Supported hardware
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 General topics Hardware |
Installing |
Supported hardware
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Want to discuss or ask about what hardware is good for Kodi? Check out the Hardware for Kodi subforum |
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.
Android
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It is highly recommended for users to not make any hardware purchases in anticipation of running Kodi on Android without first researching the device you want to buy. Before you do buy, make sure multiple people have verified that it works! If in doubt, do not buy any hardware! |
- Kodi v17 and later requires Android 5.0 or higher.
- x86 (Intel) or a NEON-compatible ARM-processor, (for example: Nvidia Tegra 3 and newer are fully supported by Kodi, while Tegra 2 and older are not).
- The main aim for the Android port of Kodi is to foremost target media-players/set-top-boxes/sticks that connect to a large screen television and uses a standard remote control as its main interface device, (that is the same market as for HTPC).
- Android TV 11 or higher to allow Kodi access to local files you need to manually set files permissions. On Android TV go to "Settings -> Apps - Kodi -> Permissions -> Files and Media" and select "Allow all the time".
iOS and iPadOS
- To install Kodi for iOS/iPadOS you must have one of the following:
- a jailbroken iDevice running iOS 6.0 or higher, though iOS 8.0 or higher is recommended
- a normal iDevice running iOS 6.0 or higher and a Mac running Xcode 7 and higher
- For hardware: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
tvOS
Apple TV 2
- As of v15.0, Kodi no longer supports the Apple TV 2.
Apple TV 3
- Kodi is not supported on Apple TV 3 because there is no jailbreak for this device and it's impossible to sideload an application on it.
Apple TV 4 and 5 (HD and 4K)
- Apple TV 4 and 5 (also called Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K) are supported by Kodi. For step by step Installation guide, follow HOW-TO:Install Kodi on Apple TV 4 and 5 (HD and 4K).
Linux
Desktop
| CPU | x86 or x86-64 processor such as: Intel Pentium 4/ Pentium M, AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron, or newer CPU (that support SSE2, which all CPUs made within the last 10-years does).
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| RAM |
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| Graphics |
Kodi will run on most graphics cards made within the last 10-years or so, though for good hardware video decoding support a little newer graphics cards can be required. This includes most cards from AMD/ATI, Intel, or NVIDIA which support OpenGL 2.0 or later. AMD/Intel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Video decoding | For hardware video decoding, which may be necessary on low-performance CPUs to playback 1080p content, make sure your GPU or VPU supports either VAAPI or VDPAU. For everything but older AMD cards and Nvidia, VAAPI is recommended. On AMD, you might have to start with the environment variable KODI_GL_INTERFACE set to GLX in order to get VDPAU support.
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| Drive space | The Kodi application generally only takes up between 100 to 200 MB of space, depending on how the binary is compiled. Technically speaking, if your hardware supports netbooting, you do not even require a internal storage for either the operating-system or for Kodi.
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Note: There´s no 304.xxx driver for Ubuntu 18.04 available anymore from the "Graphic Drivers"-ppa. Users who are using GeForce 6-series cards should either stay on an older Ubuntu version or use newer cards
Embedded systems (ARM/MIPS-based hardware)
Other than OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics support being a must it is very hard to generalize Kodi hardware requirements for Linux-based operating-system distributions on ARM or MIPS based embedded systems. This is partially due to most of the work in this area still being early/on-going in development. For most ARM and MIPS-based devices, hardware video decoding support will also be needed for most high-definition videos, (and possibly even some standard-definition videos). Some newer and faster high-end ARM/MIPS chipset can decode some high-definition video using software video decoding, but those encoded with the latest video codecs.
Here are a few popular embedded hardware devices that are known to work with Kodi and Linux:
- Raspberry Pi - Hardware video decoding support for H.264, MPEG-2, and VC-1. GUI is responsive on most light skins. Official supported by many third-party JeOS (Just enough Operating System) Linux distributions made for Kodi such as LibreELEC, GeeXboX, XBian, and OSMC
- SolidRun_CuBox-i - Official supported by LibreELEC, GeeXboX and XBian
- Various "Android" boxes - can run reinstalled with a Linux firmware and boot directly into Kodi. Hardware video decoding for most video codecs, GUI is very responsive on most skins. Running Linux and Kodi on these "Android boxes" will likely result in better performance and enhanced playback capabilities than running Kodi under Android.
JeOS implementations for Kodi
JeOS is the abbreviation (pronounced: Juice) for "Just Enough Operating System" as it applies to software appliances and embedded operating system are very easy too install and use implementations of Kodi for appliance usage on dedicated devices. Hiding a powerful combination of a Kodi and an almost hidden operating system for bare metal installation, a good JeOS implementation can make Kodi installation look, feel, and act just as any commercial set-top box or professional Smart TV media player, with many even offering automatic OTA (Over The Air) updates.
There are several of these JeOS (Just enough Operating System) Linux distributions out there made by third-parties that are specifically designed to make Kodi into an software appliance, these include LibreELEC, OSMC, GeeXboX, XBian, Buildroot, and a few more.
These JeOS implementations for Kodi are all separate independent projects on their own, all aiming to provide the best complete media center software suite. These include a pre-configured version of Kodi and some pre-installed third-party addons/plugins as well as various custimizations or special extensions. Most of these JeOS implementations are extremely small and very fast booting Linux-based distribution, that are primarily designed to be booted from USB flash memory or a solid-state drive. JoOS are usually highly optimized distrobutions that takes it a step father and specifically targeted minimum set-top box / Smart TV appliance or single-board computer hardware setup based on low-power ARM SoC or Intel x86 processor mini-computers.
WebOS
Initial support for WebOS was implemented in version 21.0a1-Omega (Apr 17, 2023).
Mac OS X
- Kodi v17 requires Mac OS X 10.8 or later.
- Kodi v18 (and its nightlies) will at least require 10.9)
- Kodi v20 and above requires an Intel Mac running OS X 10.13 or higher.
Windows
Note: Due to changes in code it may be possible that older hardware/videocards are no longer supported. If starting of Kodi fails then try upgrading to last available drivers (or beta drivers).
| Windows Version |
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| CPU | x86 or x86-64 processor such as: Intel Pentium 4/ Pentium M, AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron, or newer CPU (that support SSE2, which all CPUs made within the last 10-years does).
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| RAM |
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| Graphics |
GPU hardware must support at least level DirectX version 9.0c however the GPU software drivers must support the DirectX 11 Feature Level 9.1 (which means the DX11 API has been implemented in the GPU software driver to be compatible with DX9 hardware) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Video decoding | On low-performance CPUs to playback 1080p content then hardware video decoding maybe necessary.
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| Drive space | The Kodi application generally only takes up between 100 to 200 MB of space, depending on how the binary is compiled. Technically speaking, if your hardware supports netbooting, you do not even require a internal storage for either the operating-system or for Kodi.
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