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<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" />
Here is a detailed list of [[XBMC]] features, functions and supported audio/video/picture formats.
 
===XBMC's Addons Manager and addons===
=== KODI's Add-ons Manager and add-ons ===
XBMC features several open [[Application programming interface|APIs]] to enable [[third-party developer]]s to create capabilities which extend XBMC with a multitude of [[Plug-in (computing)|addons]], such as audio and video streaming plugins for online sources, widget scripts, skins/themes, visualizations, screensavers, web scrapers, weather forecasts, web interfaces, and more. XBMC developers encourages users to make and submit their own addons to add additional media content and [[value-added service]]s accessible from within XBMC.
{{#lst:Add-ons|intro}}


XBMC's latest point-release, (codename: "''Dharma''"), features a new Addons Framework architecture and Addons Manager GUI client that connects to a [[decentralized]] [[digital distribution]] service [[Platform (computing)|platform]] that serves add-on apps and [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-ins]] which among other things provide online content to XBMC, the "''Addons Manager''" (or "''Addons Browser''") inside XBMC allows users to browse and download new addons directly from XBMC's GUI.
==== 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.


Many of these online content sources are in [[over-the-top content]] high definition services and use video streaming sites, such as [[Adobe Flash]] based content. XBMC has extensibility and integration with online sources for both free and premium streaming content, and offers content from everything from commercial video, to free educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
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.


====Plugins and scripts (apps/gadgets/widgets)====
==== Skins (themes) ====
XBMC features a [[Python (programming language)|Python Scripts Engine]] for addon extensions, WindowXML [[application framework]] (a [[XML]]-based [[widget toolkit]] for creating a GUI for apps / [[widget (computing)|widgets]]) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X [[Dashboard (Mac OS)|Dashboard Widgets]] and [[Microsoft Gadgets]] in [[Windows Sidebar]]. Python [[widget (computing)|widget]] scripts allow normal users to add new functionality to XBMC themselves, using [[Python (programming language)|Python]] [[scripting language]]. Current [[plugins|plugin]] scripts include functions like [[Internet television|Internet-TV]] and [[trailer (film)|movie-trailer]] browsers, [[weather forecasting|weather forecast]] and cinemaguides, [[Over-the-top content]] video streaming services like YouTube, [[BBC iPlayer]], [[Hulu]], [[Netflix]], [[Veoh]], [[MLB.tv]], Internet-radio-station browsers (example [[Pandora Radio]], [[Xm radio]], [[Sirius Satellite Radio]]), online picture sharing sites like [[Flickr]], [[Electronic program guide|TV-guides (EPG)]], e-mail clients, [[instant messaging]], train-timetables, [[home automation]] scripts to [[Front-end and back-end|front-end]] control [[Personal video recorder|PVR]] software and hardware (like: MediaPortal, MythTV, [[TiVo]], [[ReplayTV]], [[Dreambox]]/[[DBox2]]), [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]] file-sharing downloaders ([[BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent]]), [[IRC]], also [[casual games]] (sometimes also referred to as [[Minigame|mini-games]] or [[party game|party-games]]) such as [[Tetris]], [[Snake (video game)|Snake]], [[Space Invaders]], [[Sudoku]], and much more.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="XBMC 9.04 delivers impressive media center experience"/><ref name="XBMC-Addons on Google Code"/><ref name="XBMC Zone"/><ref name="Passion XBMC"/>
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).


====Scrapers (web scraping for metadata)====
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.
XBMC has the built-in optional function to automatically download [[metadata]] information, [[cover art]] and other related media artwork online through its [[web scraping|web scrapers]] that looks for media in the user's audio / video folders and their sub-directories. These "scrapers" are this way used as [[Importer (computing)|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 GUI then provide a rich display for audio and video files that the scrapers has identified.


Scrapers use sites like [[themoviedb.org]]<ref>http://simonpena.com/blog/mswl/butaca-imdb-and-tmdb/ Butaca IMDb, and TMDb</ref> or [[imdb.com]] to obtain [[thumbnails]] and information on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, [[CDDB]] (via [[freedb]] and [[Discogs]], etc.) for audio CD track listings, and [[Allmusic|AMG]] for album [[thumbnails]].<ref name="XBMC Architecture Overview by Telematics Freedom Foundation"/>
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.


