Archive:Kodi v15 (Isengard) FAQ

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▶ Kodi v15 (Isengard) FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions for upgrading to the upcoming Kodi v15 (codename Isengard) from a previous version. Includes how to enable some of the new features, where some controls got moved to, etc.


General FAQ

See also: All platforms FAQ for an FAQ that applies to all versions of Kodi.

What is Kodi? What is Isengard?

Kodi is the new name for XBMC media center. "Isengard" is the codename for version 15, just as "Gotham" was the codename for XBMC v13 and "Helix was the codename for Kodi v14". You will often see "v15" and "Isengard" used interchangeably in the community. It might be a little confusing with so many new names being used, but this is simply the new version of Kodi/XBMC. As long as you call it version 15/v15/Isengard, then everyone in the community will know what you are talking about.\

Why has this version been released so soon?

Team Kodi is attempting to release more often in order to help with stability of the program and to adapt more quickly to changes in media. In recent years bug fix releases have become more common so that users can get those bug fixes without breaking compatibility with skins, add-ons, or having to adapt to some other change. While bug fix releases are still planned in the future, Kodi has become modular enough that full releases can be introduced that also don't break compatibility with most things. While there are major changes, great effort was taken to minimize breakage of skins, add-ons, smartphone/tablet remotes, and other such elements, for v15.
In other words, v15 is a "semi-major" update. Bigger than a typical bugfix release, as it contains a lot of new code, new features, and refinements, but minus the major skin and add-on changes that a typical major release would bring.
The next release, v16, will contain changes that will likely require skin and add-on updates. The release after that, v17, will be another "semi-major" release and will attempt to preserve compatibility with v16 skins and add-ons. The idea is to keep repeating this pattern in hopes it provides a more rapid release schedule without sacrificing compatibility.
Note: Add-ons are mentioned above as sometimes needing changes between versions. Some add-ons, such as most video, audio, and picture add-ons, are compatible with multiple versions. Kodi v15 will continue to work with many add-ons from as far back as v13. However, if you do have an issue with any add-on not working, please report it to the author of that add-on.

Changelog

See: Kodi v15 (Isengard) changelog. Add-on developers should also see Isengard API changes, and skinners should also read the sticky posts in the Skin Development Forum for full changelog on changes to the skinning engine).

What are some of the noticeable new features?

In addition to many "under the hood" improvements, some of the visible additions to v15 include:

Seeking/skip steps are different

Skip steps is a new seeking function that has been implemented into Kodi as of v15, and is a method of additive skipping (also known as additive seeking) that applies to both videos and music. This allows the user to skip backwards and forwards with the left and right cursor keys (this is the default keyboard and remote mapping), and by pressing these keys multiple times they can skip with increasingly larger steps.

SmallStepBack doesn't seem to work

In Keymaps the SmallStepBack action ID has been replaced by seek(-7). Users with custom keymaps should apply this change as well. SmallStepBack will still work, but it will default to the first back step in skip steps.

HOW-TO:Install languages offline

HOW-TO:Install languages offline

Kodi for Android is now in the Google Play store

Kodi is now available in the Google Play store. If your Android device already has the Google Play store installed, and you are using an official version of Kodi from kodi.tv, then you can update directly from the Play store.

New system requirements

Android 4.2 required

Android 4.2 is now the minimal supported version for Kodi to run on Android platform. Kodi can now be installed from the Google Play store.

iOS 5.1.1 required

iOS 5.1.1 is now the minimal supported version for Kodi to run on a jailbroken "iDevice".

Mac OS X 10.7 required

Mac OS X 10.7 is now the minimal supported version for Kodi to run on the Mac platform.

OUYA needs OS upgrade to run v15

Due to the new system requirements and lack of needed updates from the OUYA company, OUYA's Android-based OS is unable to run Kodi v15. The OUYA hardware can still be used for Kodi, but will need a replacement for the OUYA OS. There is a work-in-progress guide in doing so at HOW-TO:Install CyanogenMod on OUYA. It might even be possible to still use OUYA games on CM 11, or at least have some kind of dual booting option for users who want to retain access to their old OUYA games.

Apple TV 2 is no longer supported

Apple TV 2 is no longer supported as of v15. See here for details.

Upgrading

Stop hand.png If you are upgrading from XBMC v13 to Kodi v15 then please read Migration from XBMC to Kodi first.


