Features and supported formats: Difference between revisions

From Official Kodi Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
 
(48 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{incomplete}}
{{mininav|[[General topics]]|[[FAQs]]}}
{{XBMC wiki toc Inline}}
Here is a more detailed list of XBMC features, functions and supported audio/video/picture formats.
== XBMC (latest SVN trunk) supports the following: ==
''For point releases, see [[:Category:Point Release]]''


=== Supported hardware platforms ===
{{cleanup}}
* XBMC for Linux is supported on computers of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_architecture x86 processor architecture] (Ubuntu as reference distro)
<section begin="intro" />'''[[Kodi|{{kodi}}]]''' can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: Kodi can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive. Kodi will [[adding videos to the library|scan all of your media and create a personalized library]] complete with boxcovers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.<section end="intro" />
** Option to enable MID Moblin support at compile time on XBMC for Linux
** Minimum requirement is AMD/Intel CPU with SSE support and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] 1.4 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPU GPU (graphics)]
* XBMC for Mac is supported under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) on x86 (Intel CPU) and PPC (PowerPC), as well as the Apple TV
* XBMC for Windows (on XP/Vista/7) is supported computers of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_architecture x86 processor architecture].
** Minimum requirement is AMD/Intel CPU with SSE support and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] 1.4 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPU GPU (graphics)]
* XBMC on Xbox is no longer supported. For a similar program try [http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_XBMC_for_Xbox XBMC4Xbox]


=== Supported controller peripherals and hardware options ===
=== KODI's Add-ons Manager and add-ons ===
* Controllable via supported Remote Control (depends on platform and remote)
{{#lst:Add-ons|intro}}
* Controllable via USB (HID) Mouse (Left/Right/Middle buttons and Wheel supported)
* Controllable via USB (HID) Touchscreen (as long as the touchscreen emulates a mouse)
* Controllable via USB (HID) Keyboard (ASCI-keys only, not any multimedia-keys)
* Fully control XBMC and its features via a [http://www.xbox.com/sv-SE/hardware/d/dvdplaybackkit/ Xbox™ IR DVD-Remote]
* Fully control XBMC and its features via a [http://www.xbox.com/sv-se/hardware/x/xboxcontroller-s/ Xbox™ game controller]<br />
* Controllable via [[Default Controls#Xbox USB Keyboard and Mouse Support|USB (HID) Mouse]] (Left/Right/Middle buttons and Wheel supported) [[#Notes|#1]]
* Controllable via [[Default Controls#Xbox USB Keyboard and Mouse Support|USB (HID) Keyboard]] (ASCI-keys only, not any multimedia-keys) [[#Notes|#1]]


=== Supported output media formats and devices: ===
==== Scrapers (web scraping for metadata) ====
* Widescreen (16:9) and normal-TV (4:3) aspect ratio video output support
XBMC/Kodi has the built-in optional function to automatically download metadata information, cover art and other related media artwork online through its web scrapers that looks for media in the user's audio / video folders and their sub-directories. These "scrapers" are this way used as importers to obtain detailed information from various Internet resources about movies and television shows. It can get synopses, reviews, movie posters, titles, genre classification, and other similar data. XBMC/Kodi GUI then provide a rich display for audio and video files that the scrapers has identified.
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdtv HDTV](High-Definition) and Standard Definition output resolutions (480p, 576p,720p, 1080i, 1080p and higher) [[#Notes|#14]]
* TV-output: 50hz/60Hz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntsc NTSC]-M/J (America/Asia) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL PAL] (Europe/Africa)
* RCA, SCART, RF Coaxial, S-video, Component/RGB,VGA-output [[#Notes|#14]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntsc NTSC] playback on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL PAL] TV and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL PAL] playback on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntsc NTSC] TV
* Analog audio-out (stereo/mono) via phono-connection or scart-adapter
* Digital audio-out (stereo/mono/surround) SPDIF ([http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/catalog.aspx?g=203000000&p=1&c=10&s=0&xlm=0&h=0&r=0 adapter required])


=== Supported physical input media formats and devices: ===
Scrapers use sites like themoviedb.org to obtain thumbnails and information on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, or CDDB (via freedb and Discogs, etc.) for audio CD track listings.
* Play media-files directly from a CDs and DVDs (including DVD-Video, VCD/SVCD and Audio-CD/CDDA)[[#Notes|#2]]
** (Supported CD/DVD formats: ISO 9660 Mode1/2/XA, UDF 1.02 and XDVDFS/CDX)
* Play media-files directly from any built-in harddisk drive [[#Notes|#4]]
* Streaming from a computer/server over a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network network] via [[UPnP Sharing|UPnP]], [[Windows File Sharing (samba/smb)|SMB/Samba/CIFS]], [[Media Source FTP|FTP]], or HTTP
** UPnP MediaServer compliant with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Living_Network_Alliance DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)] standard
** Including all [[NAS (Network Attached Storage)]] that support [[UPnP Sharing|UPnP]] or [[Windows File Sharing (samba/smb)|SMB/SAMBA/CIFS]]
* iTunes Music Shares via [[ITunes (DAAP)|DAAP]] (network stream from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itunes Apple iTunes 6.x] on Mac or Windows) [[#Notes|#5]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Stream supported media-files from the internet (if the stream protocol-format is supported) [[#Notes|#5]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Stream media STORED, (NOT COMPRESSED) directly from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rar RAR] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_%28file_format%29 ZIP] archives
* USB Memory Drives and [[USB Mass Storage support in XBMC|USB Mass Storage Devices]] (FATX/FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 formated [[#Notes|#13]])
** Including most [[USB Mass Storage support in XBMC|USB Mass Storage Devices (like memory-keys/sticks)]] [[#Notes|#1]]
<br />


