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{{XBMC wiki toc}}
{{Infobox software
'''XBMC''' is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and can run on ARM, PPC, and x86 processor architectures. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.  
| logo = [[File:Thumbnail-light-transparent.png|200px]]
| screenshot = [[File:XBMC home.jpg|300px]]
| caption = Kodi's home screen
| developer = [[XBMC Foundation]]
| Stable release = {{current version}}
| Preview release =
| programming language = C++ core, with Python scripts as add-ons from third-parties parties
| operating system = Android, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, iOS/tvOS
| platform =  [[w:ARM architecture|ARM]], [[w:x86 architecture|x86]]
| status = Active
| released = 2003
| language = 70+ languages to date
| license = GPLv2 or later
}}{{mininav|[[General topics]]{{l2|[[XBMC Foundation]]}}}}
{{see also|Kodi FAQ}}
<section begin=intro /><section begin=intro2 />'''[[Kodi]]'''® media center, formerly known as XBMC Media Center, is an award-winning free and open source cross-platform software media player and entertainment hub for digital media for HTPCs (Home theater PCs). It  uses a [[10-foot user interface]] designed to be a media player for the living-room, using a remote control as the primary input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons. The Kodi project is managed by the non-profit '''[[XBMC Foundation]]''', and developed by volunteers located around the world. Since its creation in 2003 more than 500 software developers have contributed to Kodi, and around 60 developers on regular basis. Also 200-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 72 languages. <section end=intro />


Kodi® ''(then called "Xbox Media Center")'' was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console ([[XBMC4Xbox|no longer supported]]) but is now officially available as a native application for [[Android]], [[BSD]], [[Linux]], [[Mac OS X|Mac OS X/macOS]], [[iOS|iOS/tvOS]], and [[Windows]] operating systems, running on most common processor architectures. <section end=intro2 />


While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_PC HTPC]. Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.  
== Video demos ==
Check out this excellent introduction video by [http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide Lifehacker.com]:<br />
{{YouTube|T970YM3w1LY}}


;Additional video demos
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O4fCGrwrqw Kodi beginners guide - an introduction and tour] by Kodi.tv forum user fredphoesh


Currently XBMC 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: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically 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.
== Overview of features ==
{{main|Features and supported codecs}}
{{#lst:Features and supported codecs|intro}}




It is difficult to put into words all that XBMC can do, so take the plunge and [http://xbmc.org/download/  Try XBMC Today]
{{#lst:Add-ons|intro}}


[[Category:XBMC|*]]
For additional information about specific add-ons, see '''[[:Category:All add-ons]]'''.
[[Category:Team-XBMC]]
 
=== Language support ===
{{see also|Translation System}}
Kodi includes full support for many different languages by default. Kodi's structure is such that if the language is not available, or not up-to-date, it can be made by signing up at [https://www.transifex.net/projects/p/XBMC-Main-Frodo/ Kodi Main Translation Project (Frodo)], Currently the existing supported languages are Afrikaans, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, American English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
 
== Hardware requirements ==
{{Main|Supported hardware}}
{{#lst:Supported hardware|intro}}
 
== Official versions of Kodi ==
{{See also|Releases}}
Full featured versions of Kodi are available on a number of operating system platforms. Team Kodi strives to keep a consistent feature set and include the full Kodi experience for all versions, even those on low-powered devices.
 
;[[Kodibuntu]]
:KodiBuntu (formerly XBMCbuntu) is a free Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with Kodi for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. KodiBuntu is based on [[w:Lubuntu|Lubuntu]] instead of Ubuntu Desktop.
 
;[[Android]]
:''Kodi for Android'' is a full port of the complete Kodi application to Google's Android operating-system, was first announced and its source code released publicly on 13 June 2012. This is a full port of Kodi's C++ and C source code with all its dependencies to Android with a build-system that was designed to handle multiple processor architectures, like ARM, MIPS, and x86 with the Android NDK (Native Development Kit for Android) without using a single line of Java, and the Kodi.APK is running natively under Android as a Native Activity application.
 
;[[iOS]]
:''Kodi for iOS'', which is a full port of Kodi to Apple's [[iOS]] operating-system, was first announced and released publicly on 20 January 2011. It supports both 720p and 1080p hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264 videos, and is compatible several Apple's [[iDevice]]s that uses Apple A4 or higher SoC processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system.
 
;[[Linux]]
:''Kodi for Linux'' is primarily developed for Ubuntu Linux. Third-party packages for most other Linux distributions are however available, and it is also possible to compile Kodi from scratch for any Linux distribution as long as the pre-required dependency libraries are installed first.
 
;[[Mac]]
:''Kodi for Mac'' runs natively on [[Mac OS X]] with Intel processors with hardware video decoding for H.264.
 
;[[Windows]]
:''Kodi for Windows'' runs natively on Windows Vista and higher. It is a 32-bit application but runs on 64-bit Windows and hardware as well, however it is not yet optimized for that architecture so there is no performance gain when running on 64-bit Windows. 1080p playback can be achieved on Windows based computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it's powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding.
 
== Third-party forks and derivative work of Kodi ==
{{main|Third-party forks and derivatives}}
{{#lst:Third-party forks and derivatives|intro}}
 
== History ==
{{See|History of Kodi}}
 
== XBMC Foundation ==
{{see also|XBMC Foundation}}
{{#lst:XBMC Foundation|intro}}
 
== Awards ==
[[File:Cca.gif|right]]
In the [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2006 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers as well as an award Best Project for Multimedia.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca06/]
 
In the [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca07/]
 
In the [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2008 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca08/]
 
In the [[w:Lifehacker|Lifehacker Australia]] 2014 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Media Player. [http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/12/lifehacker-awards-2014-best-media-player/]
 
== Programming and developing ==
{{main|Development}}
Kodi is a non-profit and free software community driven open-source software project that is developed only by volunteers in their spare time without any monetary gain. The team of developers leading the development of Kodi, "''[[Team Kodi]]''", encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs to the Kodi project.
 