Stop hand.png Always backup your settings before upgrading, just incase!


How do I upgrade from v14 to v15?

  • ANDROID USERS: Don't uninstall an earlier version of Kodi/XBMC before installing the new version. Uninstalling first would remove all of your settings. Just install the new version and it will replace the older version and retain your settings.
  • In most cases you can just install Kodi v15 over Kodi v14. All your settings and library are saved and will continue to work in the new version. See Installing for specific install instructions.
  • Interface skins that worked in Kodi v14 should still work in v15.
  • Most other add-ons that worked in Kodi v14 should still work in v15.
  • If you have any issues (settings not being copied over, blank screens, etc) when updating from versions older than v14: remove the new version, install the older version of Kodi/XBMC from http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/ , and then upgrade to the next version. In other words, if you have v13, first update to v14, and then install v15.


MySQL

As long as your MySQL server is set up to allow XBMC/Kodi to make new databases for the upgrade itself (see MySQL/Upgrading) then you don't need to do anything for upgrading a MySQL set up for Kodi. Even if you use "XBMC" in your advancedsettings.xml file, you can leave this the same and everything will still work.

Where did it this or that go?

advancedsettings.xml changes

  • <hideallitems> - For both the <videolibrary> and <musiclibrary> sections, this is replaced by a GUI option in v15 Isengard
  • <SmallStepBackSeconds> - In v15 the SmallStepBack action ID has been replaced by seek(-7) in default keymaps. See skip steps for details. When the original SmallStepBack action ID is used it defaults to the first backwards additive seeking value.
  • <timeseekforward>/<timeseekbackward> - In v15 these tags are replaced by GUI options via additive seeking, which is configured in the GUI. See skip steps for details.

Add-on manager: navigation changes

Editor note: Need a blurb here about the add-on manager changes. Full details should then be updated to the main add-on manager page.

Add-on manager: checking for new updates

In most Kodi interface skins, including the default skin Confluence, the button to check for new add-on updates has been moved to the lefthand sidebar menu. When you've gone into Settings → Add-ons you can press (left) to show the menu and update button.

Automatic crop black bars setting

The video playback setting for cropping black bars has been removed due to various bugs. Team Kodi is looking for any developers who might be interested in creating replacement code and is willing to guide them. Please inquire on the development forum for more information.

Apple File Protocol (AFP) has been removed

Unfortunately, the AFP client has now been removed from Kodi. When AFP was first added to Kodi (then called XBMC) it was to help those Mac users who had issues with SMB sharing. However, the AFP client has always had major crashing issues, and the open source project behind it was no longer maintained. Team Kodi looked for a replacement and even tried to make our own replacement AFP client code, but in the end it didn't work out.
Users who have AFP file servers can use path substitution to change those URLs into another formatted protocol. We recommend using NFS or getting SMB to work by reading SMB/Mac. Editor note: maybe make a mini-how-to for the path subs.

HTSP has been removed

The HTSP protocol was a way for older versions of Kodi/XBMC to access Tvheadend before PVR/live TV features were officially added to Kodi/XBMC. Now that PVR/live TV has been supported since v12.0 (January 29th, 2013), and replaced the need for HTSP support, the HTSP protocol has finally been retired. Please see our PVR guide for details on how to set up the Tvheadend PVR add-on.

Tuxbox protocol has been removed

Same reason as the removal for HTSP support mentioned above. The VUPlus PVR add-on can be used for continued Tuxbox support. Please see our PVR guide for details.

Missing subtitle/audio options in settings

Some specific subtitle/audio options are currently missing from default v15 installations that were available in v14 and earlier. For example, in settings for subtitles one cannot set "Brazilian Portuguese" as their preference. Adding more language options by default is being investigated for v15.1, but a decision has not yet been reached. v16 will have the option of automatically including any installed language in the subtitle/audio options.
However, users can still manually add language options by adding an advancedsettings.xml file and using the <languagecodes> tag.
Editor note: Maybe make a specific step-by-step guide for this?

Troubleshooting

What are some of the known issues in Isengard?

See: Common issues

Where can I get more help?

The general and platform specific FAQs, the Kodi support forums: http://forum.kodi.tv, and/or the #kodi IRC chat channel on irc.freenode.org.

