[smitopher]

Let me frame this by talking about Music.

Once upon a time, I built a Music Library.  It took a LOT of effort.  but... I had an AWESOME library.  It was huge. 15K songs.  Some of which I actually liked.

Then I discovered Pandora.  Pandora was great.  I HATE commercials, so I subscribed.  And the subscription was CHEAP.  The only thing about Pandora was it was like listening to the radio, not playing a record.  I did not mind as it was CHEAP and I had my library when I wanted to listen to a specific song.  Very quickly, I was content just listening to Pandora.  The very size, scale, and diversity of my Library actually prevented me from listening to it.  When confronted with TOO MUCH choice, I froze and chose nothing.  The library just allowed me to think I could listen to whatever I wanted.

Soon came Spotify.  Now I'm lucky enough to have gotten into Google Play All Access and now I'm grandfathered in at $8/month.  I can listen to exactly what i want or have curated playlists all streamed at a Quality that was more than "Good Enough".

My Music library has become completely irrelevant.

I still have it, but only because I have a 32TB server and no pressing need for the space.

This is the very same process I'm going through with my Video Library.

I now have cobbled together a system that give me ONE box with ONE remote for ALL of my Front End video needs.  (Apple TV 4K with MrMC substituting for Kodi) It has Kodi client for MythTV (OTA TV and PVR), HBO NOW, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube Red.  The only thing for which I use Kodi (MrMC) is a MythTV Client.  I still have a Large Library... but I watch streaming services.

I think Kodi helps keep the competitive pressure that is needed to keep the Paid Streaming services delivering a value product.

So... what does the Kodi Community think?

[PatK]

Just representing myself here, the thoughts I express are personal.

Music aside, I still have a large vinyl collection and enjoy the playing process. I do have access to Spotify and a smaller library of audio that I have yet to manicure and enjoy, melodic distractions are not the main focus for me. Of late, I do see that Plex has brought out PlexAmp in recognition of the Plex inadequacy in the area of audio. As Kodi progresses as open source software, it's likely audio will take on more interest should users enjoy. I anticipate a pessimistic view; what's here to-day might be gone tomorrow, I don't hold much stock in streaming content that is dependat on some remote system or the few dollars holding up a server. The industry as a whole has expressed interest in pay for play, and is amassing legal tools to protect their interests.

I primarily see Kodi as my video media manager, and for that it's done a wonderful job. Looking at the streams and add-ons available, would make one think that media content is free. And in these times of regulatory kaos, the path the video industry takes seems to echo the music industry and in that regulatory tools are the chosen future. Again, I don't hold much stock that streaming services will survive in the way they are offered these days. Services like YouTube, PBS, News Networks are all experimenting with paywalls, commercials and subscription log-ins, I wouldn't think it will be too long before most avenues will become bundled package offerings, and the same backroom boys have successfully migrated their monopoly.

In the meatime, my Kodi library is at the point, at which I no longer feel dependant on bandwidth, save for the scraping of new titles as my pocket allows. I understand your point of view and the immediacy of what you have now, enjoy; but taking a long view perspective, might suggest a local library has long legs and don't bother me about 8K media.

[kaotichemistry]

Let me frame this by talking about Music.

Once upon a time, I built a Music Library.  It took a LOT of effort.  but... I had an AWESOME library.  It was huge. 15K songs.  Some of which I actually liked.

Then I discovered Pandora.  Pandora was great.  I HATE commercials, so I subscribed.  And the subscription was CHEAP.  The only thing about Pandora was it was like listening to the radio, not playing a record.  I did not mind as it was CHEAP and I had my library when I wanted to listen to a specific song.  Very quickly, I was content just listening to Pandora.  The very size, scale, and diversity of my Library actually prevented me from listening to it.  When confronted with TOO MUCH choice, I froze and chose nothing.  The library just allowed me to think I could listen to whatever I wanted.

Soon came Spotify.  Now I'm lucky enough to have gotten into Google Play All Access and now I'm grandfathered in at $8/month.  I can listen to exactly what i want or have curated playlists all streamed at a Quality that was more than "Good Enough".

My Music library has become completely irrelevant.

I still have it, but only because I have a 32TB server and no pressing need for the space.

This is the very same process I'm going through with my Video Library.

I now have cobbled together a system that give me ONE box with ONE remote for ALL of my Front End video needs.  (Apple TV 4K with MrMC substituting for Kodi) It has Kodi client for MythTV (OTA TV and PVR), HBO NOW, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube Red.  The only thing for which I use Kodi (MrMC) is a MythTV Client.  I still have a Large Library... but I watch streaming services.

I think Kodi helps keep the competitive pressure that is needed to keep the Paid Streaming services delivering a value product.

So... what does the Kodi Community think?

 Yea Kodi aint worth anything anymore no point at all using it.

[FXB78]

 Yea Kodi aint worth anything anymore no point at all using it. 

  You signed up to the forum just to share that wisdom

[speedwell68]

 Yea Kodi aint worth anything anymore no point at all using it. 

