How to change the language in Kodi. Installing and Configuring Quasar on Kodi
I'll start by explaining that KODI is an absolutely legal and free program that exists through voluntary donations that can be made on the official website as a thank you. Essentially, KODI is a movie and music player, similar to the well-known Windows Media Player, but with broader functionality and capable of playing absolutely all known audio, video and photo formats. But, as stated above, KODI is not a simple player; it is a media server. That is, it is capable of providing access to media files from any device to any devices on your home network, can itself view the contents of shared folders from other devices, and much more. In general, for understanding, let's look at examples.
KODI on computer
So, let's assume that we have a personal computer (PC) at home in which we store our favorite movies. And we want to be able to view these files on any device on our home network. I already described the solution to a similar problem in Issue 1 and Issue 2.
But there we got the opportunity to view all files, in the sense of all files in a row, including documents, archives, system files and others, and the media server gives us the opportunity to view multimedia files, that is, only video, music and photo files. Moreover, for example, Smart TV running on the Web OS operating system does not have the ability to view shared folders on the network, since it does not support the required data transfer protocol (SMB), but it does support the DLNA/UPnP protocol (that is what is usually called the desired item in the Smart TV settings).
And just the media server opens access to media files using this protocol. And thanks to DLNA/UPnP, not only Smart TV, but also all kinds of multimedia devices (set-top boxes, projectors, smartphones, network storage NAS) running on various operating systems can exchange multimedia files.
Installing KODI on a PC is no different from installing any other program. That is, we simply download the file from the official KODI website and double-click on it to launch the installation, which will also not cause any difficulties. If you are the owner of Windows 10, then KODI can be installed through the “Store”.
Having installed KODI, the first thing you can do after launching is to select the desired language. To do this, go to settings.
In the settings, look for “InterfaceSettings”.
Choose a language.
After changing the language, I suggest immediately changing the settings level. If you look at the pictures above, you will see the item “Standard” in the lower left corner, which in Russian became “Standard”. And if we click on it a couple of times, we will get the “Expert” level of settings, thanks to which all possible settings sections that we will need in the future will open.
But I would like to immediately make a reservation that we will not consider all the possibilities and features of setting up KODI, since our topic is still about the home network, and not about this media server. We will look at the basic settings of KODI, which, in my opinion, are more than enough. And if you have already taken in the size of this article, then you understand that even setting up basic features is a lot of work. Now, before we do anything further in KODI, let's “prepare the ground” so to speak.
To do this, we need to create and distribute folders in which we will store our videos, music and photos, that is, we will do “cataloging,” as it were.
And here you will immediately be faced with the fact that, unlike any other program, KODI cannot be minimized just like that. That is, KODI, as a game, takes up the entire screen, which is very inconvenient, since exiting and starting this media server takes some time . But I’ll share a trick - by pressing the backslash key “\” (located near “Enter” and “Backspace”), KODI will switch to windowed mode, and this window can already be minimized.
After we have minimized KODI, we go to Explorer (aka “My Computer”), where we will need libraries, which we also talked about a lot in Issue 1 and Issue 2.
In the “Video” library you need to create two folders: Movies and TV Series. I had already created the Clips folder.
I move my videos into these folders, that is, I put full-length films and cartoons in the “Movies” folder, and TV series and animated series in the “Series” folder and clips, respectively, in “Clips”. With films, everything is simple, but TV series inside the “Series” folder also need to be sorted into folders.
Inside a specific series by season, that is, this is the tree that turns out.
I’ll tell you about the Clips folder separately.
You can create folders within the “Images” library entirely at your own discretion. Since by images we mainly mean photographs, folders are created, as a rule, based on events. For example, I think absolutely everyone has folders “Wedding”, “Birthday”, “Trip to...”. In general, I don’t think any further explanation is needed here.
There is no need to create folders in the Music library at all. All downloaded songs can be placed there indiscriminately.
After we have created the necessary folders, we return to KODI, which, as we remember, is in a minimized state. We need to return to the main page, which can be done by simply pressing the "Esc" key. On the main page, click on “Movies”.
But in the picture below, pay attention to the item in the red frame.
Here we need to determine the type of video.
And after we have done this, we return to the previous window, where we have another item.
Thanks to this item, we will have a description of our films with logos. Believe me - it's very beautiful. Only I recommend changing the source to “Kinopoisk”. That is, double-click on “Select a source of information” and follow the pictures below.
Selected “Kinopoisk” and clicked “OK”
Then you need to answer “Yes” to the “update content” question.
Using the “Esc” key, we return to the main screen and do the same procedure with TV series.
As you can see in the picture below, you can also select a source of information for TV series, but there are only two of them, so leave the one suggested by default and click “OK”.
To the question “update content” we answer “yes” and return to the beginning (Esc key). Now let's add "Music". Click on the corresponding tab.
We get to the next window, where you need to click on the “Files” tab.
Then “Add Music”.
Next are the already familiar steps, where we click the “Browse” button and select the local drive “D”, only now we select the “Music” folder accordingly. The one-to-one procedure is identical to adding Films and TV Series, with the only exception that in the case of Music we will not need to select a source of information, as we did, for example, for Films (where we chose “Kinopoisk”). Also, after clicking on the “Ok” button, we will be asked a question about updating the content, where we need to select “Yes” and we will see this picture.