The "o" screen doesn't show the video FPS anymore

In the codecinfo window, the one that shows when you press o on a keyboard, the FPS data no longer reports video FPS.
In past versions of Kodi/XBMC (before v15) this value reported the estimated frames per second for the actual video itself, but was horribly inaccurate most of the time. Due to those inaccuracies, and various other code changes, the setting has been changed to only report what FPS the graphical interface (the buttons, menus, etc) is being rendered at. This doesn't actually mean anything for most users, but just understand that this no longer has anything to do with the video FPS.
If you want to check if your video playback is working as it should, watch the skip and drop values. If those stay low, nothing to worry about. Increasing skip value means, that video frames cannot be rendered in time. If you even see dropping, then it's our last resort, as the system seems to be too slow to play that video and we told the decoder to throw away complete frames. Also take care that the codecinfo window byself puts more pressure on the hardware. Open it from time to time only and compare the skip / drop values.

Fast forward and rewind are not smooth

While seeking/jump steps are fine, actual fast forwarding and rewinding is fairly broken in v15.0. We're not sure why, and this is egg on our face. We're working to fix it asap.

Seeking/jumping while rewinding can cause Kodi to hang/crash

For some users, when rewinding in a video and also jumping to another point in a video can cause Kodi to hang. Since the occurrence of this bug is fairly rare, and the trigger requires that specific behavior, v15's release was not delayed. A fix is planned for a future v15.1 bugfix release.

Erratic behavior for the on-screen-display controls during video playback

If you are seeing strange graphical errors on the on-screen-display controls (on screen buttons for playback, stop, ff/rw, subtitles, etc) then please check out this thread: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=228594


HDHomeRun tuners don't work over UPnP

HDHomeRun network tuners won't connect to Kodi v15.0 over UPnP due to some error in how Kodi is handling the URLs. Devs are working on a fix. A temp workaround would be to use HTTP URLs in a playlist (or modify your existing UPnP URLs if you are already using a playlist), or using the HDHomeRun View add-on. See here and here for more info.

ANDROID: Amlogic playback issues (zoomed in, 1/4 screen, no video, etc)

Kodi will no longer ask to fix incorrect video decoding permissions on Amlogic-based decides that have incorrectly configured firmware. This might cause an issue in some situations, and if this happens to you, first try to manually disable amcodec and only use mediacodec and libstagefright under Settings -> Videos -> Acceleration . If videos still won't play correctly then the device might a firmware/OS update for things to work properly.


Why was this changed?
As of v15 and later, Kodi doesn't try to manually fix the permissions anymore. Doing so was a hack that the devs didn't feel comfortable with, and venders need to fix this on the firmware level, not the app level. Some hardware venders are still unwilling to set the necessary permissions because of a misconception on "security", which ironically requires granting apps root-level access, which is far less secure.
However, the mediacodec "path" to decoding doesn't require the permissions changes, and mediacodec support has improved both in Kodi and in most firmware (even in some of the flawed ones). So now when amcodec fails it falls back on mediacodec, which normally works. In that sense it is "fixed". Eventually mediacodec will be the single standard, and there won't be a need for amcodec, but the option is still there for some special situations.

ANDROID: Some Sony tablets/phones won't install Kodi from Google Play

Some Sony tablets/phones/phablets have been marked as incompatible for Kodi on Google Play due to the way the touch screen works, which doesn't work in Kodi. A manual APK installation (see HOW-TO:Install Kodi for Android) should bypass this if you wish to experiment around anyways, but your touch screen probably won't work in Kodi and you will need another form of input (bluetooth keyboard, a smartphone/tablet remote on another device, etc).

UBUNTU: TvHeadend PVR add-on is missing

Gremlins came in and renamed kodi-pvr-tvheadend-hts to kodi-pvr-hts. To install the TvHeadend PVR add-on please use
apt-get install kodi-pvr-hts

iOS: Kodi won't start on iOS 5.x

There's an issue that is preventing Kodi from running on jailbroken iOS 5.x devices. Our iOS developer has found a solution and will work on an automatic fix for Kodi v15.1, but for v15.0 you will need to do the following manual fix:
  1. Go into Cydia and install "iOS Terminal" (or SSH into the iOS device from another computer)
  2. Open the new Terminal program and type in the following commands one at a time:
    apt-get install ldid
    ldid -S /Applications/Kodi.app/Kodi
  3. Now you should be able to start Kodi

See also

Template:Upgrade FAQs