Is This Accurate? (Edited Version)
#1
My family is interested in Kodi. Is the following draft email accurate?


Here is a little brief, for those of you that are interested, on what I know and have done with Kodi so far.

More and more people are finding their cable fees to be getting too expensive and as a result this has generated a growing Kodi community.

There are a lot of new buzz words so I may unintentionally misinterpret some things.

I have successfully downloaded and installed Kodi on a Windows 10 PC, an Android tablet and a Windows tablet. Like many others, Kodi can add video, music and picture files to its library and play them back.

So I’m at the spot where everything works and I can play movies or TV from my PC or tablet. The next step was to try and get Kodi to play from my computer to my TV. I have a dumb panel TV feed by a smart WI-Fi disk player. Unfortunately, all that I can get on my TV through the disk player is the Kodi icon, but since I’m not playing an actual movie/TV file instead I’m streaming nothing else shows up.

If your computer/tablet happens to have DLNA, you might be able to stream the info to your TV/disk player, but I don’t have this capability. My tablet does not have DLNA, but it does have a micro HDMI output so I hooked up a cable from the tablet to one of the USB connections on my TV. This did route the video to the TV and I was able to play 2 episodes of a TV series.

Now the bad news, after watching the 2 episodes the buffering became too slow and I could only get jerky playback. (This has nothing to do with the cabling to the TV as it occurs on the tablet as well.) The most obvious would be the Wi-Fi, but Netflix always worked ok with my Wi-Fi. There may be a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious solution would be to eliminate the Wi-Fi and use a direct Ethernet connection (i.e. the one everyone used before Wi-Fi came along).

With my current setup there doesn’t seem to be any way of doing this, however, I found one solution that looked simple, easy and inexpensive - Raspberry-Pi2. A stripped down computer the size of a credit card with an Ethernet and USB ports designed for video stuff. See Amazon.ca - CanaKit Raspberry Pi 2 Complete Starter Kit with WiFi (Raspberry Pi 2 + WiFi + Preloaded 8GB SD Card + Case + Power Supply + HDMI Cable + Guide)

I move my Wi-Fi/modem from my study to the TV in the living room, connect the Ethernet from the Wi-Fi/modem to Rasberry-Pi2, and connect via the USB ports to the TV.

The Raspberry-Pi2 should arrive in the next week.
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#2
Instead of asking if this is accurate, I should have asked if I'm headed in the right direction to have it work on my TV?
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#3
What are you looking for...help in getting Kodi working or help in drafting an email on what Kodi does?

If I got that in an email from someone, I'd just delete it.
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#4
Some family members are interested in Kodi, but know nothing about it and I was hoping to show them via an email what I've done so far to get it to work satisfactorily. I can see now that editing out a major portion of the this draft after I violated the privacy and forum rules doesn't give much meaning to the message.

Never mind, I'll send them my original unedited message. It made more sense.
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#5
If Netflix works for you, then it stands to reason that the buffering manifests from whatever sources that you stream your media from.
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#6
Firstly if you are streaming mainstream TV shows and movies directly via Kodi then you are most likely using 3rd party add-ons that are giving you access to pirate streams. Please correct me I'm wrong by giving more details as to which add-ons you are using.

If this is the case then we cannot help you here as the discussion of such things is forbidden on this forum. In any case, no amount of tweaking will help, again if this is the case. Legitimate services can work very well even with limited bandwidth and pirate services either cannot or don't care about your experience.

Edit: I've just spotted your original thread that was binned where you explained in detail the piracy add-ons you are using.

Please note that just removing the name of the add-ons and submitting a new thread will not get you support or allow you to circumvent the forum rules.

We do not support or discuss piracy here. Please read the links provided to you in the original thread that explain things in more depth.
Always read the Wiki, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Read/follow the forum rules.
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#7
if you are going to advertise piracy add-on to your family members, please DO NOT advertise it as if Kodi does provide that content - it's the illegal add-ons which have nothing to do with Kodi. Kodi just happens to be the player and offer a way to browse that crap via it's flexible add-on interface. And if you experience playback issues with video streams from these add-ons, they are in 99% related to those streams, bad servers, not enough bandwidth, whatever.
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#8
I'm obviously missing a key element in using Kodi.

It's getting to the point where to have cable TV with HD and a DVR/PVR even in a bundle (TV/Internet//phone) is very expensive and I don't subscribe to any extra cable movie or specialty channels (I do have Netflix). Over the years I began relying on torrent downloads for many movies and TV episodes, but in the last couple of years I've ceased downloading movie torrents.