By the way, you can update the content by right-clicking on the folder of the added catalog and selecting “Scan to Library”.
You can also exit and re-enter KODI to update the data.
As you can see, KODI can also turn off, restart and put the computer into Sleep mode, which can be very convenient. Next, we add “Photo” in the same way, and in order to update all the data at once, exiting and re-entering KODI will be faster. Moreover, I would even insist on doing this after adding the library.
So, the folders have been created, the files in them have been uploaded, the paths to the Libraries in KODI have been specified, and after restarting KODI we will finally see the fruits of our actions.
This is the picture that will appear before us as soon as we hover the mouse over the “Movies” tab.
Note the crooked logo. I specifically left it in the media library to show that such jambs exist. I don’t know what it’s connected with. Next, I suggest clicking on the categories yourself (those in the red frame). For example, on the “Actors” tab.
Or on the “Titles” tab.
Now let’s move the mouse over the “Series” tab, but I’ll say right away that I only downloaded “Ash vs. the Evil Dead” and “The Strain” and not completely, so on the series tab we see the logos of only these two series.
But if we click on “Name” in the “Categories” line, we will see the following.
That is, even though my folders are empty, posters and information about the series are displayed. And where there are files, a description of each series will be displayed.
The descriptions of the series are in English, because, unlike our Kinopoisk, this is how the source of information that we left by default provides information. But, even despite this, you will agree that it still turned out beautiful.
Now let's take a look at the Music tab.
And as we can see, despite the fact that I put all the songs in one folder, KODI itself distributes them by artist, genre, album, and so on.
But, unfortunately, “not everything is for the cat Maslenitsa,” that is, KODI does not always display information correctly.
But if you go to the “Performers” tab, then everything should be correct there, although of course not 100%.
By the way, if you move the mouse cursor to the left edge, you can change the display type. By default there is “Wide list”.
Or you can choose, for example, “Information Wall”.
The display type can also be changed in both “Movies” and “Series”. I liked the “Shift” view the most.
In the “Photo” section, I will advise you to select the “Wall” display type.
And I promised to tell you separately about “Clips”, aka Muz. Video, but, unfortunately, I will have to disappoint you. To understand what the problem is, let's click on the corresponding tab.
Here we see that, as planned, Clips should be sorted according to the same principle as music, but this did not happen. I downloaded clips of Russian and foreign performers, of course, I did not forget to add the Music folder and indicate the content type, I even indicated the data source, similar to how we did it with films and TV series, but still nothing worked out for me. That is, through the files menu, I could play any clip, but sorting by genre or artist did not work. I think the reason is most likely that the data source for the Muses. the video was not functioning at the time of writing this article (this, by the way, happens with Kinopoisk, and as an alternative, use the source “TheMovieDatabase”). In general, if you are interested, try it yourself, and we move on.
KODI on Android
Since KODI and its settings are the same on any operating system, in this section we will simply look at some of the features and compare the advisability of using KODI with other programs, of which, unlike Windows, many are developed for the Android operating system.
If we are talking about Android, we mean a TV set-top box or tablet, which has one big drawback compared to a PC, namely a small amount of internal memory, at most, in my opinion, 64 GB, but this is mere pennies for a home media library, when One movie in FullHD format takes up approximately 10 GB. By the way, I only have more than 100 GB of photos. Yes, you can connect an external USB drive to the set-top box, but using an external drive on the Android operating system can be fraught with a number of difficulties.
For example, on some set-top boxes or tablets (without obtaining Root access) it is impossible to download anything to either a USB drive or an SD card. In addition, for files larger than 4 GB, your USB-HDD needs to be formatted in NTFS, which Android is “not very friendly with.” In addition, using a USB drive with a tablet is technically impossible in many cases, and SD cards also cannot boast large volumes.
To solve this problem, many people store their media library on a PC or NAS (in short: network-attached storage device), but we’ll talk about ways to view it next.
KODI is free to install from Google Play, so there won't be any problems with that. One-to-one language settings, just like on Windows. And in general the appearance is completely the same. The settings differ only in that instead of a local drive we will select a network device.
First, let’s remember how we did it on a PC, that is, click on the “Movies” tab, there “Add video”, then “Browse”.
In it we will see such a window.
It will be called WORKGROUP on all versions of Windows (unless you changed it in the settings on your PC). Next we will see our home PCs (as you remember from previous issues, I have two), on which folders are shared.
Now I’m sitting and writing this instruction at the MAIN-PC, so I tap on it and get into the authorization window, where I need to enter my login and password for my Windows account, which we discussed in detail in Issue 2. Don't forget to "Remember the path".
After entering your login and password, we will see the shared and already familiar drive “D”,
on which the same folders lie, and we select the “Videos” folder.
Then click “OK” again in the same familiar window.
After which we select the content type, indicate the data source (“Kinopoisk”) and answer “yes” when asked to update the content. In general, other than specifying the network path, adding directories is no different from a similar procedure in Windows. Accordingly, problems with TV Series, Music and Photos should not arise either.
Important note: if you read the previous issue and set up manual routing at home, then I recommend replacing the name of the computer (in my case MAIN-PC) with its network address in the address to the source. And our path will look like this smb://192.168.0.102/D/Videos/Movies.
