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{{XBMC wiki toc/v}}
{{Infobox software
{{Infobox software
| name = XBMC Media Center
| logo = [[File:Thumbnail-light-transparent.png|200px]]
| logo = [[File:XBMC logo.png|200px]]
| screenshot = [[File:XBMC home.jpg|300px]]
| screenshot = [[File:XBMC home.png|300px]]
| caption = Kodi's home screen
| caption = XBMC Media Center Home Screen
| developer = [[XBMC Foundation]]
| developer = [[Team XBMC]]
| Stable release = {{current version}}
| Stable release = 10.1 (Dharma)
| Preview release =  
| Preview release = 11.0 (Eden)
| programming language = C++ core, with Python scripts as add-ons from third-parties parties
| programming language = C++ core, with Python scripts as add-ons from 3rd parties
| operating system = Android, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, iOS/tvOS
| operating system = Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Windows, iOS
| platform =  [[w:ARM architecture|ARM]], [[w:x86 architecture|x86]]
| platform =  [[w:ARM architecture|ARM]], [[w:PowerPC|PPC (PowerPC)]], [[w:x86 architecture|x86]]
| status = Active
| status = Active
| released = 2003
| released = 2003
| language = 40+ languages to date
| language = 70+ languages to date
| license = GPLv2 or later
| license = GPLv2 or later
| website = http://xbmc.org
}}{{mininav|[[XBMC Foundation]]}}}}
}}
'''XBMC Media Center''' (formerly '''[[w:Xbox|Xbox]] Media Center''') is a free and open source cross-platform entertainment hub and HTPC (Home theater PC) software with a [[10-foot user interface]] designed to be a media player for the living-room TV 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 XBMC project is managed by the non-profit '''XBMC Foundation''', and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 60 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 40 languages.


<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 />


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. XBMC 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.  
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|Mac OS X/macOS]], [[iOS|iOS/tvOS]], and [[Windows]] operating systems, running on most common processor architectures. <section end=intro2 />


== 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}}


The XBMC "''[[Add-on Manager]]''" has a growing list of community driven add-ons/plug-ins/extensions for online content like [[Add-on:YouTube|YouTube]], [[Add-on:Hulu|Hulu]], [[Add-on:Grooveshark|Grooveshark]], [[Add-on:Pandora Radio|Pandora Radio]], as well and [[:Category:Skins|themes (skins)]] and more available 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 if they like.
;Additional video demos
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O4fCGrwrqw Kodi beginners guide - an introduction and tour] by Kodi.tv forum user fredphoesh


== Overview of features ==
{{main|Features_and_supported_formats}}
{{#lst:Features_and_supported_formats|intro}}


XBMC was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console but is now, since 2010, officially available as a native application for [[Linux]], [[Mac OS X]], [[iOS]] ([[iDevice]]s and [[Apple TV (iOS)|Apple TV 2/3]]), and [[Microsoft Windows]] operating systems, running on most common processor architectures.


==History==
{{#lst:Add-ons|intro}}
{{See|History of XBMC}}


==XBMC Foundation==
For additional information about specific add-ons, see '''[[:Category:All add-ons]]'''.
{{see also|Team XBMC}}
The "''XBMC Foundation''", tax-exempt registered non-profit organization behind the XBMC project, is legally represented by the [[w:Software Freedom Law Center|SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center)]], which assists XBMC project and its developers legal matters such as copyright, trademark, and branding questions, as well as economic issues such as handling donations and sponsors that help the project with expenses for dedicated hosting service, and activities such as going to trade fairs and computer expos to tech demo XBMC, meeting with potential new developers, gain publicity to attract additional users, and more.


==Overview of features==
=== Language support ===
{{main|Features and supported codecs}}
{{see also|Translation System}}
XBMC supports most common audio, video, and image formats, playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecasts reporting, and third-party plugins. It is network-capable (internet and LAN shares).
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.


Through its [[add-on]] system, which is based on the Python programming language, XBMC is expandable via add-ons that include features such as television program guides, [[Add-on:YouTube|YouTube]], [[Add-on:Hulu|Hulu]], [[Add-on:Veoh|Veoh]], online movie trailer support, and [[Add-on:Pandora Radio|Pandora Radio]] and Podcast streaming. XBMC also functions as a gaming platform by allowing users to play mini-games developed with Python, on any operating system.
== Hardware requirements ==
{{Main|Supported hardware}}
{{#lst:Supported hardware|intro}}


===Language support===
== Official versions of Kodi ==
XBMC includes full support for many different languages by default. XBMC's structure is such that if the language is not available, or not up-to-date, it can be made by editing simple strings in an XML-file, which can then be submitted to XBMC's project management and bug tracking system tool for use by others. 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.
{{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.


==Hardware requirements==
;[[Android]]
XBMC has greater basic hardware requirements than traditional 2D style software applications: it needs a 3D capable GPU graphics hardware controller for all rendering. Powerful 3D GPU chips are common today in most modern computers, and even some set-top boxes and XBMC is designed to otherwise be resource efficient.  It runs well on what (by Intel Atom standards) are relatively underpowered OpenGL 1.3 (with GLSL support), OpenGL ES 2.0 or Direct3D (DirectX) 9.0 capable systems that are IA-32/x86, x86-64, ARM, or PowerPC (G4 or later) CPU based.
:''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.  