=== Supported file/container formats: ===
==== Skins (themes) ====
* Audio-CD (CDDA) playback for normal Audio CDs (including CD-TEXT support) [[#Notes|#7]]
Skins allow users to drastically change the appearance and fundamental user interface of XBMC/Kodi. "Confluence" and "Project Mayhem" are the two official skins; "Confluence" is the default since version 9.11, and "Project Mayhem" was the previous default which is now in its third version, commonly known as "PM3.HD" (PM III High-Definition).
* SVCD and VCD (Video CD / CDXA) video, (SVCD/VCD menus are not supported yet)
* DVD-Video directly from Xbox DVD-ROM drive, Harddisk-drive or network
* Blu-ray directory (partial), longest video only, no menus, requires libbluray, linux only
* MPEG, MPG, M2V formats (inc. VCD's .dat and .bin and DVD's .vob)
* MPEG-TS (TY/TS/DV) DVB transport stream format
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD M2T/M2TS/MTS] ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray Blu-ray] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD AVCHD] video format) container [[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_transport_stream M2TS] ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray Blu-ray] video format) container [[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_VOB EVO] (Enhanced VOB) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD HD DVD] video format container [[#Notes|#5]]
* MP4 (MPEG-4 video) container
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LATM#Container_formats LATM] (Low-overhead MPEG-4 Audio Transport Multiplex) for AAC audio only
* RIFF AVI (AVI 1.0) container
* OpenDML AVI (AVI 2.0) container [[#Notes|#1]]
* [http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/mmswitch/bivx.htm BivX] (AVI with several audio streams) container
* Microsoft ASF/ASX/WMV/WMA containers [[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://forum.xbmc.org//showthread.php?t=34 Microsoft DVR-MS (Windows Media Center) containers] [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://www.apple.com/quicktime QuickTime] QT/MOV containers [[#Notes|#5]]
* FLV and SWF (Adobe/Macromedia Flash Video) containers
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUT_Container NUT] multimedia container
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Standard AVS (Audio Video Standard)] audio/video containers
* [http://www.nullsoft.com/nsv/ Nullsoft Steaming Video (NSV)] containers [[#Notes|#1]]
* [http://www.nullsoft.com/nsv/ Nullsoft Steaming Audio (NSA)] containers
* MPA, MP2, MP3 and WAV containers [[#Notes|#5]]
* AAC, M4A, MP4 (MPEG-4 audio) audio containers [[#Notes|#5]]
* RealMedia ([http://www.real.com Real] Video/Audio) RM/RAM/RA/RV/RMVB containers [[#Notes|#1]]
* [http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ OGG], OGA, OGM, and OGV containers
* [http://www.matroska.org/ Matroska (матрёшка)] MKV containers [[#Notes|#1]]
* VIVO (VIV) containers
* PVA containers
* NuppelVideo containers
* FLI and FLC containers
* Tracker Mods ([http://mikmod.raphnet.net/#features 18 formats supported]) audio
* M3U, PLS, CUE, URL, and STRM audio/video playlist and bookmark support[[#Notes|#1]]
<br />


=== Supported video codecs: ===
Users can also create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites that are used for XBMC/Kodi skins trading and development. Many such third-party skins exist that are well maintained by the community, and while some skins are originals with unique designs, most initially begin as a clones or an exact replica of other multimedia software interfaces, such as DivX Connected, Apple Front Row, Windows Media Center Edition (MCE), MediaPortal, Meedio/MeediOS, HDeeTV, Kaleidescape, Wii Channel Menu (Xii), Xbox 360 Blades (MC360), Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience (Xperience), and others.
* MPEG-1 (VCD/MPG) and MPEG-2 (MPEG/SVCD/DVD/VOB/DV/TY) video
* [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=73022 MPEG-4 ASP (H.263)]: [http://www.divx.com DivX (Pro)], OpenDivX, [http://www.xvid.org XviD] and [http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/index.html Nero Digital ASP]
* [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96059 MPEG-4 AVC - Advanced Video Coding (H.264)]: [http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/index.html Nero Digital AVC], [http://developers.videolan.org/x264.html x264], and [http://www.divx.com DivX AVC] video [[#Notes|#1]]
* Microsoft's Windows Media Video v7, v8 and v9 (MSMpeg4/WMV v1, v2, and v3)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1 VC-1 (SMPTE 421M)] Interlaced not yet supported (ffmpeg)
* RealVideo codecs: 1.0, 2.0 (RealPlayer G2), 3.0 (RealPlayer 8.x) and 4.0 (RealPlayer 9.x)
* QuickTime 5.0, 6.0, 6.3 video and audio codecs (QDMC / QDM2) [[#Notes|#1]]
* 3ivx D4 / 3vi1 MPEG-4 video (inc. MSZH/ZLIB Compressed-Header containers) [[#Notes|#1]]
* Sorenson v1/v3 (SVQ1/SVQ3) QuickTime video
* Apple Graphics (SMC) video
* Apple QuickDraw (qdrw) video decoder
* [http://www.on2.com On2 Technologies] VP3 (VP3.x), VP4 (VP4.x), VP5 (VP5.x), and VP6 (VP6.2)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Standard AVS (Audio Video Standard)] video codec
* [http://www.intel.com/labs/archive/indeo.htm Intel Indeo] 2 (Indeo2) and 3.1/3.2 (Indeo3) video decoder
* [http://frost.htu.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo/ NuppelVideo] (NUV)
* VIVO 1.0 and 2.0 (VIV)
* Fraps FPS1 video decoder
* Snow video decoder
* DV50 (DVCPRO50) video decoder, and DV100 (DVCPRO HD) video decoder
* ITU H.261 video
* Creative Labs YUV (CYUV) video
* Supermac Cinepak (CVID) video
* ASUS V1 (ASV1) and ASUS V2 (ASV2) video
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smacker Smacker] video decoder
* Motion Pixels video decoder
* BFI video decoder
* AMV video decoder
* Interplay C93 video decoder
* Zip Blocks Motion Video decoder
* Duck TrueMotion 2 video decoder
* Delphine Software .cin video decoder
* Bethsoft VID video decoder
* QPEG video decoder
* Miro VideoXL (VIXL) video decoder
* Winnov WNV1 video decoder
* LOCO video decoder
* TechSmith Camtasia (TSCC) video decoder
* IBM Ultimotion (ULTI) video decoder
* Autodesk Animator Studio Codec (AASC) video decoder
* Autodesk FLI and FLC Animation


<br />
The flexibility offered by the XBMC/Kodi skinning-engine is also useful for third-party companies who wish to make derivative work of Kodi as it makes it easy to rebrand the environment or make deeper changes to the look and feel of the user interface.


