[JJohnson74656]

Hi everyone,

I do have some general questions on Kodi, so I apologize if they're basic to y'all here who use it on a regular basis.

Basically what I'm trying to do is set up a media center and use Kodi, so I may use a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with the HifiBerry DAC+ Pro board, and put it in a case.

I would like to be able to consume media of the following types: video, audio, games
They would be: movies, tv shows, podcasts (audio/video), audiobooks, and various emulated games
Audio: mp3, wma (I currently don't have space for FLAC just yet, but I might switch to that eventually)
Video: mkv, mp4, mpg, mpeg, wmv

My first issue is the available skins seem to me a bit difficult to use, as I come from Windows Media Center and Zune, and when skins operate differently, or navigate differently, I have trouble with them. I'm not an old guy, but I just prefer that kind of UI. The current skins to me just aren't up to that level of user-friendliness to me.

My second would be: can Kodi on Pi handle MKV, subtitles, multiple audio tracks?

Third: how do I get my media to that little board? put it on the little microSD, or have a USB-connected 8TB hard drive? Is there a way to connect a hard drive to a pi?

Fourth: can Kodi run emulated games, including arcade games? I have NES, SNES, Genesis, Master System, Atari 2600/5200/7800/Jaguar/Lynx, Game Boy (regular, Color, Advance), Game Gear, and Arcade games, and I would like the system to do all this in one, so I don't have to have 2 HDMI ports on the TV taken up by separate RetroPi and Kodi (Pi) devices.

Fifth: can I put Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime onto Kodi?

Sixth: can Kodi put my audiobooks in a separate category from my music, and my audio and video podcasts separate from both?

Seventh: can Kodi on Pi use a Windows Media Center remote, and can I assign those color buttons to specific functions (like going to Movies, TV, Music, or Pictures)?

Eighth: can Kodi search subtitles? I sometimes remember a line from a show or a movie, and want to find it and watch that clip, but no software anywhere that I know of has the ability to search subtitle files (SRT) and then play that segment of video.

Sorry if this seems all basic and random. I'm not very well versed in Kodi, so I thought I would ask folks who know more than I do.

[nickr]

1. Just keep trying different skins.
2. Yes
3. Plug in drive or over network from nas etc.
4. Yes I believe so, retropi can for example install kodi.
5. Not easily on a pi.
6. Yes there is an audiobook addon
7. Yes
8. Yes

[JJohnson74656]

Thanks for answering, I appreciate it.

As for the skins, whom could I ask on building one or customizing? It's a wedding/anniversary present to the fiancée / wife so she can watch all her shows (and we can cut the cable). If you've ever seen the JackLuminous TVLibrary media center plugin, that's the look I'm going for.

For network drives, is there a tutorial on that?

[JJohnson74656]

One other question that came to mind: Can I create custom video playlists for kodi? For example, Buffy/Angel and TNG/DS9/VOY should play together in a specific order. Likewise, Doctor Who (2005) has a lot of minisodes that should play in a certain order.

[nickr]

Yes you can create playlists. Have you actually looked at the wiki? Most of your questions are answered there.

Skin creation is complex.

And do remember that kodi is not necessarily about cord cutting. Kodi is largely about watching your local media.

[zerocool_ie]

As for the skins, whom could I ask on building one or customizing? It's a wedding/anniversary present to the fiancée / wife so she can watch all her shows (and we can cut the cable). If you've ever seen the JackLuminous TVLibrary media center plugin, that's the look I'm going for.

Have a look at the skins section on this forum, each section should show screenshots of the skin so that you can see what you like.
Each skin has multiple different views, I'm almost positive you will find something that closely resembles your current setup.