Basic controls
First time user | Basic controls |
Introduction
Welcome new user!! You have finally installed Kodi on your equipment, launched it, and then probably sat there for a few minutes scratching your head thinking what is this?? This page will describe the commonly used screens and basic navigation around Kodi. Its aim is to allow you to become familiar with Kodi and prepare you for the upcoming setup pages.
This page will not describe how to load your media. That task is covered in the following pages. As with most pages of the wiki, this page assumes you are using the default skin Estuary. If you are using another skin, then you have run before learning to walk, so you should change back until you have at least set up Kodi.
Kodi has been designed around the 10 foot interface principle. This means that Kodi is best used with a remote control while sitting on your couch looking at your TV. It was not designed for use on a computer sitting at a desk with keyboard and mouse. If you choose to use it this way, then be aware that the navigatione experience won't be as smooth as a remote control.
Although this guide applies to all parts of Kodi, some portions have been based on the Video/Movies/TV Shows section of Kodi. To see the specific Basic Controls for Music, see Music Navigation & Playback
The following image is a screenshot of the Home Screen when Kodi launches. In this case there is media in the library, but you may not have media in your library yet.
Power Options
Pressing S on the keyboard, or by selecting the Power icon in the top left corner of the home screen calls up the Power Options menu. Depending on your hardware, your Power Options may have more or less options to that shown in the image.
The options on this menu are from top to bottom:
- Exit
- Exits Kodi to your operating system.
- Power off system
- Powers down your computer
- Custom Shutdown Timer
- Kodi will shutdown your computer after you enter the countdown time. Enter the time interval in minutes.
- Suspend
- Suspends your computer.
- Hibernate
- Hibernates your computer.
- Reboot
- Restarts your computer.
- Log off <ProfileName> user
- If using Profiles, the option to log out the current user and login as a new user is this option. <ProfileName> will display the name of the currently logged in Profile/User.
Settings
The Settings Icon in the top left of the screen provides access to the Kodi Settings pages. Most general use settings are contained in these pages. During your travels with Kodi, you will come across mention of the advancedsettings.xml file. This holds advanced Settings for Kodi and can be modified by the user.
For more information on the Settings pages,
- See: Settings
For more information on the advancedsettings.xml file,
- See: Advancedsettings.xml
Search & Filter
The Global Search function allows you to search your library, add-ons or some on-line sources for information.
Some of the pictured options will require installation of an add-on. Simply confirm the installation of the add-on when prompted.
- See: Add-on:Global Search
- See: Add-on:YouTube
- See: Add-on:ExtendedInfo Script
There are also Search functions inside each of the Main Menu options which are accessible from the Sideblade Menu. These are called Filters. The function "filters" the currently displayed list to match your query. When using the Filter function, be aware of the following:
- The Filter will only filter that class of media, so performing the Filter in Movies will only return Movie results.
- The Filter only works when you have a listing of media displayed. If you do not have a listing of the media to Filter, then the filter will return a Not Found result.
Main Menu
All classes of media are separated into their own menu options. The default classes are listed below. Other skins allow you to add additional menu items for, say, Home Movies, Cartoons, Disney etc.
It is possible to remove unwanted menu options and to re-add them at a later date. Very useful for those options that remain unused in your setup such as Live TV, Radio etc. See: Hiding Menu items
As each Main Menu option is selected, the Home Page will dynamically update with information relevant for the selected menu option. The full list of available menu options are as follows:
- Movies - This is a short cut to the "All movies, by title" node in the video library.
- TV shows - This is a short cut to the "All TV shows, by title" node in the video library.
- Music - This is a shortcut to a file manager view, which when viewed, can show your music files either by genre, Artist, Album, Song, or by year.
- Music Videos - This is a shortcut to a file manager view, which when viewed can show your music video files either by Genre, Title, Artist, Albums, Directors, Studio or Tags
- Live TV - With a PVR add-on, this can give you Free To Air Television channels with an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) with Pause/Rewind/Fast Forward and Record facilities
- Radio - With a PVR add-on, this can give you Free To Air Radio Channels with an EPG (Electronic Program Guide)
- Games (not available before Kodi v18 Leia) - This is a shortcut to a file manager view, which when viewed, can show your games.
- Add-ons - This shortcut takes you to a secondary menu that lists your installed add-ons by type, such as 'Video-addons', Music add-ons, Program add-ons. In this menu you can install add-ons from the official Kodi repository. See: Add-ons
- Pictures - Shows a basic file-based image viewer, as well as picture-related add-ons.
- Vidoes - Allows you to access the file system of your Sources. It includes file views, movie library, TV show library, music video library, playlists, and video related add-ons. Users can also use this to navigate to more nodes in the library, showing movies or TV shows by year, genre, actor, or even custom created nodes for specific people, moods, etc.
- Favourites - Shows all your meda that has been tagged as a Favourite in one easily accessible location.
- Weather - Once set up, this will show the weather forecast in your local area
Home Screen
The term Home Screen can be used to mean the entire screen as depicted in the image in Section 1 above. If it is prefixed by a menu item, say Movies Home Screen or TV Show Home Screen, then it refers to the section to the right of the Main Menu. The following information refers to the latter.
The Home Screen contains a dynamic list of media relevant for the selected main menu item. The image above displays the following items:
- Categories- also known as Nodes
- A quick link to the available Movie Nodes. It allows you to navigate your Movie library via Genres, Title, Year, Country Actors, Directors, Studios, Sets, Tags and Recently added
- See also: Video_nodes and Music_nodes
- Poster views
- Displays movie titles that fit into the following criteria:
- In-progress
- Recently added
- Unwatched movies
- Random selection
- Movie Sets
- Genres
- Quck icon selection of available Genre's in the library.