=== Supported audio codecs: ===
==== Web Interfaces ====
* CDDA (Audio-CD) playback
Web Interface addons for Kodi normally allow browsing a media library remotely, to handle music playlists from a computer instead of television. Others allow remotely controlling the navigation of Kodi like a remote for remote controlling of an installed and concurrently-active Kodi session running on a computer if it runs on an internet tablet or similar device with a touch interface. And yet other still acts like a media manager to allow modifying metadata and artwork in XBMC's video and music libraries.
* WAV/WAVE (WAVEform) and PCM audio format
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiff AIFF] (Audio Interchange File Format) audio
* MPEG layer I, II, and III (inluding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-1_Audio_Layer_II MP2] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3 MP3]) audio [[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ OGG] ([http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ Ogg Vorbis audio codec])
* WMA - Windows Media Audio v1 and v2 (WMA1 / WMA2 / DivX Audio v1/v2) [[#Notes|#5]]
* WMA - Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA9) [[#Notes|#5]]
* WMA Pro Audio Codec (Windows Media Audio 9 Professional)[[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realaudio RealNetworks RealAudio] codecs: 1.0 (14.4), 2.0 (28.8), SIPRO, COOK, COOKER, DNET and ATRAC3
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_Digital AC3] 2.0 or 5.1 and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_Digital_EX Dolby Digital EX] 6.1 or 7.1 audio in video (AC3 digital cable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF S/PDIF] pass-through)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital Dolby Digital AC3] and AC3-WAV/AC3-CDDA 2.0 and 5.1 audio in video software decoded to stereo analog-out
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital_Plus Dolby Digital Plus] (a.k.a. E-AC3), and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD Dolby TrueHD] 7.1 audio software decoder
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital_Plus Dolby Digital Plus] (a.k.a. E-AC3), and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD Dolby TrueHD] 7.1 audio in Blu-ray rips via digital cable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF S/PDIF] pass-through
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Theater_System DTS (Digital Theater System)] 5.1 and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Theater_System#DTS_variants DTS-ES] 6.1 audio in DVD-Video (DTS digital cable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF S/PDIF] pass-through)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Theater_System DTS] (DTS and DTS-WAV/DTS-CDDA) audio in DVD-Video (software decoded)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)] profiles: Main, LC, HE, LTP, LD, ER, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Extensions_.26_improvements aacPlus v1/v2 (AAC+ SBR/PS)] audio [[#Notes|#5]]
* M4A and MP4 (MPEG-4 Audio) (including Nero Digital MP4) [[#Notes|#5]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCELP PureVoice (QCELP)] audio decoder
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Standard AVS (Audio Video Standard)] audio codec
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC] (Free Lossless Audio Codec) audio
* [http://www.wavpack.com WavPack] lossless audio
* [http://www.musepack.net MPC] (Musepack, a.k.a. Mpeg+) lossless audio [[#Notes|#6]]
* [http://www.monkeysaudio.com APE] (Monkey's Audio) lossless audio
* [http://www.etree.org/shnutils/shorten/ SHN] (Shorten) lossless audio
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALAC ALAC] (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) lossless audio [[#Notes|#6]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Lossless_Packing MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing)] / Packed PCM (PPCM) audio decoder
* AMV audio decoder
* Sonic audio decoder
* AIFF/AIFF-C audio dcoder
* Macromedia ADPCM decoder
* Creative ADPCM audio decoder (16 bits as well as 8 bits schemes)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellymoser_Asao_Codec Nellymoser ASAO decoder]
* True Audio (TTA) decoder
* TrueSpeech audio decoder
* Intel Music decoder
* QDM2 audio decoder
* Delphine Software .cin audio decoder
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8SVX 8SVX] audio decoder
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi MIDI] music using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiMidity Timidity]
* Tracker Mod's audio, see list below:
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdLib Adlib] (AdLib and Sound Blaster OPL2/OPL3 and Dual OPL2/OPL3) FM audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_SID SID] (Commodore 64 tunes) audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST YM] (ATARI ST) audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsf NSF] (Nintendo NES Sound Format) audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPC700_sound_format SPC] (SPC700) audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.GYM GYM] (SEGA Genesis) audio
** [http://www.halleyscometsoftware.com/in_cube.html ADX/AST/ADP/DSP/YMF/HPS] [http://www.cri-mw.com/example/example_e.htm CRI MiddleWare] and Gamecube [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADPCM ADPCM]) audio
** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_file MOD]/AMF/669/DMF/DSM/FAR/GDM/IMF/IT/M15/MED/OKT/S3M/STM/SFX/ULT/UNI/XM
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/vgmstream vgmstream] playback of 51 more streamed audio formats used in video games:
** aax, asd, asr, ass, bgw, bh2pcm, capdsp, ccc, dcs, de2, emff, fag, gbts, gca, gsb, idsp, idvi, isd, joe, kraw, mihb, msvp, mwv, omu, p2bt, pdt, rnd, rwar, rwav, sap, seg, smp, spd, spsd, spw, ss7, ssm, thp, vgs, vs, waa, wac, wad, wam, xa2, xmu, xsf, xvas, ydsp, ymf, zwdsp
<br />


=== Supported picture/image formats: ===
=== Live TV with EPG and PVR / DVR frontend ===
* CBR/CBZ comic books (RAR/ZIP archives renamed)
From version 12 (Frodo) {{Kodi}} has a native Live TV with EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and DVR (Digital Video Recorder) features with a unified PVR (Personal Video Recorder) frontend GUI, enabling control of television video capture and playback to and from a hard disk drive with PVR Client Addons for most popular PVR backends (TV tuner card server) that can be installed separately as addons inside {{Kodi}.
* BMP picture/image
* JPG/JPEG picture/image
* GIF picture/image
* ICO picture/image
* PCX picture/image
* PNG picture/image
* RAW picture/image
* TIF/TIFF picture/image
* TGA picture/image
<br />


