Video playback

The main feature of Kodi is playing back videos. This page describes the controls, features, and settings related to video playback.

On screen display (OSD)


When playing a video full screen you can bring up the on-screen-display controls by pressing or  or on remote the  (or the equivalent button on your remote control).

Mini player controls
While in the GUI you are able to browse all of Kodi and even look at pictures while playing music or videos. During GUI playback you can call up the Mini player controls at any time. In the default skin Confluence, you can do this two ways:

Sidebar
While the sidebar tab is present and while media is playing, bringing up the sidebar/blade menu by navigating to the left will reveal a small selection of player controls.

Window
A pop-up window with mini player controls can be brought up in Confluence while media is playing. For a keyboard press while video is playing in the background.

OSD audio and subtitle settings

 * Volume
 * Allows you to adjust the playback volume


 * Volume amplification (dynamic range compression)
 * Allows you to adjust how much the audio range is compressed, making the loud and soft sounds closer in volume. This is useful when watching movies with loud sound effects such as explosions at night.


 * Audio offset
 * Adjusts how long that the audio is delayed in relation to the video. This is useful when viewing poorly synced videos.


 * Audio stream
 * If the video file contains more than one audio stream you can select them here.


 * As of v12 Frodo, Kodi will auto select audio language based on your global settings. See: Settings/Appearance.
 * Stereo upmix
 * Outputs stereo to all speakers


 * Audio output
 * Select output device for the current stream


 * Enable subtitles
 * Enable or disables subtitles. Subtitle tracks with the "forced" flag are unaffected by this and should always display.


 * Subtitle offset
 * Adjusts how long that the subtitles are delayed in relation to the video


 * Subtitle
 * Allows you select which subtitles are displayed


 * As of v12, Kodi will auto select subtitle language based on your global settings. Also - Set as default for all Movies is now Set as default for all Videos. See: Settings/Appearance.
 * Browse for subtitle
 * Allows you to browse the filesystem for the file used to display the subtitles


 * Set as default for all videos
 * Selecting this will make the current settings the default



OSD video settings

 * Zoom amount
 * Allows you to control how much that the view is zoomed into the video.


 * Vertical shift
 * Determines the amount a the video is shifted up on vertical axys on current display (helpful for projectors)


 * Pixel ratio
 * Allows you to adjust the pixel ratio that the video is displayed at. This can be used to adjust videos that are not displaying at the proper aspect ratio.


 * Post-processing
 * Basically puts an unsharpen mask over the image to reduce pixellation/macroblocking on low-res/low-bitrate videos


 * Brightness
 * Adjust brightness


 * Contrast
 * Adjust contrast


 * [VDPAU] Noise reduction (only visible when VDPAU is in use)
 * Select level of noise reduction for video content


 * [VDPAU] Sharpness (only visible when VDPAU is in use)
 * Select sharpness amount to apply to video content


 * Non-linear stretch
 * When enabled the stretching method doesn't look so wide in middle of video area


 * Stereoscopic mode of video


 * Stereoscopic mode inverted


 * Set as default for all videos
 * Selecting this will make the current settings the default


 * Video calibration
 * Opens the Video calibration window

Playlists

 * Basic playlists -


 * Smart playlists -

On-Screen Video Diagnostics
On Screen Video Diagnostics, or Codec Info, can be displayed when a video is playing by pressing, or the corresponding control on your remote.

A detailed explanation of the displayed values can be found on the Codecinfo page.