  You signed up to the forum just to share that wisdom  

It is a Kodi related discussion.

[skybird1980]

i want to own my content.
content in a cloud is not owned and can be offline everyday.
so i stay on my own library. so kodi is perfect for me.

[DarrenHill]

It offers the flexibility for either, especially with the upcoming improvements in Leia. After all even the OP wouldn't have his setup as without Kodi there'd be no MrMC. But we never claimed or indeed wanted to be the only tool in the media playback toolbox.

The only thing that is degrading (purposefully) is the usefulness for piracy, which I think relates to our one post wonder above.

[FXB78]

It is a Kodi related discussion. 

  His comment is not really adding to the discussion though is it, the guy has clearly spent time registering because his third-party addons are all broken. Why is he even reading Kodi forums if it's not worth using?

[smitopher]

i want to own my content.
content in a cloud is not owned and can be offline everyday.
so i stay on my own library. so kodi is perfect for me.

I completely understand, but, how big is your library?
For me, It is quite a chore if I don't know what I want to watch but I want to watch and unwind.  A large library is kinda overwhelming.
The "Featured" tabs of the paid services offer a curated, usually changing list of stuff and offer search if I want something specific.

My Library and Kodi(nee MrMC) is not going away, just it is fading a bit.  It's still a highly important component for OTA TV, PVR and stuff that is not available via streaming services.

[smitopher]

... and don't bother me about 8K media.

What about 8K media 

[tjay260476]

For me local playback always wins, Sky’s streaming/downloading movies and box sets to their PVR box was never Full HD, I looked at my Deapool Blu-ray next to their content and there was a marked difference in quality. I was at a friends house and they were watching Sky Sports via the Now TV app, and it froze, asked her if this was common, and she said yes.

For the long term, give me my 305 dvd changer that is my server at home and my Raspberry Pis as set top boxes using TVHeadend. That said, I’m also a Netflix and amazon user too, but if these services go, I hope the HTPC stays, whether that’s Kodi, or a fork, I’ve been doing this since Showshifter, which means I’ve had this setup for over 10 years, and hasn’t faded. Kodi for me is just one in the long line of apps, and unlike Showshifter, I hope Kodi is here to stay.

[DJ_Izumi]

I agree in general that having a huge local selection can be a problem when it can that selection means that you must make choices.  Sometimes you certianly want to sit down and watch something or binge something.  Other times you just want 'stuff you like' to be on the TV.  This is where LazyTV really made Kodi like 300% better for me. ( http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:LazyTV )  LazyTV looks at my library, the unwatched content, and builds a random playlist of next to be watched content.  I can just press 'Go' on LazyTV and a diverse range of shows start playing.  It transforms Kodi from 'Access to my library of media' to 'My own personal TV channel that only plays shows that I like'.  It's literally PERFECT for me.

Tonight's LazyTV playlist includes a range of anime, The Grand Tour, The Holiday Baking Championship and CBS's 'Mom'.  ...My own personal TV channel is an eclectic one for sure.

[tjay260476]

@DJ_Izumi I have CinemaVision installed on Kodi for the same reason, it shows 2 adverts from the 80's for nostalgia then two trailers of my own library, friends have scoffed at this, but it does do something for me, the two trailers are, like LazyTV are going to tempt me to look at those movies in the not to distant future, it's easier to make choices then you don't look at a large library.

Add-ons like CinemaVision and LazyTV can give us a 'living' library rather than just looking at DVD covers of movies and TV Shows, something that Amazon and Netflix can never do, and this is possibly the reason why Kodi has 'legs'. I for one have created a Favourite that I have named Jay-TV Music Channel, which quite simply is a link to Music Videos Party Mode.

Another Favourite plays in random the Now That's What I call Music collection, I have set all 97 albums in the genre 'Now Albums' and have changed the settings of 'party mode' to just include those, so what I have ended up with is music that plays on a loop with zero duplicates, and is great for background music. 

I think the answer lies is, get creative with your local library with some of the add-ons available, especially if it's too big, especially if you have ones that 'limit' the choice factor when it's too large.

[jjd-uk]

No way I'm going to rely on cloud services, they are just a way for the media industry to further shaft consumers. In the cloud world there's no guarantees of continued access to the content you want, or the market is fragmented by exclusivity deals requiring multiple subscriptions for full content coverage. For example Netflix is going to lose Disney content (and maybe 21st century fox now) as Disney are setting up their own service, so where you needed one subscription you'll soon need two.

[smitopher]

No way I'm going to rely on cloud services, they are just a way for the media industry to further shaft consumers. In the cloud world there's no guarantees of continued access to the content you want, or the market is fragmented by exclusivity deals requiring multiple subscriptions for full content coverage. For example Netflix is going to lose Disney content (and maybe 21st century fox now) as Disney are setting up their own service, so where you needed one subscription you'll soon need two.

 This is a pretty cogent argument.  This is much less prevalent in the Music services.  I hope that the video services evolve in the the direction of the music services.

The "Disney" example shows the inherent danger with the vertically integrated media companies.