=== Features available for video playback: ===
PVR backend can either be networked DVR set-top box appliance hardware or PC-based digital video recorder software which can run on the same computer or other computers on the same network. PVR backend software and hardware is available which can turn personal computers running Microsoft Windows, Linux, and OS X into PVR/DVR backends.
* Full-screen playback display of all supported video formats/containers via a TV
* Auto PAL50/PAL60-switching support and auto 4:3/16:9-switching support
* Framerate Conversion (23.98<->25fps), another NTSC <-> PAL workaround solution
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU VDPAU] hardware accelerated video decoding under Linux on NVIDIA graphics
* SQL database with view by file/genre/actor/year/title, sort by year/name/rating and search functions
* Shift-key navigation in lists, (jump to starting letter by holding down shift)
* Selectable options from OSD (On Screen Display) Control Panel during playback
* FFWD (fast-forward) and RWD (rewind [[#Notes|#1]]), and PAUSE in AVI/OGM/MKV/MPEG/MPG media
* MPlayer time-based (30sec/5min) or percent-based (2%/10%) seeking forward and backward
* Video-Autorun, auto-plays VCD/SVCD/DVD/CD's with video file(s) upon insert
* DVD-video playback with menus (from DVD, harddrive, network, as IFO/VOB or ISO/IMG DVD-images) [[#Notes|#12]]
** Region-free DVD-Video playback (with option to force region if and when needed)
* Play supported video files directly from ISO, BIN, IMG, NRG and BIN CD/DVD-images
* Subtitle support (embedded and external)
** AQTitle/AQT, ASS/SSA, CC, JacoSub, MicroDVD, MPsub, PJS, RT, SMI, SRT, SUB, VobSub, VPlayer
** JSS, MLP [[#Notes|#11]]
* Play internet files/streams from HTTP and MMS (Microsoft Media Streaming Protocol) [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Play RealMedia internet steams of HTTP + RTSP/RDT (Real Data Transport Protocol) [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* [http://www.nullsoft.com/nsv/ Nullsoft Streaming Video (NSV)] internet-streams (only if VP3+MP3), (Nullsoft TV a.k.a. [http://www.nullsoft.com/ntv/ NTV]) [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Streaming video from a [http://www.mythtv.org MythTV backend] PVR software over network
* Initial support for streaming from [http://www.lonelycoder.com/hts/tvheadend/docs/2_0/index.html HTS Tvheadend server/relay] on Linux
* Streaming video from a [http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/ VDR (via VDR streamdev servers VTP streaming)] PVR software over network
* Streaming video from a [http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun HDHomeRun] DVR box over network
* Streaming video from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreambox Dreambox] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBox2 DBox2] DVR boxes over network via built-in [[TuxBox Stream Client]]
* Streaming video from a [http://www.replaytv.com ReplayTV] (4500, 5000 or 5500 series) DVR box over network [[#Notes|#1]]
* Streaming video from a [http://www.tivo.com TiVo] DVR box over network (requires hacked TiVo running [http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/xbplayer/ccxstream-1.0.15-tivo.tar.gz ccXStream]) [[#Notes|#1]]
* [[Movies (Video Library)|Movie]] information lookup for movie-info and [[thumbnails]]
** Can also extract a specific URL from an [[nfo]] file with same file-name as the movie
* [http://www.themoviedb.org themoviedb.org] meta data information lookup for movie-info and poster [[thumbnails]]
* Support for movie.nfo and movie.tbn (if there is a movie.nfo file in the folder)
** Support for mixed (XML and URL) NFO files for Movies
* Possibility to import movie library information from "[http://www.mymovies.name/ My Movies]" (via the mymovies.xml files)
* Optional media file and/or folder thumbnails for easy localization (see [[My Videos#Thumbnails|thumbnail options]])
* [[FanArt]] backdrop scraping for Movies from [http://www.themoviedb.org themoviedb.org] (a site which you can contribute to)
* [[FanArt]] backdrop scraping for TV Shows from [http://www.thetvdb.com thetvdb.com] (a site which you can contribute to)
* Party Mode playlists and playlist editor.
* Stack multi-file videos option, show/play files with 90% name similarity as one
* Support for local moving trailer files (using the naming standard: "moviename-trailer.avi")
* [[EDL (commercial skipping) and SceneMarker support]] using chapter files
** EDL (Edit Decision List)
** ComSkip .txt (with framerate, like Comskip generates)
** VideoReDo
** SnapStream Beyond TV Smart Chapters (a.k.a. smartskip)
* Switch between multiple audio streams/tracks in DVD-Video, AVI, OGM and MKV/Matroska
** Left, Right Mono and Stereo channel selection available for all two channel audio-streams
* Multiple [[Rendering|video-rendering]] options to optimize playback of your video-formats
* 24FPS 1080p playback (1920x1080@24Hz) and 25FPS 1080p playback 1920x1080@50Hz
* Different Post-Processing filters for better video quality [[#Notes|#11]]
* Flicker-filter (optional video flicker-filter with five levels, disabled by default)
* Adjust framerate (auto switching refresh rate to match video source frame rate)
* Soften-filter (optional filter to decrease video sharpness and thus artifacts)
* De-interlace filter (for interlaced video) implementation option
* Brightness/Contrast/Gamma controls (only for HighQuality Pixelshader)
* Video resizing/scaling and zooming functions
* Screenshot capture function (including video overlay support and OSD)
* AC3 (Dolby Digital EAX) 2.0, 5.1 and 7.1 pass-through from video to SP/DIF AC3 output
* AC3 (Dolby Digital) 5.1 -> 2.0 software-decoding to PCM stereo or mono out
* DTS (Digital Theatre Sound ES) pass-through from video to S/PDIF DTS output
* Option to output mono or stereo to all speakers (for 5.1 surround speakers)
* Bit-Perfect Audio Playback on Linux/Mac/Windows (removed audio resampling)
<br />