We do the same with TV series and photos. This is more reliable, because several times I lost access to folders on my PC if I left it as is (smb://MAIN-PC/D/Videos/Movies), but never with the address indicated. And if you have a NAS, then it will most likely be accessed via FTP, where you only need to enter the network address, which may change if manual routing is not configured or IP addresses are not reserved. Here's one of the advantages of manually setting up a network.
One more note: If you are using KODI on a tablet, then I recommend changing the cover. This is done in the same place where we selected the language, that is, in the interface settings menu (the very beginning of this instruction), only now we respectively look for the “Cover” item and select “Estouchy” from the two proposed options.
Access to the media library
And now, finally, we are approaching the most interesting part. Of course, creating libraries with beautiful pictures and descriptions is great, but, in my opinion, it is not the most important thing and, in fact, is just setting up KODI as a player. But next we will look at setting up KODI as a media server. To do this, go to the settings menu and look for the “Service Settings” item, which can also be called “Services” (depending on the selected cover, of which there are actually many).
In the “General” section we come up with a “Device name”. This is not necessary if you only have one device (PC or set-top box) where KODI will be installed.
We try to enable “Zeroconf” and see that it doesn’t work.
But there we also see a hint that you need to install a certain “Apple Bonjour” service, which can be downloaded on the Apple support site or by copying this link https://support.apple.com/kb/dl999?locale=ru_RU into the address bar of your browser. By the way, the Android version does not have the “Zeroconf” item, and I’ll tell you why it’s needed a little later.
Then in the "UPnP/DLNA" section we enable everything.
We enable AirPlay support, which will not start without the Zeroconf service enabled.
And Air Play support itself is needed for KODI to work with Apple devices.
Whether or not to configure “Weather” is up to you to decide. And at this point, I am happy to announce that the basic setup of KODI is complete. Now, with KODI running, we can easily watch videos or listen to music stored on the PC on Smart TV. But since everyone’s TV is different, it’s impossible to describe what needs to be done. But if you remember, at the beginning of this instruction I said that you need to look for the DLNA/UPnP item on the TV. Unfortunately, viewing photos is a little more difficult, but we'll talk about that a little later.
Control and broadcast
If you have studied KODI a little, then you understand perfectly well that everything I wrote here is not all the capabilities of KODI. I especially think you might be interested in the “Add-ons” item. To make it easier to understand why this point is needed, as an example I will mention the well-known website “YouTube” and the “YouTube” mobile application on smartphones and tablets, which, as you understand, is simply a convenient shell for the site. Other examples include the Facebook and VKontakte applications.
So, add-ons in “KODI” are a kind of the same application for video (or music) containing resources. But those presented in KODI itself will often not be of interest to you. But imagine that there are third-party add-ons that allow us to view content from, for example, the LostFilm website. Yes, it sounds tempting, but there are some difficulties with installation and the fact that these add-ons sooner or later stop functioning.
Overall, I think that all these add-ons are a waste of time, and next I will talk about how I watch videos from sites on KODI. But first, let's return to control, because control in some cases is very closely related to broadcasting, which replaces add-ons.
For owners of Android smartphones, installation of the Yatse application is available on Google Play.
This program will turn your smartphone into a control panel, and, in my opinion, it is much more convenient and functional than any remote control or Air Mouse, but judge for yourself.
You have installed the application, but before opening it, launch “KODI” on your PC (or set-top box). Open “Yatse” and in the start window, “tap” on “Start” in the lower right corner.
The next step is not interesting to us now, since if you are reading this article, then you are most likely installing the Yatse application for the first time, but, nevertheless, note to yourself that the settings can be saved in the Cloud and tap on "Ready".
In the next window we will see how “Yatse” searches for “KODI”.
But, unfortunately, it almost always DOES NOT FIND IT.
It may also display a message that your router or firewall (Defender in Windows) is to blame. But don’t be discouraged, because we will simply add the “KODI” host manually, so we simply “tap” “Next” and see a page where we are asked to indicate the IP address of the host (that is, the IP address of the PC or set-top box where we have installed "KODI") and web server port.
And here it’s worth making a small digression and once again reminding you that it’s worth reading the previous issue about manually setting up routing, from which you will learn which IP address you should specify. Moreover, as I already wrote above, you should understand perfectly well that if your IP addresses are not fixed, then at one point your router will change the IP of your devices. As a rule, the most likely cause may be that the router is unplugged from the outlet. And if this happens, then “Yatse” will have to be configured again. This, by the way, also applies to accessing shared folders from a tablet or smartphone, which we discussed in Issue 1. After all, after “ES Explorer” finds computers with shared folders on our home network, it remembers their current IP, and if the IP has changed, then you will have to delete the found computers and rescan. In short, permanent IPs on the home network are “Musthave”.
But let’s return to “Yatse”, where we must enter the IP address (in my case this is the IP address of my MAIN-PC 192.168.0.102) and port 8080, which, as you remember, we left unchanged in the KODI settings (9 pictures above) .
If everything is good, then after “tap” on “ADD HOST”, and we should be asked to indicate the “Username” and “password”, which I asked you to remember 9... no longer 10, pictures above.
Enter them and tap again on “ADD HOST”. We are waiting for connection.
After connecting, first of all pay attention to the left side of the screen, where we can see a display of our libraries that we configured on the PC (or set-top box).
