Kodi

Kodi's Response to Internet Issues Team Kodi would like to wish you all good health and security during this difficult time for the world. With almost everyone working and schooling from home now, the internet and world wide web are under severe strain for bandwidth and data volume. Many streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime have reduced their streaming resolution to help ensure there is enough connection speed for everyone who needs it. In line with this, from today Team Kodi will also be doing our part. The following measures will be put into place with immediate effect: Playback will only be available at standard definition and low colour depth to save bandwidth. We reserve the right to implement 1 channel audio and 4 bit monochrome video with AI based dithering shaders to recolour the content should the ongoing situation require it. Streaming addons and IPTV may limit access to meet local/regional curfew restrictions. Kodi will only function on home networks, and will no longer operate through free public wifi. The Kodi database will be scrubbed overnight every night to ensure it remains clean. We will only support 60" or larger displays to implement social distancing requirements and prevent people grouping around small devices. Kodi updates with these changes are being pushed via our normal download locations; our website, Windows App store, Google Play store. We hope for your support in taking these actions, and that they will not interrupt your viewing and listening pleasure. Remember: stay home, watch stuff and save lives! View the full article...

Dear Users, In the upcoming Kodi 19, tvOS will be added as new platform. It will be fully featured, supporting top-shelf* and the Siri remote, with support for both the Apple 4 and 4K. Similar to iOS, it will require jailbreaking or side loading. We wanted to thank Memphiz for the base on which this effort was completed and to davilla from MrMC for his support. Thanks also to team members sy6sy2 for being brave enough to start tackling this, and to kambala and Fuzzard for contributing the lion's share of the work. Unfortunately, in order to keep things maintainable, we have decided that iOS 32-bit will no longer be supported from Kodi 19 onwards. We understand this will affect our users, and we don't make this decision lightly. As a small team of volunteers, we have to balance maintainability and the time it takes to add new features in the future. It's also important to note that iOS 32-bit users are not being abandoned: they will, of course, have Kodi 18 to run on indefinitely. From Kodi 19 the oldest iOS devices supported will be the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPod touch 6th gen. Cheers, phunkyfish * top-shelf is not available with the free dev certificate Tags: Apple tvOS iOS Pre-Release View the full article...

And.... here we are again. The latest Kodi release in the 18.x "Leia" cycle, with more (count them!) and better (measure them!) bug fixes for your various delight, delectation, and delirious... discussion? 18.6 is here. More nasty (and not-so-nasty) problems fixed, more bugs squashed, more happiness and love for all. This release is all about backports: where practical, we've brought bug fixes forwards from the forthcoming 19.x release, so you get the benefit sooner rather than later. As usual, you can find full details of closed pull requests on GitHub, so explore that if you want the details, but the summary would be... Audio Fixes around visualisations Fixes around pause/resume Fixes around TrueHD crashes Workaround firmware bug (AMLogic v23) (sidenote: there are many more Android audio fixes that can't be merged into 18.x "Leia" because of old AMLogic workarounds) Fix to correctly resume audio-only MPEG-TS streams Correct headphone enumeration (Android) Build System Updates for missing includes Updates for Cmake (Windows) Updates for device handling and packaging (macOS) Games Fixes for launching disc images and .zip files Fixes for black screen for RGB emulators (Rpi) Interface/Look-and-feel Fixes around TextureCache Fixes for windowing, refresh rate, mode change and others (Android) Fixes for floating/split keyboard (iOS) Fix for artist slideshow (Estuary) Fix media view from addon given content Playback/Display Fixed race condition for OnPlaybackStarted Fixes for MIME type (Android) Support for DolbyVision streams via addons Fixes for maximum width and height/vertical-shift (Android) Fix for scanning in sub-directories Fix size of EAGL layer on external screen (iOS) Fix for glTexImage3D (Linux) Fix for seeking issues Reset playlist on new file playback PVR Fix for multiline episode names Other/General Fixed incorrectly formatted region time Pass JSON serialised path settings to python scrapers Fix file access on auto-mounted sources Fix seeking with FileCache lockup Fix passthrough on USB devices (Android) Fix crash if profile.xml gets broken Fix cache forward size on EOF The nature of point releases is that most of these changes won't be visible to most people unless they address a specific problem you've stumbled across. That said, they're all real bugs, and real fixes, so thanks as always to all who found a bug, took the time to report it and, in some cases, provided a fix. The full v18.6 changelog can be found in our GitHub milestone. If you want to read back on what was actually changed in v18 itself, you can find the corresponding articles in the blog posts - Kodi 18, Kodi 18.1, Kodi 18.2, Kodi 18.3, Kodi 18.4 and Kodi 18.5. Application deployment on different platforms (notably, Google Play and the Microsoft Store) varies due to circumstances outside of our control. It may thus take a few more days to appear everywhere, so just stay tuned. Tags: Release Announcements View the full article...