=== Features available for audio playback: ===
PVR Client Addons are available for many PVR backend software and hardware such as Argus TV, DVBViewer, ForTheRecord, Tvheadend, MediaPortal, MythTV, NextPVR (formerly GB-PVR), VDR, WMC (Windows Media Center), and Enigma2-based DVR set-top boxes such as Dreambox and Vu+, as well as PVR Client Addons for direct LAN connection to Network Attached TV-Tuners such as Silicon Dust HDHomeRun and Njoy Digital AnySee N7 DVB-S2 network-tuners.
* Playback of all supported audio-formats via a TV or external audio-receiver/amplifier
* SQL database with view music by Top100/Albums/Tracks/Artists/Filenames or Recent Albums
** Also option to sort by Track/Filename/Date or Size and search functions
* Shift-key navigation in lists, (jump to starting letter by holding down shift)
* Karaoke features for music files with audio-visualization overlay support:
** CDG (CDG + MP3, AAC, CDG, WAV, etc.) playback - Play standard CDG karaoke files
** LRC (LRCv1 and LRCv2) - Karaoke text based lyrics file format with .lrc extension
** MIDI (.MID/.KAR) playback - Play MIDI format karaoke files
** Transparent ZIP and RAR files - Play MP3+GDG/MIDI files wrapped in ZIP/RAR files
** Supports song numbering with permanent numbers, which means the song could be selected by number, even if another song is being played. The numbering information could be exported into HTML file and used to print catalogs
** Supports real-time lyrics timing modification, allowing to modify the lyrics-music delay. The delay is associated to the song, and then restored when this song is played again
* [http://www.freedb.org CDDB] album lookup support when playing Audio-CD's (done via [http://www.freedb.org freedb.org])
* Party Mode playlists and playlist editor.
* Gapless, Crossfade, and Preamp (pre-amplification) playback support options
* [http://www.replaygain.org ReplayGain] "MetaData" applification/normalization (loudness control) support
* Thumbnail and album information lookup for Audio-CD's (done via [[scrapers]])
** XBMC cames with music scrapers exist for allmusic.com, last.fm, discogs.com and more
* Display embedded tumbnails/icons (album artwork) if integrated into a MP3 or AAC file
* Optional custom file and/or folder thumbnails for easy localization (see [[My Music#Thumbnails|thumbnail options]])
* [[FanArt]] backdrop scraping for Music Artist from [http://htbackdrops.com htbackdrops.com]
* [[FanArt]] support for Music Artist (Artists/Groups/Bands) for locally stored backdrops
** Support for mixed (XML and URL) NFO files for Music Artist and Album
* Audio-Autorun, auto-plays CDDA and music DVD/CD's with audio file(s) upon insert
* Play internet-files/streams from HTTP and MMS (Microsoft Media Streaming Protocol) [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Play RealMedia internet steams of HTTP + RTSP/RDT (Real Data Transport Protocol) [[#Notes|#1]]/[[#Notes|#11]]
* Play soundtracks ripped by/in Xbox dashboard (add path "soundtrack://" to XML)
* Play supported audio files directly from BIN, IMG, NRG and ISO CD/DVD-images
* Reads [http://www.id3.org/id3v1.html ID3v1]/[http://www.id3.org/easy.html ID3v2]/[http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/files/spc_file_format.txt ID666]/APEv1/[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEv2_tag APEv2] info-tags from audio/music-files
* M3U and PLS audio playlists (inc. option to create/save M3U audio-playlists)
* [http://www.shoutcast.com SHOUTcast] Internet Radio (MP3 .pls playlists) playback support
* Local/native [http://www.shoutcast.com SHOUTcast] recording (to MP3) onto the Xbox harddrive
* [[LastFM|last.fm]] (AudioScrobbler) online-radio submission and playback/streaming support
* Audio Visualizations (several visual generators and a spectrum analyser)
* FF (fast-forward) and RW (rewind), and PAUSE during audio playback/visualization
* Option to output mono or stereo to all speakers (for 5.1 surround speakers)
* Bit-Perfect Audio Playback on Linux/Mac/Windows (removed audio resampling)
<br />


=== Features available for picture/image viewing: ===
=== Audio, video, and pictures playback and handling ===
* Full-screen display of all supported picture and image formats via a TV
XBMC/Kodi can play media from CD/DVD media using an internal DVD-ROM drive or Blu-ray Discs (unencrypted). It can also play media from an internal built-in hard disk drive and SMB/SAMBA/CIFS shares (Windows File-Sharing), NFS, WebDAV or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) shares. XBMC/Kodi can also take advantage of a broadband Internet connection if available to stream Internet-video-streams like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Veoh, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as Pandora Radio). XBMC/Kodi also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm and Libre.fm. It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke function and many audio-visualizations and screensavers. XBMC/Kodi can in addition upscale/upconvert all standard-definition (480i/480p/576i/576p) resolution videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition resolutions.
* Shift-key navigation in lists, (jump to starting letter by holding down shift)
* Picture slideshow, including option for adding recursive to slideshows
* Picture thumbnails (automatically generated on demand)
* Folder thumbnails (automatically generated after entered that folder)
* View pictures directly from ISO, IMG, NRG and BIN CD/DVD-images
* Picture Zooming, rotate, move around, info, pause, next/previous picture
* [http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/3/9/511&pq-locale=en_US Kodak PictureCD compatible] (auto-launches slideshow on CD insert) [[#Notes|#2]]
* Auto-launches picture CD/DVD on insert if images in root directory
<br />


==== Format support ====
XBMC/Kodi can be used to play/view all common multimedia formats through its native clients and parsers. It can decode these audio and video formats in software or hardware, and optionally pass-through AC3/DTS/HD audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to S/PDIF digital output to an external audio-amplifier/receiver for decoding.