Under libraries, pay attention to the “Files/playlists” item. It is needed to manage videos that cannot be classified as movies or TV series. This could be a family video, some video courses, or even little-known TV series. But fortunately, we look at very few of them, and with the vast majority everything is in order.
Whatever you say, the control panel turned out to be very beautiful, and if you turn the smartphone into portrait mode, a description also appears.
All other control functionality is intuitive and similar to a regular control panel. I think it won't be difficult to figure it out. Starting playback of the desired movie or series should also not be a problem, so on that note, let's move on to streaming.
We'll probably start by broadcasting files that can be stored in the memory of a smartphone (tablet). Open “Yatse” and swipe from left to right on the left side of the screen, calling up the already familiar menu, but this time we are interested in another item. Tap on Kodi.
Select a local device.
And “tap” on “Files/playlists”.
“Yatse” easily sees the folders where we have video, audio and photo files (Gifs too, by the way), even if these folders are on the SD card of the smartphone (tablet). If for some reason the required folder is not there, then you can use the “View Folders” item.
We open the desired folder, but before we “tap” on the file, we need to select the media center in the upper right corner,
on which playback will be open, although it is possible that you will already have it selected, since during the first playback “Yatse” should have asked this. But in any case, remember that it is in this menu that you can choose where to play, on a local device (that is, on a tablet or smartphone) or a media center (that is, on a PC or Android set-top box).
After we have chosen where to play, we can already “tap” on the selected file, and the video (or audio, or photo) will open on the device screen, where we have “KODI”. As you probably already understood, if you select a local device for playback,
then the playback will open on our gadget.
That is, such a mutual broadcast. But here let me make a small digression. To view multimedia files stored on a PC, I still recommend installing “KODI” on your smartphone or tablet, which can also be done for free through Google Play. This is due to three reasons: 1) as you can already see, it is simply beautiful; 2) “KODI” will mark viewed files and remember the position of unwatched ones; 3) if you do not want or cannot configure manual routing, and your router is too early or change IP addresses, you can add directories using the DLNA/UPNP protocol.
Just keep in mind that to do this, KODI must be running on your PC.
And let me make one more digression. A little earlier, I promised to talk about viewing photos stored on a PC on the Smart TV screen. So, if, when “KODI” is running, on “Smart TV” you open the “DLNA/UPnP” menu, then “Smart TV”, without any manipulations, should see the catalogs we created with video and music, but here is a catalog with photos, for an unknown reason For some reason, he won’t see it. And to display the photo on the Smart TV screen, we can use our Android smartphone on which we installed Yatse. And if you remember, I just recently talked about the “Files/playlists” item, which is needed to manage materials that cannot be regarded as films or TV series.
In the same menu we have access to a catalog with photos, and in order to “throw” the photo onto the “Smart TV” screen, where we select the device for playback (2 and 3 pictures above), our “Smart TV” should also appear TV" if the "DLNA/UPnP" menu is open on it. And then we simply “tap” on the photo on the smartphone screen, and the image is displayed on the TV screen.”
All this is of course great, but I think that you will be more interested in the broadcast from the Internet! Just imagine that you are lying on the sofa and thinking, what should I watch?! In our time of advanced Internet, this choice is simply huge, but, as I said, you are lying on the couch, not sitting at the computer. Some may say that he has a “Smart TV”, which has built-in cinemas (IVI, Megogo) and a browser. Yes, all this is true, but believe me, the choice that some sites can give is several times greater than “IVI” or “Megogo” (although the latter is, in general, a good cinema).
And watching videos from websites through a browser on Smart TV is not always possible, for example, because the format of this video may not be supported. And in any case, you will agree that on a TV screen, although large, but standing a couple of meters (or even more) from you, choosing what to watch (reading a description, for example) is less convenient than doing it on the screen of a smartphone or tablet at hand, from which in a couple of clicks we broadcast the image to “KODI”.
There are two ways to broadcast from the Internet. The first is to install a movie theater application, for example, the same “Megogo”, which is official and available on GooglePlay.
Of course, the selection of free materials in it is limited, but in order to show how to broadcast online video, it is very suitable. Of course, there are free unofficial movie theater applications where there is more choice, and if anyone is interested in learning about them, then ask in the comments. For now, let’s return to “Megogo”, in the settings of which you need to indicate that playback will take place on third-party players.
In theory, such an opportunity should be available in any movie theater application. It is also available in the well-known YouTube application, but more on that later. Item “Player. Select your default player." It’s better not to touch it, because if you want to watch something on the gadget itself, you’ll have to go to the settings again and disable the ability to play it with a third-party player.
And we get a choice of what to play, where we are interested in the “play on the media center” item.
Again, for the reason mentioned earlier, I suggest choosing “Only now”. After which another window will appear, where you need to select “Always”.
If everything is successful, then the video will open on our PC (or set-top box), the playback of which (louder - quieter, pause - play and, which is very convenient, rewind!!!) we can control by minimizing “Megogo” and opening “Yatse”.
Streaming from the YouTube app is much easier. To do this, we just need to select the video of interest and “tap” on the arrow in the upper right corner of the video.
A window like this will open for us,
where we select the application “Yatse- Play on media center”. But I must mention that in the case of the YouTube application, this method does not work on all smartphones or tablets. I don’t know what this is connected with, but as a solution, I suggest getting acquainted with the “Web Video Caster” application, which can be installed for free from Google Play.