- Studios
- Quick icon selection of available Studios in the library.
The other classes in the main menu have a similar selection but designed and named to be most relevant for their class of media.
Sideblade Menu
The Sideblade Menu is a critical menu that holds numerous options. It is available in most locations.
The Sideblade Menu is accessible from most screens in Kodi.
The menu options shown below are for the Movies section. The options will vary for the other media classes
You can invoke the sideblade using one of the following methods:
- pressing the ← key on your remote control
- pressing the ← key on a keyboard
- bringing the mouse cursor to the left border of the screen.
The options in the Sideblade Menu vary. The following is the menu in the Movies listing.
Available Options
- ViewType
- Change current library view.
- Sort by
- Select how the list of Movies/TV Shows/Episodes are sorted- eg Title, PlayCount etc
- Order
- Once the Sort by is selected, do you want the order Ascending or Descending
- Filter
- Allows you to filter your list on certain criteria- eg Director, Actor, Ratings, Tags etc See: Advanced library filtering
- All Videos / Watched / Unwatched
- Global toggle that allows you to select what is shown in the list - All Videos, Watched or Unwatched videos only
- Update library
- Scans the library for newly added Movies, TV Shows, Episodes and Music Videos in the Video Library.
- Go to playlists
- Will open the currently playing Party Mode playlist
- Bottom Icons- From Left to right
- Pause
- Stop
- Skip to next video
- Open Fullscreen mode - for video this returns you to the playing video and for music this opens the Now Playing/Visualisation window.
To see the Sidebar Menu for Music see Music Sideblade Menu
Context Menu
The Context Menu is a critical menu that holds numerous options. It is available in most locations.
The Context Menu allows quick access to a limited set of functions relevant for the currently selected item.
After highlighting an item (eg a movie) the Context Menu can be invoked by:
- long press the OK key
- Press letter C on a keyboard
- right-clicking with the mouse
References to Context Menus are scattered throughout the wiki on relevant pages and can be found easily enough in Kodi. As there are many, many types of context menus, it would be uneconomical to list them all here.
The following are a few examples of the context menu.
Information Page
For each title in the Movies, TV Shows and Music Videos library, an Information Page is available as displayed in the image.
This screen will display the metadata for the title. A number of options are available along the bottom of the page. What is displayed will depend on the skin in use and which class of media is displayed (Movie, TV Show, Music Video)
This is a Library only feature and will not work on titles not in the library. Attempting to perform this in the File Browser using Videos>Files will commence the scrape process for that individual title. See: Update Video Library
To access the Information Page, navigate to, and highlight the required Movie, TV Show or Music Video title. Once highlighted use one of the following methods to view the Information Page:
- Press i on a remote control, or Press i on a keyboard
- Using the Context Menu, select Information
Available option buttons (not all are displayed in the image)
- Actors image
- Clicking on the image of an actor will bring up a listing of other titles, in your library, the actor appears in
- Installing the ExtendedInfo add-on will provide extended actor information from online sources
- Play
- Commence playback of the title
- Your Rating
- Use this option to apply your personal rating to your media. The display of the User Rating depends upon the library view in use. It is displayed at the top of the Poster as a blue star containing the rating in Poster View. Each type of view displays it differently.
- Trailer
- Commence playback of the Trailer. If no trailer is available, either the button will not be displayed or you will be offered to install the YouTube add-on to view online trailers.
- Show Fanart
- Full screen display of the fanart attached to the title
- Same director
- Displays a listing of other titles in the library from the same director
- Movie Set
- Open the Movie Set that the current movie belongs to. Only visible when the movie is part of a set.
- Choose art
- Settings page that allows the manual selection of Artwork
- Refresh
- Allows you to rescan or rescrape the title. Useful if you have modified information in the NFO File, or you would like to re-scrape updated information from the site of the Information provider. See: Update Video Library
- Highlighting this button will also display the path to the playable file that Kodi has recorded in the library database. Useful to track down duplicate entries.
Now Playing Controls
The Now Playing Controls are covered in more detail in the following two sections...
- Music Player Controls
- See: Music Navigation & Playback
- Video Player Controls
- See: Video Playback
On Screen Keyboard
When required, Kodi will display an on-screen keyboard to facilitate data entry. No special selection is required by the user as the keyboard will appear where required.
The on-screen keyboard can be used in the following ways:
- Remote control
- Mouse presses
- Using a physical keyboard.
Remote Controls
Kodi is best used with a Remote Control. Many types of Remote Controls can be used as listed on the following page.
- See: Remote_controls
Keyboard Controls
If you are using a physical keyboard, the following page lists available keystrokes to control Kodi.
- See: Keyboard_controls
See also
Favourites
Favourites is a simple but useful feature that allows you to gather a selection of different items into one easily accessible location on the Main Menu. It allows quick access to commonly used items.
File Manager
The File Manager allows the maintenace of files from within Kodi on platforms that have no underlying and easily accessible operating system. It will allow you to perform functions such as Move, Copy and Delete to name a few.
Profiles
Profiles allow users to save all of settings as a profile and change them at the touch of a button. It also allows you to grant access to specific folders and network shares based on the profile being used. This is ideal for systems that have multiple users. It works much the same as setting up individual users on your home computer.
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