[patseguin]

I'm a long time supporter of Kodi and have been using it since Dharma. Every major release had at least one killer new feature that made it a must have. Reading the list of new features in Isengard, there doesn't seem to be that one thing. It just seems to gave minor additions. Is the team still developing new features or have they decided what will be new in Isengard already? I think for me, a major new feature would be a revamped SQL system (UPnP?) or a new server product similar to the way Plex works. While I am pretty well versed now in setting up advancedsettings.xml, I think it should be easier for new users to set up a database model for syncing watched status, scraping, storage of metadata, etc. Any chance of Kodi moving in this direction or is UPnP going you've the future? I like the idea of a package for my Synology NAS which would handle all sources, addons, scraping, and do on. Kodi on my htpc would solely be for playback and automatically see the server.

[nickr]

I think skip steps will be great, but would hesitate to call it 'Killer ' .

3D MVC and hd audio on rpi is a killer IMHO, but only if you want a pi2.

MySQL is very simple, I have an advancedsettings.xml on my server and add it to every new machine. Job done.

[Ned Scott]

The group wants to try and release updates more often, so they might not seem as exciting since they won't have a year (or more) worth of additions, but the rate of new features that are stable should be higher, in theory.

Additive seeking (seek steps (wiki)) is big one, though.

[twelvebore]

I can only say that from my perspective the RPi2 stuff coming in Isengard is pretty killer.

For Jericho/Juno/JungleJim, garbears stuff would get my vote for The New Hotness™.

Personally I'm slightly worried about losing MySQL but that's just me.

[nickr]

Plus of course the whole codebase has a process of continuous improvement. I'm all in favour of more stability.

[jjd-uk]

Adding Chapters to the Bookmarks OSD option giving Chapter selection using thumbnails has given users probably one of the most requested features going back many years.

[Marty56]

Stability and usability would be a desired "feature".
For what I can tell running Kodi 4.2 on Mac, this release is NOT stable and I would call it beta.
I would be happy to have this KILLER feature.

After 1 hours of testing, my wife clearly stated that she wants to stick with Windows Media Center.

One of the many bugs I discovered.
MAC seems to have problem with a MySQL database that was generated by a Windows machine.
It can read the database but cannot play files.
The PVR still has a lot of usability flaws and is poorly implemented in the skins I have tested so far.

The XMBC remote on iOS has a "strange" UI. Who on earth comes up with the idea that a long press on the menu button reveal the context menu. Where is the button to delete recordings. Where is the power off button.

Basically I can only operate Kodi with a key board and mouse attached.

There is a lot to do and I would urge to give this a priority.

[natethomas]

MAC seems to have problem with a MySQL database that was generated by a Windows machine.
It can read the database but cannot play files.

I genuinely wouldn't have expected somebody to even use the MySQL database thing before they posted a single time on Kodi. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many (if any) of the devs use that feature. It's difficult to set up and prone to breaking. There's a reason we never advertise it and so much work is being put into completely moving away from it.

As far as the TV stuff, I can't really argue with a lot of it. The whole area could use a ton of polish, but because TV differs so vastly everywhere, and because quite a lot of skinners don't use TV at all, it's still got a long ways to go (particularly if you happen to live in the US).

[mkortstiege]

One of the many bugs I discovered.
MAC seems to have problem with a MySQL database that was generated by a Windows machine.
It can read the database but cannot play files.

When using a centralized database, you have to ensure that all your media is accessed in the very same way (obviously). And for the record: The databases used in Kodi are by no means designed with MySQL in mind. Using MySQL is way slower and kinda ruins the snappy interfaces you would get by using the internal, sqlite powered databases.

One of the many bugs I discovered.

Mind telling us about the other bugs so we can actually try to fix em?

[nickr]

MAC seems to have problem with a MySQL database that was generated by a Windows machine.
It can read the database but cannot play files.

I genuinely wouldn't have expected somebody to even use the MySQL database thing before they posted a single time on Kodi. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many (if any) of the devs use that feature. It's difficult to set up and prone to breaking. There's a reason we never advertise it and so much work is being put into completely moving away from it.

I know you are on the team, but I call rubbish. MySQL is easy to set up with the very clear instructions on the wiki. After that it hs never ever broken for me, and I've been using it maybe 5 or more years. I could be exaggerating that time, but it has been a long time.

[natethomas]

I mean, you're allowed to call rubbish even if I'm Jonathan back from retirement. Perhaps I should be more clear. I've never installed MySQL, but based on a look at the instructions, pretty much every attempt requires launching terminal, entering various commands, and installing things that are not Kodi. The moment you have to start typing in terminal is the moment that MySQL is too hard. Heck, the moment you have to leave the Kodi UI to visit the wiki to accomplish something is the moment that it becomes too hard. It may be simple for you, but you are not the person we're concerned about. You registered on the forum a year after I did and have roughly 3 times as many forum posts as I do. You have reached expert level.

The people we are thinking about when we say something is too hard are the people who don't want to visit the wiki at all. In an ideal world, our GUI would be clear enough that for all the most important functions, they should never need to visit the wiki under any circumstance. Visiting the wiki can and probably should be considered a breakdown of the Kodi GUI.

As time goes on, we are slowly making the process easier for the first time user, but for something like sharing the library across Kodi instances, until it's so easy that there's simply no reason to visit the wiki, it's going to be labeled as difficult.

Also, I base the "prone to breaking" comment on the fact that people fairly regularly have posted in the past that their MySQL setup broke. I have no personal experience, as I've noted.

[popcornmix]

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many (if any) of the devs use that feature. It's difficult to set up and prone to breaking. There's a reason we never advertise it and so much work is being put into completely moving away from it.

I use MySQL (as does @Milhouse). Works great. Seems faster than internal SQLite.
Once you've worked out the small number of lines to put in advancedsettings.xml it's incredibly quick to set up.
I store the advancedsettings on dropbox, and can have a new Kodi installation set up from scratch, with complete TV/Movie library in 5 minutes.

There isn't a better solution for having multiple Kodi platforms sharing the same libraries. I, for one, don't want to see MySQL replaced.

[mkortstiege]

I use MySQL (as does @Milhouse). Works great. Seems faster than internal SQLite.

Proof it Last time i tried (few weeks ago) i was so disappointed about the speed.

[Martijn]

Might be faster on the Pi because of the sdcard but not on normal systems

[popcornmix]

Proof it Last time i tried (few weeks ago) i was so disappointed about the speed.

From here

SQL database accesses are slow on Pi. This is how long the recently added episodes list takes to populate (with 30K episodes)

Code:

23:48:31 T:2913989696   DEBUG: RunQuery took 5140 ms for 10 items query: select * from episodeview  ORDER BY dateAdded desc, idEpisode desc LIMIT 10

I recently set up an external mysql database running on the PC. This now takes:

Code:

15:28:41 T:2920281152   DEBUG: RunQuery took 61 ms for 10 items query:select * from episodeview  ORDER BY dateAdded desc, idEpisode desc LIMIT 10

Obviously it depends on the speed of the client vs speed of server, but for a Pi1 as client and a desktop PC as server then a remote MySQL database makes a lot of sense.