In Defence Of Our Good Name As most who read this will know well, Kodi is a free and open source media centre software application. It is created and supported by the group of unpaid volunteers known as Team Kodi, along with a large number of members of our very large and active user community. The software is freely available for anyone to download and use, and to fork and modify if they so desire. It is not a commercial product, and no money is gained from it, as it is not sold. One important point of note is that whilst Team Kodi produces media centre software, one thing that we do not provide is actual media. We don't make films, television channels or programmes, nor do we directly provide them as part of the software package that we distribute. Similarly, we do not produce hardware - there is no "Kodi Box" that's supplied by us. This is a key fact, as there are many third party hardware suppliers out there who do supply such boxes, which either come pre-loaded with Kodi on them or onto which it can be loaded by the end user. To the uninitiated this may seem like a trivially small distinction, but it is actually a very important one. As noted, we make the software available to anyone who may wish to use it, and do so for free. But this does not mean that we are responsible for how those end users make use of the software, and how they may modify it when installed on their boxes. We have no commercial interest or stake in any such sale, nor do we receive any monies from any media player box sold anywhere. Kodi also does not provide any media itself. Users must provide their own content or manually point Kodi to third party online services. The Kodi project does not provide any support for bootleg video content. Unfortunately, some of these vendors are less than scrupulous, and modify the Kodi product with third party addons giving access to illegally supplied or otherwise-pirated media sources. Hence we wish to make it crystal clear that Team Kodi does not condone, support or benefit from any such usage or device. Indeed, through our official Foundation policies, we actively deny support for any such device on our community forums, and through our trademarks and other legal means will act against any vendor who falsely claims any such endorsement from us. This has also, on numerous occasions, lead to false or misleading statements being made about both the Kodi software and also the team behind it. These have been from a range of sources, from sellers wishing to falsely claim association or endorsement from us to YouTube channels wishing to make a buck by offering "support" (usually involving 3rd party piracy addons) and, sadly, even from media outlets (both mainstream and technical) where a little basic research would yield the truth. Our aim has always been to give our users the best media experience possible, and to ensure that, whilst they are free to use our software in any manner they wish, it is done with full knowledge and understanding of what they may be doing, enabling them to make responsible choices. Sadly some of these sellers, either deliberately or through ignorance, confuse the users as to what may be legal and what is not. We do not support media piracy, we support the best media player possible for everyone and provide a media centre, not "free TV and movies". In the past, out of our very scant resources, we have worked in cooperation with media companies on such matters to check illegal activities and we will continue to do so. We do not have resources to be involved in litigation, especially those in foreign jurisdictions. We are disappointed and reject the incorrect characterisation of Kodi, its software, or its volunteer community. Licence: Kodi is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later, with some individual source files distributed under additional other licences. Full details of these can be found here. Further reading: Is Kodi Legal? Freedom of Choice Kodi Builds - Streaming Addons and Free Lunches We Do Not Sell Hardware Piracy Box Sellers and YouTube Promoters are Killing Kodi Warning! Be Aware What Additional Add-ons You Install View the full article...

Kodi at FOSDEM 2020 Hello Belgium once again. In the tradition of the last few years, members of Team Kodi will be present at FOSDEM in Brussels this weekend. If you live somewhere nearby or are attending, please feel free to come and meet some of our team members in person. FOSDEM is an annual, volunteer-driven, non-commercial event that focuses on free and open source software development. It's primarily aimed at developers, although the talks and stands are open to anyone who's interested. Its main aim is to simply create a meeting place; it's a fantastic opportunity for people to mix, chat, share ideas, collaborate, promote awareness, and generally interact with like-minded individuals. Every year, thousands of developers from all over the world descend on the Université Libre de Bruxelles to attend. This year, there will be representatives of projects such as Gnome, Mozilla, Debian, GitLab, LibreOffice, Apache - and of course some of the Kodi team as well. We won't have a stand this time, but in between attending talks and generally mingling, we'd love to meet with our friends in the community who might be reading this. Kodi Team Meet and Greet It doesn't matter whether you're a user or developer, whether you work with Kodi or something else, if you have commercial interests, or if you're simply curious. Pop along if you're interested; several Team Kodi members will be present to chat at your leisure. Room J.1.106, Sunday 2nd February, 12:00-13:00. View the full article...

Kore v2.5.0 Released! Team Kodi are proud to announce the release of the latest version of our Kore Android remote application. Team members and other contributors have added several great new features which we think users will love. The changes for this new version includes: Improved PVR section: new search option, sort recordings and hide watched items. Add support for sharing local files to Kodi, by using the side menu "Local Files", or by choosing Kore as the share target for a file. Allow changing Kore's language in Settings. Add new sort option for albums, movies and tv shows (by year). New color themes (Sunrise and Sunset) and tweaks to the others. Show all the available playlists (in the playlist screen), even when nothing's playing. New translations (Korean, Slovak) Bug fixes and UI tweaks. The full changelog can be found here. Kore is available as a free download from the Google Play Store, and also from F-Droid. Tags: Kore Android View the full article...

