been going through my head from the beginning of CES, so I really want to know your opinion on this !

I kind of see what you mean but for people that want a little more than what Plex or those Android boxes offer Kodi might fit the bill. Plex has made a lot of moves since last year and we are starting to see Android TV stuff but it depends on what you want. I see people post everyday wanting a device that's the size of a Roku 3, no more than $100.00 and does everything a full fledged HTPC does. Which is pretty hard to do.. In the end it really depends on what the Kodi developers want to do with the software I guess. You can ask them all day long if they can put Kodi on a new console and basically they don't enough coders, none of the developers are interested and are focusing on other stuff.

Android hardware seems to be what everyone is jumping on to make streaming boxes unfortunately... In regards to the Razor Forge this box still hasn't come out yet? The Ouya was supposed to be the end all Android box that through my eyes didn't seem to live up to the hype..

[kuldan]

Honestly, the biggest thing for me are the plugins. There is no way which I can watch all my local (country-specific) media services (think Hulu for the US, in my case it is the german ones: ARD Mediathek, RTL Now, 7TV, Maxdome....) etc, all of which have - at best - a standalone android app that you have to PAY for (2€/month) in the case of RTLII - or use their website. There are tons of talented people out there (especially AddonScriptorDE and Bromix) who do wonders with their addons - this has made life very nice for my wife as well, as she enjoys watching a few of the shows offered, but doesn't have to stick to scheduling times anymore, as the interface is easy enough for her to find her shows as well.

If you are only into using netflix, hulu...and a bit of local media, I can see you being satisfied by something like the fire TV, but for people who want more, or something more specialized (in my case: Local media 6TB shared database on multiple devices, steam IHS, emulation support for SNES/NES games, etc...) there is just no way around a fully featured HTPC build.

[karandras24]

Personally i don't want to have to open the "cupboard of doom" and sift through the 2k+ dvd's and blurays to find the damn film or TV Boxset i want to watch.

They are all stored on my server and i can just watch what i'm after in any room.

and i might be in the minority, but i don't use any kind of online streaming service for video or music. Why would i pay someone to watch something i already own?

[steelman1991]

Not everyone owns their own media

[l'pc]

There is also the big advantage of having all your media centered in one device, with one consistant (and customisable !) UI.
This is way more user-friendly than having to switch devices to watch some other content. (Change input on TV with TV remote; change input on receiver with receiver remote; pick the remote of the source you are switching to.)

The downsides has already been covered by previous users; set-up configuration being the worst IMHO. You need to be willing to tinker and spend some time setting everything right, but once it is done, the whole thing can be very user friendly.

[enen92]

Not everyone owns their own media

And they will never own by using any of those streaming services . I recall a few time ago netflix just removed dozens of media items from their library with no user consent.
There is no similar service where I live but even given that possibility I would not be a subscriber. To own your media and control your whole tv experience has no price. That's the value of kodi and where it stands out the most. The simple reason there is no builtin addon for those services (yes I know using chrome tab or whatever) shows the little interest kodi users (read users ready to get their hands dirty) have for them. Same goes for chromecast or any proprietary/drm content or technology. Kodi is around for years, a lot of functionalities (e.g. beam youtube videos or others to your tv) existed way before any chromecast-like device. People should be able to adapt and choose their media platform without being dependent on what a third party company decides the next trend is. OP compare the cost of an apple tv 2 (not sold anymore and with the ability to install kodi) vs an apple tv 3 (which is basically a black box paperweight). The difference in the costs says all about "kodi vs everything else".

PS: steelman1991 I just quote you as a starting point for my post. The rest is basically my general opinion about the topic in discussion without any link to your statement.

Cheers

[hiphutch]

I find that all of those projects and services have their place though do not replace kodi. I use kodi for the convenience, customization, and eye candy. It far surpasses everything with it's choices of skins and addons. Even straight "out of the box" it looks better than most other services. Most smart tv's that can access ones media collection are not equipped to be able to display all the additional information and be able to group the content cleanly and logically. I also love the ability to play pretty much any file I have. Something that my apple tv friends complain about a lot, having to take my mkv files and convert them over to m4v before they can even play them on their devices. I do occasionally use amazon prime, hulu plus, or netflix, but they are not a complete library or catalog. Far from being the spotify of videos. I typically only sign up for them when they have a free trial or when they have something I want to watch. Unfortunately there is much that they don't have and they seem to be losing more and more recently in place of creating their own content and their selections are always changing. I like to own much of my own media and know they are there when I want to watch them.