“Web Video Caster” is essentially a browser that can cache videos from sites and transmit broadcasts to KODI, Smart TV, Chromecast and Apple TV set-top boxes using the DLNA/UPnP or Miracast protocol. The settings are, in general, simple. After the first launch and reading the introductory information about the application’s capabilities, we agree to the offer to register “Web Video Caster” as a browser.
For example, this can be useful when you open a link to a video that was sent to you by email or WhatsApp. And if “Web Video Caster” is registered as a browser, then by tapping on this link you can select it and stream the video.
The next thing we need is to connect to “KODI” running on the PC.
By default, “Web Video Caster” is configured to search for “Chromecast” devices, so don’t be surprised by the message that our “KODI” is not found and just tap on the gear.
In the window that opens we will select the “DLNA” protocol and click.
After which we will return to the previous window, where in a few seconds we will see our streaming device, that is, a PC running “KODI”, and all we have to do is “tap” on it.
We are actually done with the “Web Video Caster” settings. Next, enter the address of the desired site into the address bar and look for the desired video. Sites, of course, can be bookmarked.
By the way, I wrote earlier that broadcasting from the YouTube application does not work on some gadgets, and as a solution I suggested broadcasting not from the application, but from the YouTube website, which we can open in Web Video Caster. But personally, I don’t like the YouTube site, and besides, I don’t always have what I need even from simple public TV series, so instead of the YouTube site, I open the main page of Yandex, tap on the “Video” tab and in front of me is that the same content as on YouTube.
Moreover, Yandex collects videos from all possible sources: Vkontakte, Video Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki, Rutube, etc. That is, you will almost always find what you are looking for. And even more - if, for example, you type “The X-Files” into the search, then pay attention to the convenient navigation through seasons and episodes.
After which a window like this will open, displaying a list of videos that “Web Video Caster” seemed to have picked up from this page of the site.
The bad thing is that this list also contains files that we broadcast earlier, and may even include some commercials, which, by the way, sometimes need to be viewed on the gadget in order to access the desired video. In this example, we need the top two files. And there are two of them because the series I have chosen is available for viewing in two quality options. In general, at first you can get confused with the choice of broadcast video. After selection, the broadcast to the PC should begin, and a control window will open on the gadget.
It should be mentioned that I do not use the Web Video Caster application very often. It is like an alternate airfield for those cases when online cinema applications do not work, which I promised to talk about in the comments.
Well, on that note, let's sum it up. The article turned out to be simply huge, but only because I tried to describe in detail, without missing a single step, the basic settings and capabilities of KODI. This may seem complicated and, when faced with for the first time, you will have to spend a lot of time, although a more or less confident PC user will simply need to look at the attached pictures to understand the settings. But, despite all the disadvantages, you will agree that “KODI” is beautiful and convenient.
Kodi is a full-fledged platform for playing video and music, watching TV shows, IP television and even streaming, which can be installed on various devices, from a computer to a Raspberry Pi or Android. This is a very powerful and multifunctional environment and new users may not immediately understand what and how to do and configure. What is Kodi?
Imagine a world where you can watch all your favorite TV shows, sports and movies anywhere, anytime, in a beautifully designed app. And all this is completely free. This is real, this is exactly the opportunity Kodi provides.
Kodi, formerly known as XBMC, is a software or application that functions as a media player. The program is open source, so you can download it completely free of charge. Kodi can play all types of digital media and all media formats. It is also possible to listen to music and even manage photos. Next we will look at how to set up kodi and install it on the system.
1. Install Kodi
You can get the program on the official website. There are versions for all supported platforms.
For Windows you can download an installer, and for Linux you can find installation instructions in various distributions. For example, to install the latest version of a program on Ubuntu, you need to run the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install kodi
You can also install kodi from the official repositories of most distributions by simply installing the package of the same name. Immediately after installation, you can use Kodi. The program can be launched from the main menu or through the terminal:
2. Interface setup
After the first launch of the program, you will see a beautiful interface but in English. But I would like the language to be Russian. To enable the Russian language, click on the gear in the upper left corner:
Then select "Interface Settings":
Just select the desired language from the list, for example, Russian. Immediately after clicking on the menu item, the program language will be changed.
3. Watch videos in Kodi
The most common way people want to use Kodi is to watch videos, as the program provides a single and easy-to-use interface for watching videos, TV shows, and movies. The program can open videos in two ways. You can watch videos saved locally or view recordings from the Internet. Let's look at how to set up Kodi to work with video. To open a video that is saved in your file system, select the menu item "Movies", "Series" or "Video", then open the files:
The program will display folders with files known to it, you can select one of them. For each video file, detailed information about it is displayed:
If the folder with your files is not yet known to the program, then you can add it by simply selecting "Add a video":
This will open a file system viewer where you can select the desired folder. At this stage, you also need to indicate that the folder contains a video and enter the source name.
After that, it will appear in the list and you will be able to see the video that is in it. The answer to the question of how to watch a kodi video is very simple, double click on it:
If you want to open a video from the Internet, the process will look a little different. You need to choose not "Files" A "Extras" from the main menu, and then go install the add-on for the desired resource. We'll look at working with add-ons below.