For the next few days the 36th Chaos Communication Congress, the largest hacker conference in Europe, is held in Leipzig, Germany. Organized by the Chaos Computer Club, it features a lot of tech related talks and assemblies. Kodi will be represented by Sarbes, one of our Python developers. A talk about the project is scheduled at 3pm on the first day, at the ChaosZone (https://cfp.chaoszone.cz/36c3/talk/V83NXN/). If you happen to be at the congress, Sarbes can be reached via our IRC channel (#kodi @freenode). Feel free to reach out to him to ask questions and/or to buy him a beer. Tags: Talks Chaos Communications Congress hacker View the full article...

In our ongoing mission to bring you the very greatest (and most reliable) media centre software in the world, it's time to let another point release escape into the wild. Usual rules apply: this isn't about features, it's about stability and usability. As usual, you can find a full summary of closed pull requests on GitHub, but the summary would be... Interface/Look-and-Feel Estuary and GUI info fixes, including scrollbar behaviour, icon names, label changes Add dual support for Artist Slideshow 2.x and 3.x Fix to always allow 'Black' screen saver Fix wrong sort order list for music playlists node Playback/Display Fixes to external subtitle playback Fixes to support for archives over UPnP Fixes to "queue item" and "play next" for STRM files with Plugin URL Fixes to "hide watched" status for videos Fixes to resume handling when marking a file as unwatched PVR Fixes to EPG database storage, start/stop of PVR service Fix handling of open modal dialogs Fixes to commercial skip (EDL) processing Other/General Fixes Multiple Android changes around windowing, secure decoder and SDK versions Multiple iOS changes, including support for iPhone 11 and 7th generation iPad, plus fixes for touch input, overlapping drawing surfaces, sandbox checks, notch support. MacOS fixes around windowing, where only a portion of the screen was correctly rendered Log files improvements around verbosity and security Shoutcast improvements Various fixes and improvements to add-on settings, package build documentation, build system, advancedsettings.xml, skin/profile changes and many other subsystems The nature of point releases is that most of these changes won't be visible to most people unless they address a specific problem you'd stumbled across. That said, they're all real bugs, and real fixes, so thanks as always to all who found a bug, took the time to report it and, in some cases, provided a fix. The full v18.5 changelog can be found in our GitHub milestone. If you want to read back on what was actually changed in v18 itself, you can find the corresponding articles in the blog posts - Kodi 18, Kodi 18.1, Kodi 18.2, Kodi 18.3 and Kodi 18.4. Application delpoyment on different platforms (notably, Google Play and the Microsoft Store) varies due to circumstances outside of our control. It may thus take a few more days to appear everywhere, so just stay tuned. Tags: Release Announcements View the full article...

Windows Developers - Kodi Needs You! It will probably come as a surprise to many of you that the active team of Kodi developers is tiny - millions of users and yet only a handful of volunteers spending their spare time to do all the technical stuff at the heart of Kodi. In turn, there is another handful of valuable people providing user support, forum moderation, supervision of the addon repo, and so on. Sometimes, we have a need for specific skills that the team does not currently have. Well, that's what has happened. You can read all about the switch to Python3 here, an essential upgrade to one of the underlying tools which Kodi uses. This is a breaking change for us, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get things functional again. In turn, this has brought the lack of experience of (or even interest in) developing on the Windows platforms in the team to a crisis. We are currently very short of active developers with in-depth, practical knowledge of developing and deploying C++ applications on Windows platforms, for both the both desktop and UWP versions of Kodi. We especially need people: who know and understand CMake, to bring packaging of Windows dependencies into line with those of our other actively-developed platforms. with knowledge of the UWP API, and an interest in implementing Kodi as a UWP app running on Xbox, etc. We cannot hold up releases of Kodi just for one or two platforms, no matter how large or active they may be or how many users they have. So there is a real risk that if new blood does not join the team, at least UWP (XBox) will have to be dropped for Kodi v20 and probably even Matrix v19. Put bluntly, we need Windows developers. If that is you, and you'd be willing and interested to work on a project like Kodi, then we'd love to hear from you. We really want to say that our existing developers would be able to mentor as much as required, and we will certainly assist as much as we can, but in reality you need to be self-reliant and sufficiently experienced to be able to hold your own. Kodi is not a starter project, more a serious mountain that few conquer; it's complex, but very rewarding too. A sense of adventure and enjoyment of unravelling mysteries and puzzles would help a lot. Bottom line, without developer interest, the likelihood of there being a UWP release for v19 is slim, and v20 would be zero. Your Kodi needs you! Footnote: for those who may be interested, Team member Rechi has provided the following technical notes. The current dependency system is mandatory for compilation on Android, iOS, macOS and tvOS. It can be also used for Linux, but we usually use system libraries (provided by the distribution). The process compiles all libraries needed for Kodi (link) from source, along with some required tools (link). For Windows, however, pre-compiled libraries (except FFmpeg and libdvd) and executables are downloaded (download-dependencies.bat) and then used to build Kodi. Because some libs depend on other libs, one has to recompile all reverse dependencies to be sure everything is still working. If an issue then shows up within a library, that one has to be compiled again (and maybe also, in turn, its reverse dependencies), packaged and re-uploaded, instead of simply fixing the issue in source code. Where we're trying to get to with Windows, then, is to have all necessary libraries compiled from source, as an integrated part of the build process, and thus replace the download-dependencies.bat, download-msys2.bat and make-mingwlibs.bat scripts. The main changes for this can be found here as detailed in this pull request (link). It switches from downloading pre-compiled native executables to building them from source. Target libraries are only switched to compiling from source for x86-windows, arm-windowsstore, x86-windowsstore and x86_64-windowsstore, because it currently contains only required dependencies. This means those platforms will lose some functionality until the libs are added. This can be done one by one and I can guide anyone who is interested. Once all optional libraries are added, x86_64-windows platform can also be switched to this dependency system. Tags: Windows Development View the full article...