====Skins (themes)====
==== Web Interfaces ====
Same as the majority of most applications that originated from a '[[homebrew (video games)|homebrew]]' scene, is [[skin (computing)|skin]]-ability in the tradition of modifications and customization very popular among XBMC users. "Confluence" and "Project Mayhem" are the two official [[skin (computing)|skin]]s; "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'').<ref name="XBMC 9.11 makes your open source home theater look shinier"/>
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.


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 skins trading and development.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="Passion XBMC"/><ref name="XBMC Skinng Project">{{cite web|url=http://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter |title=XBMC Skinng Project |work=Sourceforge.net |accessdate=2010-02-13}}</ref><ref name="XBMC Black Market">{{cite web|url=http://blackmarket.ictcsc.net |title=XBMC Black Market |work=Blackmarket.ictcsc.net |accessdate=2010-02-13}}</ref><ref name="teamrazorfish.co.uk">http://www.teamrazorfish.co.uk MediaStream</ref><ref name="blackbolt.x-scene.com">http://blackbolt.x-scene.com Team Blackbolt</ref> 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 [[clone (video games)|clones]] or an exact [[replica]] of other multimedia software interfaces, such as DivX Connected, [[Apple Front Row]], [[Windows XP Media Center Edition|Windows Media Center Edition (MCE)]], [[MediaPortal]], [[Meedio]]/MeediOS, HDeeTV, [[Kaleidescape]], [[Wii Menu|Wii Channel Menu (Xii)]], [[Xbox360#Software|Xbox 360 Blades (MC360)]], [[Xbox360#Software|Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience (Xperience)]], and others.<ref name="Customize XBMC with These Five Awesome Skins"/>
=== 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}.


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


====Web Interfaces====
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.
Web Interface addons for XBMC normally allow browsing a media library remotely, to handle music playlists from a computer instead of television. Others allow remotely controlling the navigation of XBMC like a remote for [[Touchscreen remote control|remote controlling]] of an installed and concurrently-active XBMC 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.


