HOW-TO:Modify time seeking

This page describes various advancedsettings.xml settings that can be used to modify the default seek "steps" in, commonly mapped to the directional keys during playback (left, right, up, down). By default, up/down is "BigStepForward/Back" +/- 10 minutes, and left/right is "StepForward/Back" +/- 30 seconds. There is also "SmallStepBack", which is -7 seconds. All of these options can be modified.

Steps
If you don't already have an advancedsettings.xml file, it's very simple to make. Kodi uses this file for advanced settings and features that normal users shouldn't modify without first knowing what they do, as well as for experimental features.

Example 1
In this example we have set Kodi to always use percent seeks, so there is no need to include the time seek tags. The percentages used are smaller for more fine-grained control, but anyone who wants truly fine-grain control will most likely want to use time-based seeking rather than percentage-based seeking.


 * advancedsettings.xml

Example 2
This example shows a simple adjustment of the seeks, which a person might use depending on their own personal preferences. is excluded here since this person is okay with using time-based tags for videos longer than 20 minutes, and percentage-based tags for videos shorter than 20 minutes (the default).


 * advancedsettings.xml

Example 3
This example is the same as Example 2, but without the percent-based tags. When any tag is not included it will simply use the default value. If this were a situation were we only wanted to change the time-based seeking, then we would only need to include those tags.


 * advancedsettings.xml

Example 4
In this example things get weird. Despite the name of the tags, we can actually use either "forward" or "back" for both forward and backwards seeking, depending on if we use the - (minus) sign or not. While not actually practical, this is one example of how these settings could be used. When using default keymaps we get the following behavior:


 * Left: forward 10 seconds
 * Right: forward 20 seconds
 * Up: forward 30 seconds
 * Down: forward 40 seconds


 * advancedsettings.xml

Other ways to seek
This page simply covers the advancedsettings.xml values, which typically relate to how the directional keys jump in a video. However, there are many other ways that one can seek back or forward in time when playing a video. See the topics below for some of those methods:


 * Remote controls
 * Keymaps