Hello Everyone,
I am very new to Kodi and new to this community...Please be gentle.
I am using an old laptop which I plan to make my media box for the lounge room TV. I have a number of movies (all legal) on the local hard disk of the laptop and also on a network share.
All I am looking to do at this stage is to setup Kodi in a very simple way so that the wife and kid can use it. I'm really not after anything complex. I would like Kodi to scan my movies and pull down information from the internet, including movie posters and I would like these displayed as a grid for selection...much in the same way as PLEX does.
Can anyone suggest a skin/setup guide to achieve this? I really am having some difficulty working out what to do.
Thank you in advance....
Brant
(2020-09-13, 15:31)BrantRaven Wrote: [ -> ]Can anyone suggest a skin/setup guide to achieve this?
The default installation of Kodi with it's default skin Estuary should be sufficient for your needs.
(2020-09-13, 15:31)BrantRaven Wrote: [ -> ]using an old laptop which I plan to make my media box for the lounge room TV
Laptops are at quite a disadvantage when it comes to home theatre video, they're usually designed for spreadsheets, wordpro etc. non-graphic intensive usage. Then you throw in the term 'OLD' which likely exasperates the situation. Best to do a quick installation, and try it and see if it works as you like it before devoitng a lot of time in the effort.
Note this
Supported hardware (wiki)
Hi PatK,
Thank you for the reply.
Quote:The default installation of Kodi with it's default skin Estuary should be sufficient for your needs.
Yeah Im not really sure the default skin meets my needs. When I enter my local video sources it doesn't seem to be going out to the internet to download any details. I have obviously set it up incorrectly and I have no idea what I am doing. Also, the default skin does not allow a grid display of movies and TV shows as you would have with Plex.
Quote:Laptops are at quite a disadvantage when it comes to home theatre video, they're usually designed for spreadsheets, wordpro etc. non-graphic intensive usage. Then you throw in the term 'OLD' which likely exasperates the situation. Best to do a quick installation, and try it and see if it works as you like it before devoting a lot of time in the effort.
So when I say the laptop is old....I mean it isn't one I am currently using. My test laptop is an i5 with 8 GB, while the laptop I plan to use is an i7 with 12 GB. I have managed to install Kodi quite easily on both. It is configuration that I am having a lot of trouble with.
Brant.
(2020-09-15, 14:53)BrantRaven Wrote: [ -> ]My test laptop is an i5
From which century? I mean, Intel has produced a lot of different Core i5 & i7 chips by now.
We're not sitting next to you, so every detail is welcome. Which GPU is onboard?
(2020-09-15, 14:53)BrantRaven Wrote: [ -> ]my local video sources it doesn't seem to be going out to the internet to download any details.
That's going to be the scraper you chose and it's settings, and of course ensure you have a hole punched through your firewall (installation should have taken care of it). Let's consider the wiki link and firs time user
HOW-TO:Install Kodi for Windows (wiki)
(2020-09-15, 14:53)BrantRaven Wrote: [ -> ]default skin does not allow a grid display of movies and TV shows as you would have with Plex.
I haven't A/B the two interfaces, but I can ensure you that Estuary does have a grid view, using the left side slip out menu 'view', but other skins might have a closer approximation, suggest you get the default humming before jumping to conclusions, you can have multiple skins available and they would be considered non-novice.
(2020-09-15, 15:00)Klojum Wrote: [ -> ]Which GPU is onboard?
As Klojum suggested, the devil is in the details, the graphic engine is everything when it comes to a home theatre set-up.
Agree that if you haven't, please take a look at the friendly manual in the form of a wiki as a lot of work has gone into getting a new user up to speed on running Kodi.
scott s.
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