Using my Wi-Fi disk player I can access my PC's video, music and picture files for viewing on the TV. So if we eliminate using add-ons, what are the benifits in content and costs of using Kodi over what most people already have? Are there other legitimate suppliers available other than the regular cable companies?
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#9
There are legit streaming suppliers such as Amazon, Hulu HBO etc...
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#10
Kodi has some fantastic legitimate add-ons that you can read all about on this forum.

Despite this Kodi is primarily designed to be a media player for your own content. The advantage over other media players will depend on your needs. I use it for the ease of use, the amount of detail and metadata that can be scrapped from my content and the fantastic legitimate add-ons.

Also, Kodi is best used on a PC or box directly connected to your TV. This easy you can take advantage of legitimate services. For example I use an Nvidia Shield which also gives me access to my Netflix subscription and Google Play movies, TV shows and music.

What Kodi is not is an easy and "free" replacement for cable TV.
Always read the Wiki, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Read/follow the forum rules.
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#11
The add-ons that you are using are also not as reliable as Amazon, Netflix, Hulo, etc... You'll constantly be troubleshooting your family member's issues, especially if they cancel TV and can not watch anything.

Recommend an antenna and setup the Pi 2 to act as a DVR.
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#12
(2016-02-05, 20:01)cd2022 Wrote: There are legit streaming suppliers such as Amazon, Hulu HBO etc...
There has always been a significant difference in what is available in the US and what is available in Canada even electronically. I'm not saying it isn't available because I don't know, BUT I have never heard of anyone ever even mention getting TV from Amazon or Hulu or anyone else other than a traditional cable or satellite/phone company. Anybody that has HBO gets it through their regular cable company.

However, having said that their are also very few people actually streaming that I know about around here. The only competition I am aware of is our local cable Shaw/Eastlink and Bell-Aliant our telephone company. Everybody complains about the cost and no alternatives are ever mentioned except trying to maybe get live off-air reception and I don't know of anybody doing that either.

To make sure I will certainly check this.
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#13
(2016-02-05, 20:04)Dangelus Wrote: Also, Kodi is best used on a PC or box directly connected to your TV. This easy you can take advantage of legitimate services. For example I use an Nvidia Shield which also gives me access to my Netflix subscription and Google Play movies, TV shows and music.

What Kodi is not is an easy and "free" replacement for cable TV.

(2016-02-05, 20:20)katsup Wrote: Recommend an antenna and setup the Pi 2 to act as a DVR.
When I was looking for "boxes" the Nvidia Sheld was very expensive from Amazon.ca and at the time it looked like the Raspberry-Pi2 would work well so I ordered one (note that none of these boxes like the Shield was available on BestBuy.ca's website - maybe a clue as to no other provider alternatives). If these legit suppliers are not available in Canada, I'm not so sure about my order for the rPI box.

Sidebar - What the rPI box was going to do was eliminate the need to use the micro HDMI connector on my tablet. By far one of the worst connectors ever invented!
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#14
Here is a key question as to whether I can utilize Kodi effectively since I don't believe the U.S. suppliers are in Canada. (I just checked and the Amazon.ca site does not appear to have any mention of the video service as it does on Amazon.com website.)

For example, my wife and I are avid watchers of U.K detective shows. Is it possible to access legit suppliers in the U.K. using Kodi from here in Canada? Or does the supplier have to reside in your home country?
RPi2 - OpenELEC v6.0.3 - Kodi v15 - HDHR Connect HDHR4-2US(CA) v2015.11.09
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#15
(2016-02-05, 21:11)Monty205 Wrote: Here is a key question as to whether I can utilize Kodi effectively since I don't believe the U.S. suppliers are in Canada. (I just checked and the Amazon.ca site does not appear to have any mention of the video service as it does on Amazon.com website.)

For example, my wife and I are avid watchers of U.K detective shows. Is it possible to access legit suppliers in the U.K. using Kodi from here in Canada? Or does the supplier have to reside in your home country?

With the use of a VPN or perhaps DNS "spoofing" services you could make your system believe it is another country. I would check the individual services to see if it works but as an example I use a service that allows me access to different regions of Netflix with my UK subscription. Netflix allows this "roaming" legitimately for subscribers who are travelling and this service takes advantage of that.
Always read the Wiki, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Read/follow the forum rules.
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