Kodi 19 with Python 3 Goes Live Nearly two years ago, we announced that Kodi was migrating to use the Python 3 interpreter for its many addons (see here) and we explained both why we were doing it and what would change. Since then we have been encouraging all add-on developers to work towards that goal. If you want to read more about how to make add-ons work with the new Python version, see this page on our wiki. As Python 2 is imminently reaching end of life (1st January 2020)m we've needed to pull this forwards, so have just taken the next big step: the nightly builds for Kodi 19 "Matrix" are now using the Python 3 interpreter to run all Python-based add-ons This means that not only can add-on developers test their work using the most recent Kodi builds, but that early bird users of v19 also are able to use them. However, this migration is very much a breaking change for us, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done to get things fully functional again. This also needs to be done quickly, as we need to be complete before the end of life of Python 2 happens. The support of the wider community in this phase will be very welcome. For early users of Kodi v19 via the nightly builds, the obvious issue is that a large number of add-ons are non-functional. Problems with specific add-ons can best be reported on the forum thread for that add-on - read up if the author is already aware before posting. However, the developers of some older add-ons are no longer active, so anyone with Python skills and an interest in Kodi is encouraged to get involved with updating some of the now otherwise-unmaintained add-ons and scripts. There are also issues that need core developer knowledge to fix. Since moving to Python 3 there are some difficulties on all Windows platforms in particular. The version of Kodi for UWP (Xbox) does not compile at all, and needs someone to champion it. There are also issues with certain libraries e.g. Pillow, PyCryptodome, cTypes etc., being missing or incompatible versions, so those add-ons that depend on them don't run and can't be tested on Windows. Things will be a little raw at the edges until we can get these things fixed, so bear with us and if you have skills and can step up and contribute then please do. Tags: Release Announcements Python View the full article...

So, here we are, the third and final day of DevCon 2019. It's likely to be a short list of topics this morning before some people head home while those who remain use the time together to write some fabulous code. So, let's get straight to business. We kicked off with kwiboo and jernej (from the LibreELEC team) talking about HDR support on Linux. This goes way beyond Kodi, as it's kernel-level work to improve GPU support; this then ripples through the operating system before finding its way to Kodi via V4L2 and ffmpeg. We've been working mostly with the Intel team to complete support for their chipset, but there's also basic work in place for Allwinner, Amlogic and Rockchip. This means that we're well on the way to having a common implementation across all major chipsets that are likely to be running Linux. The industry-wide, concerted focus on V4L2 (driven significantly by Google/ChromeOS) also means that we can finally strip away large chunks of proprietary, vendor-specific code as all of these chipsets move to a common, standardised API model. We've grudgingly tolerated these for a long time, but they make maintaining and updating functionality so much more difficult when you need to consider dozens of different code paths, so we'll be glad to see the back of them. A couple of topics that took some time but didn't really make it to the final sessions, so perhaps we'll come back to them later: roles and responsibilities within the Board, the overall Kodi architecture and how it could be improved, potential for web browser support in Kodi. Just headings for the moment, so don't get too excited. Following this, we spent a chunk of time on introspective activities: admin rights, system and application access, social media access, password lockers, two-factor authentication, and similar. We also talked about Team matters: new members, absent friends, acknowledgements. Maybe not really interesting to the outside world, but still stuff we need to worry about if we're to keep everything running smoothly. And now it's time for what a room full of developers ("a segfault of programmers", perhaps?) with laptops does naturally. All around me, I can see screens scrolling as code compiles, the brightly-coloured syntax highlighting of IDEs, the transient flash of windows and terminal prompts as people cycle between them. The mob is talking animatedly about CODECs, rendering planes, operating systems, APIs, kernel calls. In the distance, a heated debate begins about the relative merits of Linux distros. There's a constant murmur of noise, the combination of conversation, keyboard taps and error sounds. The mood for the rest of the day is set... let's hope no-one breaks anything important... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So, that's it for this year. Thanks for listening, and I hope you've found these posts informative. More than that, though, thanks for continuing to support Kodi! All the best, Team Kodi. Tags: DevCon View the full article...