 
Kodi's source code for all its supported platforms is made publicly available by Team Kodi under the open source GNU General Public License Version 2 license. The group currently maintains a Git [https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc repository] for this source code.
 
== Further reading ==
* [[Wikipedia:Kodi (software)]]
* http://kodi.tv
 
{{Isengard updated}}
 
[[Category:Manual]]
[[Category:Kodi|*]]
[[Category:Team Kodi]]
[[Category:General topics]]

Revision as of 13:32, 26 October 2018

Kodi
Thumbnail-light-transparent.png
XBMC home.jpg
Kodi's home screen
Developer(s) XBMC Foundation
Initial release 2003
Stable release Kodi v20.5 Nexus
Development status Active
Written in C++ core, with Python scripts as add-ons from third-parties parties
OS Android, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, iOS/tvOS
Platform ARM, x86
Available in 70+ languages to date
License GPLv2 or later
Home icon grey.png   ▶ General topics
▶ XBMC Foundation
▶ Kodi

Kodi® media center, formerly known as XBMC Media Center, is an award-winning free and open source cross-platform software media player and entertainment hub for digital media for HTPCs (Home theater PCs). It uses a 10-foot user interface designed to be a media player for the living-room, using a remote control as the primary input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons. The Kodi project is managed by the non-profit XBMC Foundation, and developed by volunteers located around the world. Since its creation in 2003 more than 500 software developers have contributed to Kodi, and around 60 developers on regular basis. Also 200-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 72 languages.

Kodi® (then called "Xbox Media Center") was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console (no longer supported) but is now officially available as a native application for Android, BSD, Linux, Mac OS X/macOS, iOS/tvOS, and Windows operating systems, running on most common processor architectures.

Video demos

Check out this excellent introduction video by Lifehacker.com:

Additional video demos

Overview of features

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.


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.

For additional information about specific add-ons, see Category:All add-ons.

Language support

Kodi includes full support for many different languages by default. Kodi's structure is such that if the language is not available, or not up-to-date, it can be made by signing up at Kodi Main Translation Project (Frodo), Currently the existing supported languages are Afrikaans, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, American English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Hardware requirements

Kodi is officially supported on a number of operating systems and hardware devices that are designed to be connected directly to a TV. Kodi runs well on what are relatively "underpowered" systems, thanks to hardware video decoding being common on nearly all supported platforms. These requirements don't include what might be required for some "advanced" features, such as PVR, which might require additional hardware.

Official versions of Kodi

Full featured versions of Kodi are available on a number of operating system platforms. Team Kodi strives to keep a consistent feature set and include the full Kodi experience for all versions, even those on low-powered devices.

Kodibuntu
KodiBuntu (formerly XBMCbuntu) is a free Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with Kodi for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. KodiBuntu is based on Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu Desktop.
Android
Kodi for Android is a full port of the complete Kodi application to Google's Android operating-system, was first announced and its source code released publicly on 13 June 2012. This is a full port of Kodi's C++ and C source code with all its dependencies to Android with a build-system that was designed to handle multiple processor architectures, like ARM, MIPS, and x86 with the Android NDK (Native Development Kit for Android) without using a single line of Java, and the Kodi.APK is running natively under Android as a Native Activity application.
iOS
Kodi for iOS, which is a full port of Kodi to Apple's iOS operating-system, was first announced and released publicly on 20 January 2011. It supports both 720p and 1080p hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264 videos, and is compatible several Apple's iDevices that uses Apple A4 or higher SoC processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system.
Linux
Kodi for Linux is primarily developed for Ubuntu Linux. Third-party packages for most other Linux distributions are however available, and it is also possible to compile Kodi from scratch for any Linux distribution as long as the pre-required dependency libraries are installed first.
Mac
Kodi for Mac runs natively on Mac OS X with Intel processors with hardware video decoding for H.264.
Windows
Kodi for Windows runs natively on Windows Vista and higher. It is a 32-bit application but runs on 64-bit Windows and hardware as well, however it is not yet optimized for that architecture so there is no performance gain when running on 64-bit Windows. 1080p playback can be achieved on Windows based computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it's powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding.

Third-party forks and derivative work of Kodi

This is a list of various forks of Kodi. Forks are often created whenever a different group or organization needs to make customizations to the program. In some cases, these changes are minor and are made for the purposes of supporting certain hardware, or adding in special features. In others, the changes are much more drastic. The Kodi project welcomes and encourages forks in the spirit of the GNU General Public License.

History

See: History of Kodi

XBMC Foundation

The "Kodi Foundation" is the non-profit organization that oversees the Kodi project and is registered in the US.

Awards

Cca.gif

In the SourceForge 2006 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers as well as an award Best Project for Multimedia.[1]

In the SourceForge 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories.[2]

In the SourceForge 2008 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.[3]

In the Lifehacker Australia 2014 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Media Player. [4]

Programming and developing

Kodi is a non-profit and free software community driven open-source software project that is developed only by volunteers in their spare time without any monetary gain. The team of developers leading the development of Kodi, "Team Kodi", encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs to the Kodi project.


Kodi's source code for all its supported platforms is made publicly available by Team Kodi under the open source GNU General Public License Version 2 license. The group currently maintains a Git repository for this source code.

Further reading