===Audio, video, and pictures playback and handling===
=== Audio, video, and pictures playback and handling ===
XBMC can play media from CD/DVD media using an internal [[DVD-ROM]] drive. It can also play media from an internal built-in [[hard disk|hard disk drive]] and [[Server Message Block|SMB/SAMBA/CIFS]] shares (Windows File-Sharing), or stream them over [[ReplayTV]] [[digital video recorder|DVRs/PVRs]], [[Universal Plug and Play|UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)]] shares, or stream [[iTunes]]-shares via [[Digital Audio Access Protocol|DAAP]]. XBMC 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 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 [[Music visualization|audio-visualizations]] and [[screensaver]]s. XBMC can in addition [[Upscaling DVD|upscale/upconvert]] all [[SDTV|standard-definition (480i/480p/576i/576p)]] resolution videos and output them to [[HDTV|720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition]] resolutions.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="FLOSS Media Center State of the Art"/><ref name="Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation">{{cite web|url=http://lifehacker.com/5393227/turbo-charge-your-new-xbmc-installation |title=Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation |date=2009-10-30 |author=Jason Fitzpatrick |work=Lifehacker}}</ref>
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====
==== Format support ====
XBMC 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 [[Dolby Digital|AC3]]/[[DTS Coherent Acoustics|DTS]] audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to [[S/PDIF]] digital output to an external audio-[[Audio amplifier|amplifier]]/[[Audio receiver#Hi-Fi / Home theater|receiver]] for decoding.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="FLOSS Media Center State of the Art"/>
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:'''
;Supported formats
** '''[[Data storage device|Physical digital media]]''': [[Blu-ray Disc]] (unencrypted), CDs, DVDs, [[DVD-Video]], [[Video CD]]s (including VCD/SVCD/XVCD), [[Red Book (CD standard)|Audio-CD (CDDA)]], [[USB Flash Drive]]s, and local [[Hard Disk Drive]]s
* '''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
** '''[[Communications protocol|Network protocol clients]]''': [[AirPlay|AirPlay/AirTunes]],<ref>https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/ae7b0b54384485e85124bc33c0743ed7cad627a4 add airplay implementation from boxee project</ref><ref>https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/447 Airtunes support for ios/osx/linux</ref> [[UPnP]], [[Server Message Block|SMB/SAMBA/CIFS]], [[Apple Filing Protocol|AFP]], [[Digital Audio Access Protocol|DAAP]], [[Zero configuration networking|Zeroconf]]/[[Avahi (software)|Avahi]]/[[Bonjour (software)|Bonjour]], [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]], [[HTTP]], [[HTTPS]], [[FTP]], [[Real Time Streaming Protocol|RTSP]] (RTSPU, RTSPT), [[Microsoft Media Services|MMS]] (MMSU, MMST), [[Podcasting]], [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]], [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]], [[SSH file transfer protocol|SFTP]], [[Real-time Transport Protocol|RTP]] and [[Real Time Messaging Protocol|RTMP]] (including RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPS<ref>http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/ RTMPDump used by XBMC</ref>), [[DHCP]], [[Network Time Protocol|NTP]]
* '''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 server|Network protocol servers]]''': [[JSON-RPC]] server, [[D-Bus]] server, [[Web server]], [[FTP Server]], and [[UPnP AV media server]], and a multi-protocol Event Server<ref name="wiki.xbmc.org">http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=EventServer EventServer</ref>
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 format (digital)|Container format]]s''': [[Audio Video Interleave|AVI]], [[Moving Picture Experts Group|MPEG]], [[Windows Media Video|WMV]], [[Advanced Systems Format|ASF]], [[Flash Video|FLV]], [[Matroska|MKV/MKA (Matroska)]], [[QuickTime File Format|QuickTime]], [[MPEG-4 Part 14|MP4]], M4A, [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], NUT, [[Ogg]], [[Ogg Media|OGM]], [[RealMedia]] RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, [[3gp]], VIVO, PVA, [[NuppelVideo|NUV]], [[Nullsoft Streaming Video|NSV]], [[Nullsoft Streaming Audio|NSA]], [[Autodesk|FLI]], [[Autodesk|FLC]], [[DVR-MS]] and WTV
* '''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 format]]s''': [[MPEG-1]], [[MPEG-2]], [[H.263]], MPEG-4 [[MPEG-4 Part 2#Simple Profile (SP)|SP]] and [[Advanced Simple Profile|ASP]], [[H.264/MPEG-4 AVC|MPEG-4 AVC]] ([[H.264]]), [[HuffYUV]], [[Indeo]], [[Motion JPEG|MJPEG]], [[RealVideo]], [[RMVB]], [[Sorenson codec|Sorenson]], [[Windows Media Video|WMV]], [[Cinepak]].
* '''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 format]]s''': [[MIDI]], [[Audio Interchange File Format|AIFF]], [[WAV|WAV/WAVE]], [[AIFF]], [[MPEG-1 Audio Layer II|MP2]], MP3, [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[HE-AAC|AACplus (AAC+)]], [[Vorbis]], [[Dolby Digital|AC3]], [[DTS Coherent Acoustics|DTS]], [[Apple Lossless|ALAC]], [[Adaptive Multi-Rate|AMR]], [[Free Lossless Audio Codec|FLAC]], [[Monkey's Audio]] (APE), [[RealAudio]], [[Shorten|SHN]], [[WavPack]], [[Musepack|MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+]], [[Shorten]], [[Speex]], [[Windows Media Audio|WMA]], [[Impulse Tracker|IT]], [[ScreamTracker|S3M]], [[MOD (file format)|MOD]] (Amiga Module), [[XM (file format)|XM]], NSF ([[NES Sound Format]]), [[SPC700 sound format|SPC]] ([[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]]), GYM ([[Mega Drive|Genesis]]), [[MOS Technology SID|SID]] ([[Commodore 64]]), [[Adlib]], [[YM2149|YM]] ([[Atari ST]]), [[ADPCM]] ([[Nintendo GameCube]]), and [[Compact Disc Digital Audio|CDDA]].
* '''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 camera|Digital picture/image formats]]''': RAW image formats, [[BMP file format|BMP]], [[JPEG]], [[Graphics Interchange Format|GIF]], [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]], [[Tagged Image File Format|TIFF]], [[Multiple-image Network Graphics|MNG]], [[ICO (icon image file format)|ICO]], [[PCX]] and [[Truevision TGA|Targa/TGA]]
* '''Digital picture/image formats:''' BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, ICO, PCX, Targa/TGA and WebP
**'''[[Subtitles|Subtitle formats]]''': AQTitle, [[SubStation Alpha|ASS/SSA]], [[Closed captioning|CC]], JACOsub, [[MicroDVD]], MPsub, [[Ogg Media|OGM]], PJS, RT, [[SAMI|SMI]], [[SubRip|SRT]], [[SubViewer|SUB]], [[VSFilter|VOBsub]], VPlayer
* '''Subtitle formats:''' AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMI, SRT, SUB, VOBsub, VPlayer
**'''[[Tag (metadata)|Metadata tags]]''': APEv1, [[APEv2 tag|APEv2]], [[ID3]] ([[ID3]]v1 and [[ID3v2]]), ID666 and [[Vorbis comment]]s for [[audio file format]]s, [[Exif]] and [[IPTC Information Interchange Model|IPTC]] (including [[GeoTagging]]) for [[image file format]]s
* '''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 playback in detail ====
=====Video Library=====
===== Video Library =====
The Video Library, one of the XBMC [[metadata]] [[databases]], is a key feature of XBMC. 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 IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, etc.), and [[.nfo|nfo]] files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and [[fan art]] backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library Mode view allows users to browse their video content by categories; [[Genre]], Title, Year, Actors and Directors.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="XBMC 9.11 makes your open source home theater look shinier"/>
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 cores=====
===== Video player =====