Morning, all. It's a beautiful day here, and we're just waiting for the last few latecomers to arrive before another day of DevCon... We kicked off with Python 3, following on from yesterday's conversation. The general consensus was to get this merged and live with any minor breakage - we need to get this done, and can't wait for absolutely every add-on to be updated before we merge. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, after all. The conversation then quickly shifted to sarbes talking about features that would make life much easier from a Python developer's perspective. These are really around how the core code handles items, lists and displays, and how this could be modified to improve the user experience (e.g. pagination of long lists). The obvious affect is on lists of Internet content, but it would also improve PVR/EPG display, searching, and others. Similarly, allowing add-ons to specify viewtypes or just know more about what views the user prefers would make things more consistent and usable. Other ideas included subtitle support for use within add-ons, and some kind of URI mechanism so an add-on could transfer a path from one Kodi instance to another - this would allow you to move playback from your 'phone to the TV, for example. Next up, jimcaroll stepped up to talk about Codegenerator, which is a core part of Kodi's Python (and, in theory, other scripting language) API, auto-generating the C++ API code as required. The main purpose of this is to reduce code size and improve maintainability, but it could potentially scale to give a more flexible, standardised approach to supporting multiple different types of external module. Only a concept, but that would open up huge possibilities for add-ons in C#, JavaScript, Groovy and many others, bringing very different functionality, security models, and scope. This was followed by an update on tvOS by kambala and fuzzard. Much of the Apple-specific code has been floating around for a while in various forks and branches, so this is a more concerted effort to bring it all back together, update and augment it to form a complete package for the Apple TV 4. Still a work in progress, but getting closer. Next up, lrusak took the stage to lead a session on how platform specifics can block or delay overall development - for example, when a pull request affects all platforms but there's some obscure issue on one particular operating system. Older versions of operating systems may come with different libraries or different development toolchains; different platforms might diverge totally or even miss out components that are business-as-usual on everything else; API calls can behave slightly differently even when they shouldn't. So, should we hold everything back because of one platform? Should we hold back all platforms because, say, an older but still maintained (e.g. LTS) OS release can't support some aspect of newer functionality? Should we merge a change if it compiles on all platforms except one, effectively breaking that platform until "later"? This isn't an easy issue: ultimately, we want to get new functions and fixes out there, and that may mean living with some dead code and platform-specific workarounds in the meantime; alternatively, we simply freeze older platforms at a previous Kodi release, and move on (as, indeed, many other application developers do). As always, though, if you're a developer who could help here, you know where to find us... After a break for lunch, kib and keith kicked off a conversation about Foundation responsibilities and costs - some activities are legal in nature, many of them administrative, all of them important. As a registered non-profit organisation, we're obliged to submit certain paperwork on an annual basis to keep that status along with US tax declarations. Forget this, or get it wrong, and we face losing our status and either incurring significant taxes or else paying lawyers to re-submit and regain it - neither scenario being something we want. As such, we have an ongoing task to better document what people do and highlight the imperative tasks within that list: even as a bunch of volunteers, there's a degree of professionalism required behind the scenes, and that means sometimes paying for help. Time to return to more technical matters: jimcarroll once again took the floor, this time to talk about threading in Kodi. Given the history of Kodi, there was a lot of platform-specific threading mechanisms. That creates complex code, with dependencies and checks that just get in the way - so, can we collapse it down into a more platform-independent model, or, at least, a minimal set of variations? It turns out that you can slim down to two main models: POSIX and Windows, and that's where the work has been heading. Some code will still need variations, though, although other code can be collapsed still further into newer, more standardised threading mechanisms that have been implemented on all platforms since the original code was written (e.g. as implemented in C++11). Bringing the afternoon to a close, then, jimcarroll stayed on his feet to talk about DI - dependency injection. This is a mechanism to move away from a monolithic main() routine that directs all other application activities, and instead having a suite of dynamic dependencies between modules that are resolved at runtime. In this instance, the code can declare a constructor that has a dependency on some other component without explicitly knowing about that other component when the code is written. And that's it for Day Two. A few more topics to roll over until tomorrow, along with a hackathon while everyone is together - but, until then, that's all for now. Tags: DevCon View the full article...