That being said, I do find use for a lot of these other devices. I do like my roku that I use with plex to stream to it. I have an old 22" monitor in front of my treadmill, and it was far cheaper buying a roku than building a htpc. I use the plex app on it and can watch tv and movies while I work out. While this works great for that situation, I find it is far to basic and bland to meet my needs on my TV. I also use the plex server to be able to stream content while away from home. For me using plex to stream remotely and kodi to run my main tv is the best of both worlds. Even though they share a lot of similar functionality, they both have their areas that they clearly excel at.

[thrak76]

Do any of these other devices output HD audio? I honestly don't know because I've not really followed these devices to closely.That's one huge advantage of using Kodi for me.

I do have a Roku and a FireTV stick on secondary systems in the house. I'm just using tv speakers on those systems, so no need for HD audio.

[RockerC]

Unfortunately Kodi on HTPCs lacks support for proper and reliable addons for popular proprietary online services such as Netflix, (at least without a lot of work).


This lack of roper and reliable addons for popular proprietary online services is the main reason why I recommend Android boxes (Amlogic based) to friends and family-members to use Kodi on (with complimentary Android apps for Netflix and such), as these are mostly people that hardly know of HD-audio and never heard about 24fps playback.

The second and third important reasons are cost and man-hours / technology knowledge required to constantly maintain an HTPC with Kodi over time, (yes even with OpenELEC, as I'm fine with spending hundreds of hours tinkering with my own HTPC setup each year but I'm however not fine in speeding tens of hours fixing/updating/reconfiguring each of my friends and family-members setups each years, as that is time I rather spend on my own family or myself).

These people simply want a cheap media player that "just works" and I don't want to always have to all my time helping with them updates or every little configuration changes, or have to deal with addons breaking, I like to just help them with the initial installation if need and then they should be able do everything else themselves.

Install and forget (fire and forget) is my motto and hope when helping find a media player solutions for such non-technical people. Eye candy cover images and additional media metadata is good when done automatically via Kodi scrapers, but any customizations are bad here.


In additional you always have to understand and remember that the $99 cost-barrier hurdle is hard to convince a lot of non-enthusiast to get over when they don't know better and believe that they can go out to buy a Roku for less than half of that thinking that they will get a great and trouble-free multimedia experience.

These are the type of people that have no problem spending thousands of dollars on other "stuff" that they will use or enjoy much less of than a media player which will be at the heart of the living-room entertainment system.


When and if Kodi gets support proper support for Netflix, like maybe via HTML5 plugins or binary addons, then my recommendations may change. By that time the total cost of ownership for a compete new HTPC that is good-enough for Kodi will probably also have dropped to less than $99.

Do any of these other devices output HD audio? I honestly don't know because I've not really followed these devices to closely.

Most Android boxes can now offer basic support for up to 5.1 Dolby Digital and 6.1 DTS surround when sideloading Kodi, but I would not recommend one to someone wanting Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio even of some device manufacturer now claim support for that too.

[C.Taylor]

Kodi is pretty cool and pretty easy to use. I've set it up for my kids and they can easily watch any of their shows or movies without mom having to bugger with remotes and discs. the kids have their own remote which gives them just enough control (sometimes not enough since there's only 1 remote yet 4 rugrats) and they can't mess things up.

Then I have my home theater which runs cinema experience and wows my guests like they are at the actual movies, just better in almost every way. I've designed my own theater intros, used official promos and of course have trailers in HD quality that bring "going to the movies" right home.

Finally, I have 3 other TVs in my home that run through the same system so if I don't want to fire up the projector but snuggle with the with and give her a cinema experience watching the Notebook we can in the living room, or bedroom or our quests can do similar in the guest room or just have access to the 3500 + movies and 6000+ TV episodes in my library.

Kodi has become an institution in my home. Couldn't live without it.