=== Other and generic Graphical User Interface (GUI) features: ===
;Supported formats
* Controllable via a [http://www.xbox.com/sv-SE/hardware/d/dvdplaybackkit/Xbox™ Remote Control], a [http://www.xbox.com/sv-se/hardware/x/xboxcontroller-s/ game-pad], USB keyboard and/or USB mouse
* '''Physical digital media:''' Blu-ray Disc (unencrypted), CDs, DVDs, DVD-Video, Video CDs (including VCD/SVCD/XVCD), Audio-CD (CDDA), USB Flash Drives, and local Hard Disk Drives
* Virtual-Keyboard for manual video/music database searches and settings configurations
* '''Network protocol clients:''' AirPlay/AirTunes, UPnP, SMB/SAMBA/CIFS, AFP, Zeroconf/Avahi/Bonjour, NFS, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT), MMS (MMSU, MMST), Podcasting, TCP, UDP, SFTP, RTP and RTMP (including RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPS), DHCP, NTP, WebDAV
* Flexible XML based skinning-engine with GUI skin-switching (and many skins available)
Network protocol servers: JSON-RPC server, D-Bus server, Web server, FTP Server, and UPnP AV media server, and a multi-protocol Event Server
* Range of different view modes (supports unlimited custom skinner created views)
* '''Container formats:''' AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV/MKA (Matroska), QuickTime, MP4, M4A, AAC, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, 3gp, VIVO, PVA, NUV, NSV, NSA, FLI, FLC, DVR-MS, WTV, TRP and F4V.
* Context Menu feature (mapped by default to the TITLE button on the remote)
* '''Video formats:''' MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 SP and ASP, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), H.265 (as from Kodi 14) HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, RealVideo, RMVB, Sorenson, WMV, Cinepak.
* View file media listing By List, By Small Icons or By Large Icons option
* '''Audio formats:''' MIDI, AIFF, WAV/WAVE, AIFF, MP2, MP3, AAC, AACplus (AAC+), Vorbis, AC3, DTS, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Monkey's Audio (APE), RealAudio, SHN, WavPack, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+, Shorten, Speex, WMA, IT, S3M, MOD (Amiga Module), XM, NSF (NES Sound Format), SPC (SNES), GYM (Genesis), SID (Commodore 64), Adlib, YM (Atari ST), ADPCM (Nintendo GameCube), and CDDA.
* "My Files" file-manager, move/copy/delete local and copy from network
* '''Digital picture/image formats:''' BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, ICO, PCX, Targa/TGA and WebP
* "My Weather" weather forecast feature (done via [http://www.weather.com The Weather Channel])
* '''Subtitle formats:''' AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMI, SRT, SUB, VOBsub, VPlayer
** [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=40709 FanArt Backdrop support for Weather] (based on current weather condition)
* '''Metadata tags:''' APEv1, APEv2, ID3 (ID3v1 and ID3v2), ID666 and Vorbis comments for audio file formats, Exif and IPTC (including GeoTagging) for image file formats
** [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=27354 Skin theme/items changes on-the-fly with variables based on date and/or time]
* Several screensavers on configurable timer in GUI to choose from
** Including picture slideshow screensaver, and [[FanArt]] screensaver
* RSS feed in main menu (you can manually disable or change feed in RssFeeds.xml)
* [http://www.python.org Python] Script Interpreter Engine (execute/run Python scripts from within XBMC)
* Idle shutdown-timer, which shutdown XBMC when idle, configurable timer through GUI
* [[Shutdown Menu|Non-idle sleep timer]], shutdown XBMC even if not idle after specific set manually
* Flicker-filter (optional GUI flicker-filter with five levels, high enabled by default)
* Language (XML) files for translated GUI (over 30+ languages so far), switch from GUI
* International-language fonts for the GUI (via TTF-Fonts, configurable in UI-Settings)
* GUI and video calibration (including storing calibration settings per resolution)
* Displays system info under Settings (Build date, free space, IP, temperature)
* Screenshot capture function, to snap shots of GUI (inc. video overlay support)
* Configurable memory cache buffer for video/audio playback, configured in GUI
* Option to safely remove (eject/unmount) external harddrives in XBMC for Linux
* Export entire music/video library into separate files (NFO with TBN images)
<br />


=== Other non-GUI features, functions and options: ===
==== Video playback in detail ====
* Fully re-mappable keys for [http://www.xbox.com/sv-SE/hardware/d/dvdplaybackkit/Xbox™ DVD Remote] and the [http://www.xbox.com/sv-se/hardware/x/xboxcontroller-s/ controller/game-pad] (via Keymap.xml)
===== Video Library =====
** Including the possibility to map and use all RCA-5 IR codes from a universal remote
The Video Library, one of the Kodi metadata databases, is a key feature of XBMC/Kodi. It allows the organization of video content by information associated with the video files (e.g. movies and recorded TV Shows) themselves. This information can be obtained in various ways, like through scrapers (i.e. web scraping sites like TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, etc.), and nfo files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library view allows users to browse their video content by categories; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.
* Auto-detection of UDF 1.02, XDVDFS/CDX and ISO9660 - mode1/mode2/XA [[#Notes|#1]]
* Auto-launch Xbox game-disc on insert with enable/disable optional from within GUI
* Advanced and expert options available via an optional [[AdvancedSettings.xml]] file
* "LaunchPlayer", option to launch external player via [[AdvancedSettings.xml]]
* Built-in Web-Server for remote control of XBMC (http//:xboxIPaddressHere.asp)
** Avahi Zeroconf (Zero Configuration Networking) for XBMC webserver on Mac OS X
* Built-in [[WebServerHTTP-API|HTTP API]] interface so you can build custom remote control applications
* Built-in FTP-Server, connect to it via an FTP client to copy files to/from Xbox harddrive
* DLNA compatible UPnP MediaServer enabling streaming to other UPnP clients
* [http://xbmc.org/topfs2/2009/01/09/pulseaudio-and-xbmc-for-linux/ PulseAudio] sound server support, (only in XBMC for Linux and XBMC Live as of yet)
* Supports Static-IP/Subnetmask/DNS/WINS and alternative DHCP-client for auto config
* Clock/date synchronization from a (NT SNTP) Time Server on the network/internet
* [[D-Bus Server]] supporting MPRIS (Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification)
* Harddrive (HDD) spindown on idle (spin-down disks when XBMC is idle in menu) [[#Notes|#1]]
* Installed xsession for use in example with GDM and KDM for a XBMC-only session on Linux
* [[Error Recovery Mode]] (Emergency Recovery Console) - Enables the FTP-server if get corrupt XBMC system-files on Xbox.
<br />