4. Play music in Kodi
In addition to watching videos and TV shows, you can listen to music stored on your computer in Kodi. Everything here is similar to the video. Only you need to select an item "Music", then "Files". Next, select the desired track or folder with tracks:
When adding a folder, you need to specify a name for the source:
Immediately after this, the source will be integrated into the library and you will be able to view your favorite tracks, sorted by name and artist. To get tracks from the Internet, you can install add-ons, such as Spotify.
3. Kodi extensions
You already know how to use the kodi program, but extensions are ways to greatly increase its capabilities. Kodi has quite a lot of features by default, but add-ons allow you to expand this list even further. With the help of add-ons, you can change the appearance, open sources from the Internet, both for video and audio tracks, and much more. For example, you can watch Kodi TV or play content directly from torrents. To install add-ons, select "Extras" in the main menu:
There are several ways to get add-ons, you can install them from a ZIP file, folder, remote site or Kodi add-on store. We will consider the last option. Select an item "Install from repository":
A list of add-on categories will open in front of you. Here you can choose audio add-ons, video add-ons, games, programs and much more. For example, let's install one of the video add-ons. To do this, select it from the list and click the button "Install". Very soon a message will appear that it has been installed.
Then you can find this add-on and open its menu in the section "Additions". Add-ons for Youtube, LastFm, Spotify and other services are installed in the same way. In addition to the official store, you can install add-ons from third-party repositories. To do this, first open the settings, go to the section "System Settings":
Then go to the tab "Extras" and turn on the checkbox opposite "Unconfirmed sources":
Confirm the action:
You can now install additional Kodi extension repositories on your system, as well as the extensions themselves. Let's add a repository. Go to section "File manager" in settings.
Then double click on the item "Add source":
In the window that opens, click on No and enter the repository address. For example, to add a Fusion repository you need to specify the address http://fussion.tvaddons.ag:
Then enter a name and click "Ok". Now the source has been added, but it is not ready to work yet, next you need to install the repository. Click on the program installation icon in the section "Extras":
Select "Install from ZIP", then select not your file system as the source, but the added network source. For example, Fussion.
Now you need to select a repository from the list. We need exodus:
Only after this the repository is installed on the system and you can use it. Return to the package installation menu and click "Install from repository". Now select your new repository:
On Raspberry and Kodi, and at the end I talked about the Torrenter plugin that can play torrent files. It has quite a lot of problems as it was and has remained so, for the last couple of months it has stopped working altogether, for example with my mother, I didn’t really use it and didn’t check it.
So, there is a very powerful alternative and it is in active development. Back in January, it worked in such a way that I wanted to shoot myself, and Russian torrents were not supported at all, he suggested writing his own plugins for this business, the idea died out because there was no choice at all. But for some reason they changed their mind and made 1 plugin that can integrate with a huge number of torrents, including Russian-language ones.
I definitely think it’s a plus that it allows you to add movies and TV series to the Kodi library, where they will be like regular movies and many other features. For example, in what quality to produce results, speed limits and the ability to download a movie/series without having to pause it, you can launch a bunch of torrents and leave them in passive mode.
Installing and configuring Quasar
Quasar is distributed through GitHub, for reasons that the Kodi community does not approve of such plugins, although in fact, this is a strange decision, because the torrent protocol is used not only for piracy. There is a lot of free content (not hidden), copyrighted content, and Quasar itself has nothing to do with torrents at all. He just knows how to work with the protocol and integrate it into the library, that’s all.
The plugin is quite powerful, you can download the latest version directly from the link above or in the releases section on GitHub, at the same time reading what has changed. It supports all platforms, so further instructions are identical for all.
Installation
First of all, download the archive for the platform and architecture you are interested in. For Raspberry 2 and 3, this is Linux arm v7 (yes, Raspberry 3 has v8, but the addon from v7 works successfully).
After downloading, you need to transfer it to the device where Kodi is located, so that it would be easy to open this file. After that, launch Kodi, go to add-ons and select install new add-ons, we are interested in “Install from zip file”. If you have Kodi 17+, then by default it prohibits installation from external repositories; it will offer to enable this at your own peril and risk.
You need to click on the "Settings" button, otherwise everything will be cancelled. It will take you to settings and there will be an option “Install from untrusted sources”, you need to enable this option.
You are being warned for the last time that this may be dangerous, but once you have decided, then click “Yes”.
That's it, the plugin is installed!
Immediately after installation, it will swear that the download folder is not specified and will throw you to the settings page.
Settings
There are a lot of interesting things in the settings, to be honest, I didn’t change anything much, I just configured the first 3 points, the rest is everyone’s personal preferences.
Firstly, the folder where the temporary plugin files will be loaded is indicated, and the second item (no longer necessary) is the folder for the media library. The third point is a site from where to parse information about files, I prefer The Movie DB, here whoever is closer.
And here at the “Folder for library” item you should slow down a little, since it is very important if you want to add torrent files to your library of films and TV series.
Here you need to specify the folder where he will collect the library. Along this path, 2 folders will be created: Shows, Movies, and inside it will put “movies” and “serials” so that you can build a media library, because this requires files. But it will not store full-fledged films, but files with the correct structure and name with the .strm extension, which inside contain the following thing: “plugin://plugin.video.quasar/library/movie/play/251516”. Those. you can create such files yourself, replacing the movie/series ID with the desired one. But this will not be convenient, since Quasar has a convenient interface for this.
