Kodi - The Ultimate Media Center for Linux

​Kodi is a free and open-source media player application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi media center was originally created for the Microsoft Xbox and called Xbox Media Center (XBMC), the software has continued to evolve, spawning a community of its own. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms including Linux.

It is also available on Windows, Mac OS X, Kodibuntu, iOS, Android, and Raspberry Pi. It features a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the Internet.

So why Kodi Media Center?

Kodi is designed to act as a media center. The original idea was to install it and use on a PC as the entertainment hub of the home by connecting it to a big-screen TV and as such. It comes with specific features that make it quite capable for the role.

It is designed to be legible on a TV when sitting on a sofa (10-foot user interface), and compatible with both remote control hardware and software. Kodi comes with several advantages that you don’t get with many other media players. It’s compatible with a very wide range of file formats and operating systems. And also, the fact that it is open-source in nature, its high profile and large base of programmers mean there’s a vast range of add-ons and skins or themes that are available for download to customize the software to one’s choice of detail.

​KODI is also quite popular and apparently very good for watching ‘pirated’ copyrighted content for free. The XBMC Foundation, understandably, distance themselves from such use.

Key Features Available on Kodi

​One main advantage of Kodi is that it can play or view all common media formats due to its extensive number of clients and parsers. Kodi also comes with a solid base of features that make it quite awesome. Some of these features are available via several open APIs which allow third-party developers to create and extend capabilities with Kodi. Some of these features include –

Libraries (Music, Video, Pictures)

The libraries are one of the key features of Kodi. It allows for the organization of content (Music, Video, and Pictures) by information associated with the files. Video information may be obtained via scarpers like IMDB and the TheMovieDB. The music Library allows for searching and the creation of smart playlists by information stored in ID tags such as Artist, Album, and Genre.  

Audio and Video Streaming Plugins

There is also support for audio and video streaming via plugins for both free and paid online content such as Vevo, Vimeo, Spotify, iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, and more. You can also stream from online storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Onedrive.

Mobile Remotes

There are many software applications for mobile devices available for and associated with Kodi. Some of these mobile apps just work as simple remote controls, while others function as more advanced second-screen companion apps, offering additional information about what users are viewing or listening to on Kodi, such as metadata about movie actors and music artists, with links to other works available from those persons in their collection or online.

Live TV with PVR/DVR

You can also enjoy Live TV with EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) to allow video capture to a local disk. PVR Client Add-ons are available for many PVR software and hardware such as Argus TV, DVBViewer, Windows Media Center, and Enigma2-based DVR set-top boxes such as Dreambox and DBox2. There are also PVR Client Addons for direct LAN connection to network-attached TV-Tuners such as HDHomeRun, PCTV Systems Broadway, and VBox Home TV Gateway. There is also a PVR Client Addon for the Internet-based television providers FilmOn and Stalker Middleware, as well as a simple PVR client addon for IPTV in general.  

Others

There are a host of other features that come with Kodi such as –

• Support for Skins and Visualizations,
• Weather Forecasts and
• An Application Launcher for third-party software such as computer games and video game emulators
• Web interfaces

Install Kodi Media Center In Linux

Install Kodi Media Center In Linux. Kodi is available on a lot of platforms including Linux. To install Kodi on Ubuntu or any Ubuntu-based distro, use the following commands -To install it other Linux distros, you can check out the official documentation here.

So if you are looking for a very capable home media hub, you can surely check out Kodi. Scroll through the images below to see some of the functionality for Kodi.

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kodi