== Notes ==
===== Video player =====
'''1.''' Experimental, unfinished, unstable, buggy and/or limited<br />
 
'''2.''' Most Xbox DVD-ROM drives are very picky with CD/DVD media disks, see FAQ<br />
XBMC/Kodi uses a video-player 'core' for video-playback called "[[DVDPlayer]]". This in-house developed cross-platform media player was originally designed to play back DVD-Video movies, and this includes support native for DVD-menus, (based on the free open source libraries code libdvdcss and libdvdnav). DVDPlayer is based on FFmpeg and today supports all widespread mainstream formats. One relatively unusual feature of this DVD-player core is the capability to on-the-fly pause and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG DVD-images or DVD-Video (IFO/VOB/BUP) images (even directly from uncompressed RAR and ZIP archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.
'''4.''' Xbox's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FATX FATX] harddrive file-system has file and folder name/character limitations, see FAQ<br />
 
'''5.''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management DRM (Digital Rights Management)] protected files are not yet supported by XBMC<br />
==== Audio playback in detail ====
'''6.''' Exclusive to our integrated audio/music-player ([[PAPlayer]])<br />
===== Music Library =====
'''7.''' Samsung DVD-ROM drive only on Xbox (and maybe some PC DVD-ROM drives on Xbox)<br />
The Music Library, one of the XBMC/Kodi metadata databases, is another key feature of XBMC/Kodi. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file ID meta tags, like title, artist, album, production year, genre, and popularity. Automatically downloading and displaying album covers and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers.
'''8.''' For LCD-display add-on mods compatible with XBMC see [http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14370 here]<br />
 
'''10.''' Xored ETM/XBTF Trainer Engine is only developed/maintained/supported by [http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=44 Team Xored].<br />
===== Audio player cores =====
'''11.''' Exclusive to our [[MPlayer|MPlayer-based media-player]] (only available in XBMC for Xbox).<br />
For music playback, Kodi includes its own in-house developed audio-player, "PAPlayer" (which stands for "Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player"), and this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly resampling of the audio frequency, gapless playback, crossfading, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg Chapter support. The "PAPlayer" audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports most different tagging standards. XBMC/Kodi also have support for most popular karaoke computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G, LRC, and KAR files.
'''12.''' Exclusive to our [[DVDPlayer|DVDPlayer (FFmpeg-based) video-player]].<br />
 
'''13.''' Exclusive to XBMC for Xbox (XBMC running nativly on Xbox game-console).<br />
==== Digital picture/image display in detail ====
'''14.''' Only limited by the hardware and operating-system that XBMC is running on.<br /><br />
XBMC/Kodi handles all common digital picture/image formats with the options of panning/zooming and slideshow with "Ken Burns Effect", with the use of CxImage open source library code. XBMC/Kodi can also handle CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files, this feature lets users view/read, browse and zoom the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first. Viewing CBR files in Kodi 18 Leia for Windows and upwards will require you to install the RAR Support add-on.
 
[[Category:Manual]]

Latest revision as of 06:15, 10 February 2019

Home icon grey.png   ▶ General topics ▶ FAQs ▶ Features and supported formats
Cleanup.png This page or section may require cleanup, updating, spellchecking, reformatting and/or updated images. Please improve this page if you can. The discussion page may contain suggestions.


Kodi can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: Kodi can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive. Kodi will scan all of your media and create a personalized library complete with boxcovers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.

KODI's Add-ons Manager and add-ons

An Add-on is another piece of software that can be added to a program to further expand and enhance the features of that program. Imagine a smart phone and all the additional Apps that can be installed to enhance its functionality. Kodi has the same ability and these apps are referred to as Add-ons. Kodi has a growing list of community driven add-ons which can be installed from a common official repository, while still enabling third-party developers to also host their own unofficial repositories for add-ons that any user can choose to add themselves.

Scrapers (web scraping for metadata)

XBMC/Kodi has the built-in optional function to automatically download metadata information, cover art and other related media artwork online through its web scrapers that looks for media in the user's audio / video folders and their sub-directories. These "scrapers" are this way used as importers to obtain detailed information from various Internet resources about movies and television shows. It can get synopses, reviews, movie posters, titles, genre classification, and other similar data. XBMC/Kodi GUI then provide a rich display for audio and video files that the scrapers has identified.

Scrapers use sites like themoviedb.org to obtain thumbnails and information on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, or CDDB (via freedb and Discogs, etc.) for audio CD track listings.

Skins (themes)

Skins allow users to drastically change the appearance and fundamental user interface of XBMC/Kodi. "Confluence" and "Project Mayhem" are the two official skins; "Confluence" is the default since version 9.11, and "Project Mayhem" was the previous default which is now in its third version, commonly known as "PM3.HD" (PM III High-Definition).

Users can also create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites that are used for XBMC/Kodi skins trading and development. Many such third-party skins exist that are well maintained by the community, and while some skins are originals with unique designs, most initially begin as a clones or an exact replica of other multimedia software interfaces, such as DivX Connected, Apple Front Row, Windows Media Center Edition (MCE), MediaPortal, Meedio/MeediOS, HDeeTV, Kaleidescape, Wii Channel Menu (Xii), Xbox 360 Blades (MC360), Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience (Xperience), and others.

The flexibility offered by the XBMC/Kodi skinning-engine is also useful for third-party companies who wish to make derivative work of Kodi as it makes it easy to rebrand the environment or make deeper changes to the look and feel of the user interface.

Web Interfaces

Web Interface addons for Kodi normally allow browsing a media library remotely, to handle music playlists from a computer instead of television. Others allow remotely controlling the navigation of Kodi like a remote for remote controlling of an installed and concurrently-active Kodi session running on a computer if it runs on an internet tablet or similar device with a touch interface. And yet other still acts like a media manager to allow modifying metadata and artwork in XBMC's video and music libraries.