In order to integrate all this into the media library, you need to connect these two folders and configure them as with regular files. If you haven’t done this, in the last article look for the heading “Local Media Library”, everything is absolutely identical, you just need to select the folders created by Quasar. As you understand, they weigh nothing, so you can even create them on small media such as a flash drive.
If for some reason you decide not to delete the file after viewing, or to pre-download it, it will store it in the folder specified for downloading, and not in these folders, so nothing bad will happen.
Let's continue the fun and include the coolest things and why this module was created.
Activation and installation of Quasar Burst
Quasar Burst is an add-on that is (now) distributed through the Quasar repository, which is added when you install Quasar. It allows you to search for movies/series, in general, any relevant media content on torrents, and provides a bunch of settings for how to search and where to search.
To install it, the first thing you need to do is enable the Quasar repository, which is initially disabled. To do this, go to Add-ons -> My add-ons -> Add-on repositories and there will be Quasar Repository in a disabled state.
Click on it and select “Enable” at the bottom. After turning it on, go to add-ons again, select installation from the repositories, select the Quasar repository and install Quasar Burst.
After installation, you need to go to the Quasar Burst settings and customize torrents and behavior in general.
At the very top, a couple of foreign torrents are enabled by default; you can disable them if you do not need foreign content, as well as all other open trackers, i.e. where you can download torrent files without registration. Below, below the line, there are closed ones, where you will need to enter your login and password, including Russian ones.
That's it, now you can use the add-on.
Usage
Entering the addon we are greeted with a choice of what we want to do.
- Movies- everything related to films.
- Series- everything related to TV series.
- Search- opens a search window for all (!) torrent trackers by name, i.e. the output will not be divided into films/series, just a list of found torrent files will be opened.
- Torrents- download manager, downloaded torrents are displayed there, both downloading and paused ones. From there you can delete them, including the files they downloaded, or put them on playback.
- Add a torrent- adds a torrent file either via a magnet link or through a file.
- Providers- there will be providers and their settings, in our case there will be one single Quasar Burst.
If we go, for example, into films, we will see additional points that I won’t go into.
I’ll just note that Trakt is a tracking service for what you looked at and recommendations, it’s free and this item is for integration and interaction with it.
The search, in this case, will search directly by films, and the ratings, I don’t know where they are collected from, but I believe that some are from the selected service in the settings, and some from some other sources, because “trending” is always the same regardless from the selected data source.
For example, I entered the short film “Kung Fury” into the search.
Since this is a search in films, it was found directly through the selected service and returned all the information about it. If there were several films with a similar title, he would bring them out too.
Here, in the context menu, you can add this movie to your collection, and other items specific exclusively to the Quasar plugin.
After adding it, he will offer to immediately update the library or postpone it until later and do it manually.
After updating the library, all files added in this way will no longer need to be searched in Quasar.
And here’s where it gets interesting. When you start the movie, because you don’t have it, it will quickly poll all the torrent trackers you have turned on (the status will be in the right corner), and give you a list to choose from, providing you with all the necessary information.
As you can see, it can find similar torrent files and combine them into a common one and connect seeds from all of them at once.
When you select the torrent file you need, buffering begins (20 MB by default).
Fix for nnmclub and rutracker
I wrote a small fix that fixes the addresses for the two trackers above. By analogy, you can change others.
This is fixed quite simply, just add a file with certain content to the kodi folder. Here are the paths to the KODI folder on different systems:
- android:Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/
- iOS: /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/Kodi
- Linux: ~/.kodi
- Mac: /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Kodi,
- LibreELEC/OpenELEC: /storage/.kodi
- Windows: Start - enter %APPDATA%\kodi - press Enter
Regarding this folder, depending on the system, you need to go to the following subdirectory: userdata/addon_data/script.quasar.burst. In this folder, create a file overrides.py and write the following into it:
Overrides = ( # # Mirrors for Russian trackers. # # RuTracker "rutracker": ( "root_url": "http://maintracker.org", "base_url": "http://maintracker.org/forum/tracker.php ?nm=QUERYEXTRA&prev_new=0&prev_oop=1&f=-1&o=10&s=2&oop=1&pn=", "parser": ( "torrent": ""http://maintracker.org/forum/%s" % item(tag=" a", attribute="href", order=4)" ) ), # nnm-club "nnmclub": ( "root_url": "https://nnm-club.name", "base_url": "https:/ /nnm-club.name/forum/tracker.php?nm=QUERYEXTRA&prev_sd=1&prev_a=1&prev_my=0&prev_n=0&prev_shc=1&prev_shf=0&prev_sha=0&prev_shs=1&prev_shr=0&prev_sht=0&o=10&s=2&tm=-1&a=1&sd= 1&ta=-1&sns =-1&sds=-1&pn&submit=1", "parser": ( "torrent": ""https://nnm-club.name/forum/%s" % item(tag="a", attribute="href" , order=2)" ) ), )
This file simply changes the values in the configs for trackers where the URL to their mirrors is used. That's all. If anything happens, you can fix it yourself.
Restart KODI if it was running, enable these providers if they are not already enabled, and everything works again.
Before you start setting up the Kodi media center, you need to download it from the developer’s website http://kodi.tv/. In the Downloads section you can find versions for various platforms, but for now we are interested in Windows.