Another year passes, and here we are once again, locked in a windowless room to discuss all things Kodi-shaped. Genuine thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and users - that means you, you lovely people - whose donations make these meetings possible. Old faces, new faces, guests - these events really do help us to come together, share ideas and shape the direction of our favourite media software. So, where are we? Well, this blog post comes to you from Belgrade, the capital of the Balkan state of Serbia, at the crossroads of central and south-east Europe. A city of some 1.25 million people, Belgrade has a long and turbulent history: the area has been inhabited for some 8,000 years, and has been home to, or part of, the Vinča culture, Celts, the Roman Empire, Slavs, the Bulgarian Empire, the Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburgs and Yugoslavia. On with the show... After the usual round of introductions, kambala opened the show with a session on crash reporting: whether and how we could collect more crash logs by making it semi-automated or just generally easier ("Kodi has had a problem, would you like to send a report to the developers?" sort of thing). If we can get better insights, particularly into "silent" crashes, then we can get to work on eliminating bugs without waiting until someone gets annoyed enough to report it. Of course, we need to balance data volumes, human workload, user privacy, platform/component-specifics, and several other factors before we go down this road, so it isn't something that would appear tomorrow. Next up, DarrenHill gave an update on forum activity and moderation. Overall, we've got a solid, worldwide team of moderators and a good suite of supporting tools that have had a significant positive impact on volumes of spam or undesirable posts. There's more user-led engagement around what we can and can't support on the forum; we've improved how we can notify our users when there's an upstream problem (e.g. with metadata providers) that might cause issues with Kodi; spammers are either blocked at source or removed from the forum very swiftly. What we're perhaps lacking, though, is more diligence around the wiki as a source of help - keeping this up-to-date as Kodi continues to grow and improve. As usual, volunteers are always welcome. Our 2019 Google Summer of Code student, gusandrianos, took the microphone next to talk about his work on multi-pass shaders in RetroPlayer. Shaders are GPU routines that handle scaling, colours, lighting, shading, etc., and are used in RetroPlayer to change the look-and-feel of games as individual frames are rendered: pixellation, colour saturation, scaling, video effects, and similar. More information can be found via the GSoC website here. Keith then stepped up to lead a discussion about Kodi's trademark policy and how we work with community groups that wish to use our code and/or branding. This covers projects which effectively bundle or build Kodi for specific purposes (e.g. LibreELEC or Debian) as well as complete rebranding (e.g. OSMC, SPMC). What we're really trying to do is protect our intellectual property while being as easy to work with as we can be: we've probably been a bit heavy-handed in the past, and this isn't helpful when people are simply trying (for the most part) to do the right thing. This conversation then led into how we include more "stakeholders" into our conversations - people who aren't team members, who maybe aren't specifically contributing to Kodi, but who are still doing interesting, relevant things that should be embraced. The conversation also covered "best practices" and how we can more easily advise people what they can and can't do, or under what conditions. The afternoon session kicked off with Keith giving an overview of Kodi's financial position - where our money has come from, where it's gone back out to, what we have left. Changing financial regulations around the world also mean that we need to re-assess our bank account setup, specifically in terms of how we keep "local" accounts to receive donations and pay expenses in e.g. EUR when we're incorporated in the US. Within the team, we use Slack extensively to talk to each other on both broad (e.g. "moderators") and narrow (e.g. "HDR on Windows") topics, so we had a conversation about all the channels we have that team members may have missed. We also talked about external channels, which we have so we can invite guests, bridge to IRC, and similar. If you collaborate with Team Kodi in any way and would find this useful, please let us know and we'll set something up. Next up, yol and DaVu led a conversation about how, now we've completed the move, switching bug tracking from Trac to GitHub Issues has worked out. In general, it's working well, although we need to tighten up how we tag issues to both make sure they get routed correctly and, ultimately, to ensure that they get closed off once complete. You can find the current list of open and closed issues on our GitHub code repository. We've adopted a similar process for tagging pull requests, although we clearly need to improve our approach for notifying, reviewing and merging PRs given the backlog we've built up. We talked a little about the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and what this means for us - specifically, the forum, as that's arguably personally-identifiable information. Generally, we don't aim to collect such information, and people's posts are made publicly and thus outside of the scope of the legislation. However, there are still perhaps some tweaks we can make to ensure all "fingerprints" are removed should someone ask. The next topic was around the vision for Kodi and how it fits into the streaming world we find ourselves in. The conversation was started off by da-anda, reflecting how we, as individuals, have seen our viewing habits change in recent years. This is a big topic, as there are as many political issues as there are any others: as part of the battle between themselves, the "walled garden" content providers fiercely defend the 'user experience' via their specific interface and applications. This obviously has real implications for any attempts to bring streamed content into a combined library view. The conversation moved on with a conversation about add-ons - specifically, how they're listed and shown, which is currently best summarised as "in a long list, not all of which will work for everyone even if you know what they might be for". Can we group them? Can we tag them? Who would, how? We also touched on use cases - how clumsy it is to add your own home videos or similar content, for example - and also how else people do or could use Kodi. And we also talked about the implications for core developer time (both as mentors and programmers), and our constant need for more people who are motivated and interested in contributing significant features to the project; if nothing else, it's futile to have a roadmap or list of features if we then can't actually implement them. Kodi is a fantastic playground for experienced C++ developers and for those who wish to develop these skills; you don't need to be a video guru either, as there's an awful lot of code around the core player/renderer routines. Go on: you know you want to... The day continued with a1rwulf and the work he's been doing on metadata and database storage. This is major re-work that impacts large pieces of code throughout the application, so merging it needs to be done carefully. However, it brings about significant performance improvements, scales to large databases better, and brings new functionality around music sources and playlists. Some of these functions might better implemented as binary add-ons so they can be ported to the core application sooner rather than later - the benefit of taking a more modular approach. Rounding off the session, then, garbear introduced a discussion around Kodi versioning which quickly led into plans for Kodi 19 "Matrix". New features or capabilities notwithstanding, Python 2 goes end-of-life on New Year's Day 2020 - the clock is literally ticking down - and that gives a growing imperative to release the Python 3 version of Kodi into the wild. There are, of course, other issues to address and other code to include before we can release, and a final check that Python 3 doesn't break more than it solves, so it's a balancing act now. And that concludes our first day. As the sun sets on Belgrade, it's time to head out into the Balkan night in search of beer and something to eat. Okay, mostly beer. Tags: DevCon View the full article...