Live TV with EPG and PVR / DVR frontend

From version 12 (Frodo) Kodi has a native Live TV with EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and DVR (Digital Video Recorder) features with a unified PVR (Personal Video Recorder) frontend GUI, enabling control of television video capture and playback to and from a hard disk drive with PVR Client Addons for most popular PVR backends (TV tuner card server) that can be installed separately as addons inside {{Kodi}.

PVR backend can either be networked DVR set-top box appliance hardware or PC-based digital video recorder software which can run on the same computer or other computers on the same network. PVR backend software and hardware is available which can turn personal computers running Microsoft Windows, Linux, and OS X into PVR/DVR backends.

PVR Client Addons are available for many PVR backend software and hardware such as Argus TV, DVBViewer, ForTheRecord, Tvheadend, MediaPortal, MythTV, NextPVR (formerly GB-PVR), VDR, WMC (Windows Media Center), and Enigma2-based DVR set-top boxes such as Dreambox and Vu+, as well as PVR Client Addons for direct LAN connection to Network Attached TV-Tuners such as Silicon Dust HDHomeRun and Njoy Digital AnySee N7 DVB-S2 network-tuners.

Audio, video, and pictures playback and handling

XBMC/Kodi can play media from CD/DVD media using an internal DVD-ROM drive or Blu-ray Discs (unencrypted). It can also play media from an internal built-in hard disk drive and SMB/SAMBA/CIFS shares (Windows File-Sharing), NFS, WebDAV or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) shares. XBMC/Kodi can also take advantage of a broadband Internet connection if available to stream Internet-video-streams like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Veoh, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as Pandora Radio). XBMC/Kodi also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm and Libre.fm. It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke function and many audio-visualizations and screensavers. XBMC/Kodi can in addition upscale/upconvert all standard-definition (480i/480p/576i/576p) resolution videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition resolutions.

Format support

XBMC/Kodi can be used to play/view all common multimedia formats through its native clients and parsers. It can decode these audio and video formats in software or hardware, and optionally pass-through AC3/DTS/HD audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to S/PDIF digital output to an external audio-amplifier/receiver for decoding.

Supported formats
  • Physical digital media: Blu-ray Disc (unencrypted), CDs, DVDs, DVD-Video, Video CDs (including VCD/SVCD/XVCD), Audio-CD (CDDA), USB Flash Drives, and local Hard Disk Drives
  • Network protocol clients: AirPlay/AirTunes, UPnP, SMB/SAMBA/CIFS, AFP, Zeroconf/Avahi/Bonjour, NFS, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT), MMS (MMSU, MMST), Podcasting, TCP, UDP, SFTP, RTP and RTMP (including RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPS), DHCP, NTP, WebDAV

Network protocol servers: JSON-RPC server, D-Bus server, Web server, FTP Server, and UPnP AV media server, and a multi-protocol Event Server

  • Container formats: AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV/MKA (Matroska), QuickTime, MP4, M4A, AAC, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, 3gp, VIVO, PVA, NUV, NSV, NSA, FLI, FLC, DVR-MS, WTV, TRP and F4V.
  • Video formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 SP and ASP, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), H.265 (as from Kodi 14) HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, RealVideo, RMVB, Sorenson, WMV, Cinepak.
  • Audio formats: MIDI, AIFF, WAV/WAVE, AIFF, MP2, MP3, AAC, AACplus (AAC+), Vorbis, AC3, DTS, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Monkey's Audio (APE), RealAudio, SHN, WavPack, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+, Shorten, Speex, WMA, IT, S3M, MOD (Amiga Module), XM, NSF (NES Sound Format), SPC (SNES), GYM (Genesis), SID (Commodore 64), Adlib, YM (Atari ST), ADPCM (Nintendo GameCube), and CDDA.
  • Digital picture/image formats: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, ICO, PCX, Targa/TGA and WebP
  • Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMI, SRT, SUB, VOBsub, VPlayer
  • Metadata tags: APEv1, APEv2, ID3 (ID3v1 and ID3v2), ID666 and Vorbis comments for audio file formats, Exif and IPTC (including GeoTagging) for image file formats

Video playback in detail

Video Library

The Video Library, one of the Kodi metadata databases, is a key feature of XBMC/Kodi. It allows the organization of video content by information associated with the video files (e.g. movies and recorded TV Shows) themselves. This information can be obtained in various ways, like through scrapers (i.e. web scraping sites like TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, etc.), and nfo files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library view allows users to browse their video content by categories; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.

Video player

XBMC/Kodi uses a video-player 'core' for video-playback called "DVDPlayer". This in-house developed cross-platform media player was originally designed to play back DVD-Video movies, and this includes support native for DVD-menus, (based on the free open source libraries code libdvdcss and libdvdnav). DVDPlayer is based on FFmpeg and today supports all widespread mainstream formats. One relatively unusual feature of this DVD-player core is the capability to on-the-fly pause and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG DVD-images or DVD-Video (IFO/VOB/BUP) images (even directly from uncompressed RAR and ZIP archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.

Audio playback in detail

Music Library

The Music Library, one of the XBMC/Kodi metadata databases, is another key feature of XBMC/Kodi. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file ID meta tags, like title, artist, album, production year, genre, and popularity. Automatically downloading and displaying album covers and fan art backdrops as background wallpapers.

Audio player cores

For music playback, Kodi includes its own in-house developed audio-player, "PAPlayer" (which stands for "Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player"), and this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly resampling of the audio frequency, gapless playback, crossfading, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg Chapter support. The "PAPlayer" audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports most different tagging standards. XBMC/Kodi also have support for most popular karaoke computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G, LRC, and KAR files.

Digital picture/image display in detail

XBMC/Kodi handles all common digital picture/image formats with the options of panning/zooming and slideshow with "Ken Burns Effect", with the use of CxImage open source library code. XBMC/Kodi can also handle CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files, this feature lets users view/read, browse and zoom the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first. Viewing CBR files in Kodi 18 Leia for Windows and upwards will require you to install the RAR Support add-on.