XBMC uses two different [[multimedia]] video player 'cores' for video-playback. The first video-player 'core' for video-playback is an [[in-house]] developed [[cross-platform]] media player, "''DVDPlayer''", originally designed to play back [[DVD-Video]] movies, and this includes support native for [[DVD-Video#Programming interface|DVD-menus]], (based on the free [[open source]] [[library (computing)|libraries]] code [[libdvdcss]] and libdvdnav). This [[FFmpeg]] based video-player 'core' 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 image|ISO and IMG]] DVD-images or DVD-Video ([[IFO]]/[[VOB]]/[[BUP]]) images (even directly from uncompressed [[RAR]] and [[ZIP (file format)|ZIP]] archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="XBMC 9.04 delivers impressive media center experience"/><ref name="XBMC 9.11 makes your open source home theater look shinier"/>
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.


The second video-player 'core' for video-playback in XBMC is another [[in-house]] developed [[open source]] player, "''DSPlayer''", which today is only used as an experimental video player in a [[Git (software)|Git]] development branch of XBMC for Windows and not in any other versions of XBMC. This "''DSPlayer''" is a [[Direct Show]] based media player which with the help of [[FFmpeg]] can play practically all common media formats and in addition also make XBMC for Windows handle all formats and [[container format (digital)|containers]] normally supported in Windows with the help of third-party proprietary [[Direct Show]] filters installed on the system.<ref name="github3">https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/591 DSPlayer directshow based player</ref>
==== 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 playback in detail====
===== Audio player cores =====
=====Music Library=====
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.
The Music Library, one of the XBMC [[metadata]] [[databases]], is another key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file [[ID3|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.<ref name="XBMC is the best media center application. Period."/><ref name="XBMC 9.11 makes your open source home theater look shinier"/>


=====Audio player cores=====
==== Digital picture/image display in detail ====
For music playback, XBMC 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 (audio)|resampling]] of the audio frequency, [[gapless playback]], [[Fade (audio engineering)|crossfading]], [[ReplayGain]], [[cue sheet (music software)|cue sheet]] and [[Ogg]] Chapter support.
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.
The "''PAPlayer''" audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports most different tagging standards. XBMC 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 (file format)|LRC]], and [[Karaoke|KAR]] files.<ref name="FLOSS Media Center State of the Art"/>


====Digital picture/image display in detail====
[[Category:Manual]]
XBMC handles all common [[digital camera|digital picture/image formats]] with the options of [[Ken burns effect|panning/zooming]] and [[slideshow]] with "[[Ken Burns Effect]]", with the use of [http://www.codeproject.com/bitmap/cximage.asp CxImage] open source [[library (computing)|library]] code. XBMC can also handle [[Comic Book Archive file|CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files]], this feature lets users view/read, browse and [[Digital zoom|zoom]] the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first.

Latest revision as of 06:15, 10 February 2019

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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.