Is it legal? After "What exactly is Kodi?", the second most common question we often get asked is "Is Kodi legal?". The two questions are of course linked, but with the recent media reporting concerning piracy the answer to the legality is sometimes not so clear to the man in the street. Due to various 3rd party addons, the app has gained an unwanted reputation as being a "way to get movies and TV shows for free". This is not helped at all by certain unscrupulous websites and YouTube bloggers who encourage and perpetuate the myth, simply to increase their traffic from web users and earn more cash from the site sponsors. So it may be worthwhile to try and officially answer the legality question, and at least in part for usage one as well. So what is Kodi? Put simply the "reference Kodi", which is the one supplied by Team Kodi and available from our website along with selected official app stores (Google and Windows for example) is a media centre. Underneath the hood is a powerful media player to play back video or audio files, but coupled to that is the flexible user interface and library system for storing and displaying posters, plot and cast information and other supporting metadata. As supplied, reference Kodi does not ship with any media at all, nor are any media-providing addons pre-installed. What it does come with though is a catalogue of vetted and approved addons (our official repo) which can be installed from within the Kodi GUI by the user, enabling access to a selection of legitimate sources. The intended usage case is that the user will either supply their own media files stored locally on their network for Kodi to access, or that they will install the addons that they wish to use. Then is it legal? As we supply it, Kodi is totally legal. If the user is supplying their own media for Kodi to play, then the provenance and legality of that media is their own responsibility, as is any possible consequences of them having it in their possession. Similarly if they actively choose to install an addon within Kodi, it is their decision and responsibility to do so. Where things become murkier is the area of third party addons. Kodi is designed to be extendable, and addons are available through third party repositories as well as from the official sources. It should be noted firstly that in reference Kodi this third party capability is disabled by default, and must be specifically enabled (along with a warning message and confirmation) by the user before third party sources can be used. If this is enabled, then additional repos can be installed and addons obtained from them. As the name suggests, these third party addons and repos are neither produced by, supported by nor endorsed by Team Kodi. Sadly there are many third party addons out there which enable access to pirated media or streams, in violation of copyright laws. This has in the past led users who make use of them into legal difficulties alongside legal action being taken against those who write and supply such addons. This of course is something we wish to avoid, as by the nature of the press our name and brand gets associated with their activities, and the infamous "Kodi Box" has become synonymous with piracy (even though there is strictly no such thing, as we do not produce, sell or endorse hardware media devices). How do I spot a dodgy deal? As with any deal, common sense is your best yardstick. But there are a number of pointers to guide you when things may be less than kosher, be it for a device or for a third party addon: if you are being offered media (TV shows, TV channels, events or movies) for free that you would normally expect to pay for. if you are being offered media that you wouldn't normally have access to privately (for example movies currently playing in theatres or not yet on DVD/streaming release). if you are being sold a device by someone claiming to be Kodi or officially endorsed by them (for example by their website using our brand name and/or logo). if the device is being sold as preconfigured to enable immediate access to online media sources. if the supplier website or channel is plastered with ads for VPNs and other similar methods to "cover your tracks", and doubly so if the article says that they are required. if the deal is "too good to be true". In the end always ask yourself this question - "if I were offered this in a pub car park or a market, would I buy it?". The official built-in repo has been audited by Team Kodi. No addon within it makes use of non-legitimate sources, nor does their code pose a malware risk if installed. As this audit is not done on any other third party source, the user should beware and confirm that they are happy to trust the source before using it, or at least are prepared to accept any repercussions from doing so. So what about torrents, storage sites and builds? These again can be grey areas in terms of legality and trustworthiness. Whilst we do allow addons which give access to torrents and web storage sites (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega etc), we do not allow any into the official repo which come pre-packaged with sources included. Again this comes down to user choice and responsibility. The user can do what he likes with the software, as long as it is done with their understanding of what they are doing and that they take personal responsibility for their actions. One thing that we do not support at all is builds, as by their very nature they take away that user choice. Even aside from the fact that most are simply there to provide access to pirated media via dodgy addons, they also take away the users consensual choice as to what is being installed on their devices. There has been more than one example of malware being bundled into certain builds, or other unwelcome inclusions which subvert and often break Kodi functionality. As we had nothing to do with such breakages, we of course do not wish to have to support fixing them. The final verdict So is Kodi legal? As we supply it, the answer is yes. But as the old saying goes, "it's not what you have, it's how you use it", and in this case also where you got it from. If it has been sourced from elsewhere, or if something has been added or modified since it was obtained, then all guarantees are null and void. We won't tell you what to do, not to do or how to use our software. We guarantee the reference Kodi we supply, anything beyond that is up to you. View the full article...

