[billraim]

I’m new to Kodi.
I wrote this in the hope that Kodi experts will understand what Kodi looks like to a newbie and to learn better ways to do what I trying to do. I’m sure you see the convoluted things I’ve done but finding the right information is very hard.

My goal was to use an old Win7 Laptop to run Kodi 15.2 as a set-top box to a TV using a remote control unit to do the channel flipping for a Chinese Elder who cannot control a mouse.

After installling Kodi

1.0 Change defaults

System
appearance
skin
fonts - [change to arial] to get Chinese characters
Show RSS new feeds [click to disable]

2.0 Install IPTV

System
TV
General [Click enable]
Select Client PVR IPTV Simple Client

Configure
General
M3U Playllist URL http://pastebin.com/raw.php?=12345m3u
OK

3.0 Counter Buffering
Create file called advancedsettings.xml in
%AppData%/Kodi/userdata
<advancedsettings>
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>314572800</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>4.0</readbufferfactor>
</network>
<pvr>
<minvideocachelevel>65</minvideocachelevel>
<minaudiocachelevel>60</minaudiocachelevel>
</pvr>
</advancedsettings>

4.0 Fine tune each channel IPTV list
Video Settings
Zoom amount [Click Custom]
set zoom amount


5.0 Working with Remote

Bought Generic IR remote
Some buttons didn’t co-operate.
Download Showkey from http://xbmcmce.sourceforge.net/
use Showkey to find out what the button key value is

Create file Keyboard.xml in
%appdata%/Kodi/userdata
to get keys on remote to do right Kodi actions

<keymap>
<global>
<keyboard>
<power>Kodi.Powerdown()</power> <!-- Power button -->
<j>select</j> <!-- Enter -->
<three mod="ctrl">ActivateWindow(TVChannels)</three>

<!-- row below mouse buttons -->
<prev_track>fullscreen</prev_track> <!-- return to start -->
<next_track>down</next_track> <!-- pausestart -->
<play_pause>play</play_pause> <!-- goto end -->

<!-- next row -->
<b mod="ctrl,shift">cursorleft</b> <!-- rewind -->
<f mod="ctrl,shift">cursorright</f> <!-- fast forward -->
<stop>leftclick</stop> <!-- stop -->

<f1 mod="ctrl,alt">PreviousMenu</f1> <!-- Green -->
<f2 mod="ctrl,alt">Select</f2><!-- Orange -->
<f3 mod="ctrl,alt">Notification(Key, f3, 3)</f3> <!-- Blue -->
<f4 mod="ctrl,alt">return</f4> <!-- Yellow -->
<launch_mail>Notification(Key, launch_mail, 3)</launch_mail>
<browser_home>Notification(Key, browser_home, 3)</browser_home>




</keyboard>
</global>
</keymap>


6.0 Turn on Computer and it automatically starts up Kodi
Install Launcher4Kodi
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=136798

7.0 Unable to Shutdown computer (it goes to sleep) from remote.
I got this error message twice
ERROR: Unable to create application. Exiting.
The solution is to delete profile.xml in the %appdata%/kodi/userdata
I think it is related to the faulty shut down so I needed a true shutdown not hibernate.

Modified Skin to only show shut down button

Make a copy of
c:\Program Files\Kodi\addons\skin.confluence\720p\DialogueButtonMenu.xml

Run Notepad as Administrator, change file type to All Files ( *.* )
Open c:\Program Files\Kodi\addons\skin.confluence\720p\DialogueButtonMenu.xml

Under Edit, Find look for visible

change Exit, Hibernate, Re-boot options to [no]
save file

[nickr]

What is your question?

[Fail$tyle420]

What is your question?

[wason92]

It may be complicated to some people but if software was designed to be simple for everyone, we'd all be using those things you press and it makes the noise a cow makes.

[wmraim]

Questions
1) Is there a better way?
2)Would Kodi people set arial font as default?
3)Would Kodi install, figure out the size of the machine it's running on, and automatically build a buffer right sized for the machine.
4)Faster way to fine tune each IPTV selection?
5)Option to automatically start Kodi on system boot-up?
6)Discussion of why shutdown only goes to hibernate in my case?
Thanks

[nickr]

1. Everyone's use case is different.

2. Pass

3. See 1.

4. See 1 and not kodi's primary use case.

5. Very os dependent

6. Unsure, likely os dependent. I don't use windows.

[nickr]

Ps not sure why you need to zoom?

[wmraim]

Ps not sure why you need to zoom?

IPTV quality varies a lot, so some resolutions are very low, and get stretched by the standard settings, reducing zoom improves picture quality.

btw using dynamic buffer size is to compensate for machine dependency.

[nickr]

Most people don't need buffering at all.

[BatterPudding]

You should look at this from the other side. With little knowledge on the subject you have managed to take a bit of software and modify it to a very custom set of requirements. It took some reading, but in the end you have a system doing exactly what you want it to. Try that with any product from a brand name.

KODI may require you to get down and dirty at times, but it is certainly worth it.


Where I get my biggest hassle is trying to find out what KODI can do. So many different add-ons that it can make it a total minefield of working out where to start. There are many people who use KODI who have been using it for years. What I'd love to see in this forum is a section for people to show off their KODI setups. Even from reading through your post I have learnt something new.

[nickr]

There is, although geared to hardware/home theatre setups.

Although I suspect 8 out of 10 posts though would get binned for showing off the banned addons or illegal links.

[billraim]

With little knowledge on the subject ...
It took some reading...

KODI may require you to get down and dirty at times, but it is certainly worth it.

Where I get my biggest hassle ... KODI ... a total minefield of working out where to start.

I think you understand the struggle, it is when the first thing you try doesn't work.
There is more misinformation about buffering than accurate information. I truly don't know if the parameters I used make any difference. Somebody with Kodi might know.

Some people don't understand that I'm trying to help and seem to be really thinned skinned about comments about Kodi.