When software decoding of a Full HD 1080p high-definition video is performed by the system CPU, a dual-core 2 GHz or better CPU is required in order to allow for perfectly smooth playback without dropping frames or giving playback a jerky appearance. XBMC can however offload most of the video decoding process onto GPU graphics hardware controller that supports one of the following types of hardware-accelerated video decoding: Intel's VAAPI, Nvidia's VDPAU, AMD's XvBA, Microsoft's DXVA, Apple's VDADecoder/VideoToolBox, OpenMAX, and Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator. By taking advantage of such hardware-accelerated video decoding, XBMC can run well on most inexpensive, low-power systems which contain a modern GPU.
;[[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 [[IOS|iDevice]]s that uses Apple A4 or higher SoC processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system.


==Official Team-XBMC ports of XBMC==
;[[Linux]]
{{See also|Releases}}
:''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.  
Through the processing power of modern computer hardware (by CPU or by hardware video decoding), XBMC is able to decode high-definition video up to and beyond 1080p resolutions, bypassing hardware limitations of the original (now discontinued) Xbox version of XBMC.


However in the latest official release of XBMC there is hardware accelerated video decoding for DXVA, VDPAU, VAAPI, VDA, and VTB GPU hardware video decoding, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via ARM NEON, OpenMAX, and Broadcom Crystal HD.
;[[Mac_OS_X|Mac]]
:''Kodi for Mac'' runs natively on [[Mac OS X]] with Intel processors with hardware video decoding for H.264.


;XBMC Live
;[[Windows]]
:[[XBMC Live]] is a free Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with XBMC for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. XBMC Live uses XBMC Media Center for all media playback and is implemented as a bootable Live CD primarily designed for bare-metal installations to achieve instant on type boot. As of version 11.0 (Eden) XBMC Live will be based on [[w:Lubuntu|Lubuntu]] instead of Ubuntu Desktop, (this is because Lubuntu is "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient" than the standard Ubuntu distribution).
:''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.


;XBMC for iOS
== Third-party forks and derivative work of Kodi ==
:''[[iOS FAQ|XBMC for iOS]]'', which is a full port of XBMC 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 and [[Apple TV (iOS)|Apple TVs (black)]] that uses Apple A4 or Apple A5 (ARM-based) SoC processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system.
{{main|Forks}}
{{#lst:Forks|intro}}


;XBMC for Linux
== History ==
:''XBMC 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 XBMC Media Center from scratch for any Linux distribution as long as the prerequired dependency libraries are installed first.  Hardware video decoding is achieved via the VDPAU API on Nvidia's GPUs, and via the VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon, S3 Graphics, and Intel's newer Integrated Graphics Processors, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via OpenMAX, ARM NEON, and Broadcom Crystal HD on systems with supporting hardware.
{{See|History of Kodi}}


;XBMC for Mac
== XBMC Foundation ==
:''XBMC for Mac'' runs natively on [[Mac OS X]], as well as on the [[Apple TV 1]]. 1080p playback can be achieved on Apple computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it is powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding via Apple's VDA API or [[Broadcom Crystal HD]].
{{see also|XBMC Foundation}}
{{#lst:XBMC Foundation|intro}}


:1080p playback on the first-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. "ATV1") can only be achieved by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD, the user must replace the ATV's internal WiFi adapter with a Broadcom Crystal HD PCI Express Mini (mini-PCIe) card in order to activate this functionality.
== 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/]


;XBMC for Windows
In the [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca07/]
:''XBMC for Windows'' runs natively on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, 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.


:Hardware video decoding via DirectX Video Acceleration is now supported although this enhancement currently only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7 due to the author's currently using the DXVA 2.0 API which is not supported in Windows XP.
In the [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2008 Community Choice Awards, XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca08/]


==Commercial XBMC systems==
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/]
{{main|Commercial XBMC systems}}
{{#lst:Commercial XBMC systems|intro}}


==Third-party forks and derivative work of XBMC==
== Programming and developing ==
{{main|Third-party forks and derivatives}}
{{main|Development}}
{{#lst:Third-party forks and derivatives|intro}}
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.


==Awards==
[[File:Cca.gif|right]]
XBMC won two [[w:SourceForge|SourceForge]] 2006 Community Choice Awards.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca06/] In the 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca07/] Also in the 2008 Community Choice Awards XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.[http://sourceforge.net/blog/cca08/]
{{-}}


==Programming and developing==
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.
{{main|XBMC development}}
 
XBMC 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 XBMC, "''Team-XBMC''", encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs to the XBMC project.
== Further reading ==
* [[Wikipedia:Kodi (software)]]
* http://kodi.tv


XBMC's source code for all its supported platforms is made publicly available by Team XBMC 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.
{{Isengard updated}}




[[Category:XBMC|*]]
[[Category:XBMC_Foundation]]
[[Category:Team-XBMC]]

Revision as of 05:17, 28 July 2020

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   ▶ 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.

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