As we approach Kodi DevCon (our annual team member conference) we continue our quest for greater transparency and openness in how the project is managed. We’d like to touch on project finances: specifically where the money comes from, and where it goes. Outreach is a major expense. In the last year Team Kodi members presented at: FOSDEM - both @yol and @lrusak gave talks (here and here) Open Source Leadership Summit - @natethomas spoke (slides) SCALE - @natethomas spoke, How to Destroy a Community (video, overview and slides) Linaro Connect - @lrusak spoke (video) Team members also attended: Embedded World Community Leadership Summit Open Source Summit North America OSCON GSoC Mentor Summit Videolan Dev Days 35c3 Some attendance costs are fully covered by the conference organizers. Sometimes our team members pay their own way. Mostly Kodi funds or part-funds a trip. Your donations allow the team to play an ongoing and active part in the Open Source community; both sharing our own knowledge with others, and learning from them so we can make Kodi better. Server infrastructure, hosting, bandwidth and CDN services, build servers, hardware items for testing, and some minor subscriptions, e.g. accounting software (as we need to file tax returns) are lesser but regular recurring costs. Some are offset by sponsors, most we fund ourselves. Kodi DevCon is our largest expense of the year. We are a global team and the project talks mainly in text, via the forums or Slack. This creates endless opportunities for cultural, linguistic and more general misunderstanding. DevCon typically brings 20-30 team members together somewhere in a cheaper part of Europe and gives them a chance to speak face-to-face, share ideas, share some drinks and laughs - helping to defuse tensions that build up. We also get to talk about Kodi a lot (even more than normal) which spares our partners for a few days. They do get sick of hearing about it :) The project has three sources of funding: sponsorships, public donations, and sales of Kodi branded tee-shirts and Raspberry Pi ‘flirc’ cases. There is zero advertising on our website and in our application - and this will never change (we reject many emails from advertising sales people each week). While we need to raise funds to cover our annual costs, we are not motivated by money, and nobody is paid by our foundation - we are 100% volunteers. Kodi is free - and will always be an Open Source (GPL) project - because we chose to be Open Source and because it is impossible for us to change our license. We have never required contributors to submit a CLA, so they own the rights to their code, and a license change would need the permission of all contributors. Our oldest code (c.2002) cannot be attributed to a single author, and solving that would need us to rewrite an impractical volume of code. And the team simply wouldn’t allow the license change; especially @spiff our resident Viking who has been around since the original Xbox days. We do like sponsors - as long as they are relevant and publicly supportive of Open Source software. Sponsoring Kodi does not bring any special treatment or influence on the team, and all sponsors are vetted by the board. Past sponsors have donated cash to our Foundation (our preferred option) or provided developers with hardware (spec. kit to write code on, not test samples) and one even bankrolled DevCon which was awesome. Current Gold sponsors provide us with free services (e.g. site hosting) which saves us a fortune. You can see their names in the footer of this page and we cannot thank them enough! We are proud to announce our latest Diamond sponsor - Libre Computer, who manufacture a range of Allwinner, Amlogic and Rockchip single-board computer hardware for industrial and hobbyist use-cases (including HTPCs). We are normally shy when hardware vendors approach us with an offer of sponsorship, but Libre Computer has been funding a range of Open Source projects and Linux multimedia development that directly benefits the ecosystem around them in addition to their own products. We like their approach to FOSS, and we appreciate their support. Interested in individually supporting us? - there are several ways: Our Donate page has Credit Card, PayPal, BTC and Wire Transfer info Our Patreon page. Amazon (US) will donate 0.5% of your purchases to registered non-profit organizations of any US purchases via smile.amazon.com. We are listed as “Kodi Foundation” and here is a link to sign up: Amazon Smile Thank you to everyone who contributes to Kodi and hopefully makes it possible for the team to have our developer conference in October - and if you know of a company contributing to Open Source who might be interested in becoming a Kodi sponsor, please drop us a line. Tags: finances admin View the full article...