Configuring system settings
Via "System | Settings | Appearance | International | Language" select the Russian language, and in the "Language and Region" section set the region and keyboard layout. Browse the Settings | System" and, if necessary, configure the "Video" and "Music" sections to match your hardware.
Connecting catalogs
To add movies to your Kodi collection, go through “Video | Files | Add Video" to the "Browse" button and find the directory on your computer or network drive. If you want to connect several sources at once, click on “Add” and select the appropriate location.
Now set a title that suits the topic and click on “OK” to move on to the next step.
Classify content to extract metadata
In the next menu, set the source content type (Movies, TV Series, or Music Videos) so that Kodi can retrieve metadata from the Web. If your files are located in folders whose names correspond to the names of films, select the appropriate item additionally.
In Settings, tell Kodi to use “ru” (Russian) as its preferred language for displaying movie information, and also set age restrictions. Close the configuration window with three clicks confirming your selection.
Viewing information about multimedia
You can get to your video files either through “Video | Files | [Title in library]”, or by selecting the appropriate content type on the main screen (Movies or TV Series). By default, you get information about a movie by right-clicking on an entry and selecting this item.
You can also bring up the menu on the left side of the screen and configure "View" so that Kodi shows the information directly, without a context menu.
Advice: Kodi's media center can be expanded with countless add-ons (YouTube, media libraries, web radio, etc.). We recommend checking out Watchdog, which automatically and economically scans your collection for changes every time you launch it. You will find this add-on under “System | Add-ons | Install from repository | Services".
Converting movies for viewing outside the home
Watching movies on tablets and smartphones can be optimized using HandBrake, unless, of course, the sources are copy protected. This free video converter compresses video using the x264 library using the H.264 standard and offers suitable profiles for many devices, including iPhone and iPad.
Thanks to presets, control is very simple. To transcode files, you only need to select a source, define a preset, configure audio tracks and subtitles if necessary, set the destination directory and start the process. The converter can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website https://handbrake.fr/.
Encoding a 6GB MKV file containing a two-hour movie took about 20 minutes on our Core i5-2500K and produced a final 1GB MP4 file.
Photo: manufacturing company
Many users of mobile devices based on operating systems of the Android family want to watch television, collections of clips, listen to music or audiobooks directly on their device. And, as reviews indicate, the universal Kodi program is best suited for this. Setting up Kodi on Android for an unprepared user may initially cause some difficulties. Meanwhile, if you understand the main sections of the menu, there is nothing particularly complicated here. But first things first.
What is Kodi?
The Kodi application is a unique media center that can replace a hardware (or software) player, a TV, or a set-top box.
The program has so many possibilities that the user can not only watch television programs, but also view photos, video clips, listen to music online, broadcast the signal to the TV panel and control television directly on a computer with a fixed analogue installed from his mobile device, as if if the user had a remote control in his hands. All the settings may seem somewhat unusual at first, but there is nothing particularly complicated about them.
Kodi: installation and configuration at the first stage
First, as expected, the application must be installed by downloading it from the Google Play storage. There shouldn't be any difficulties at this stage.
However, if the installation is performed using an APK file downloaded not from the storage, you should enable the option to allow installation from other sources in the device settings.
After installation and the first launch of the application, it will greet you with a somewhat unusual interface in English. To avoid translation difficulties, you should first change the Kodi settings in terms of the language used.
You can perform such actions in the system section by going to System > Appearance > International > Language, where you select the required language from the list.
Setting up Kodi XBMC: Setting text encoding and keyboard options
The next step is to configure the text encoding. You should pay special attention to this point, since even if you do not have to enter text very often, you can only change these parameters in this section.
By default, it is offered. It can not be changed, although if you wish, you can select any other of the proposed options in the list.
Expert mode and advanced options
After this, many users will be pleasantly surprised that the weather can be adjusted in the parameters (the application can even “predict” it). There is nothing particularly complicated here either. Along the way, in the file types section you need to note what is needed.
Setting up your screensaver
But the Kodi settings for the screensaver are a very interesting thing. By default, the user has two preset options: dimming and full blackening.
However, if you tap on the “More” item, you can refuse to use standard screensavers and install, say, a random change of images from some site on the Internet.
Installing an RSS news feed as a screensaver also looks quite interesting. In addition, you can use the Video Screensaver function, which allows you to set any video as your screensaver, also offering to download beautiful screensavers with aquariums, falling snow, fireplaces, etc.
Fonts and sounds
Now you should pay attention to the cover section. Setting up Kodi in Russian allows you to use standard and non-standard fonts.
In this section, you can select an enlarged font (it is recommended to use this one, since all controls will be enlarged). Sounds accompanying this or that action can be turned off (similar to how this is done in the sound scheme settings of Windows systems).
Again, the “More” button is used to select the cover, after which you can select something of your choice. Yes, at least set the weather, but from the list of service providers it is better to select Open Weather or Met Weather and at the same time indicate your own location, plus data display parameters (degrees, wind speed, etc.).
Themes
For themes, Kodi settings offer you to choose two options from the presets. But the main problem is that additional themes do not support the Russian language, so you will have to put up with this.
On the other hand, it all depends on the version of the program or even the operating system itself.
Video options
Now briefly about the video settings. If you use the advanced mode rather than the basic one, you can find quite a lot of parameters.
In principle, there is no point in dwelling on them. Everything is clear here. We choose what we need. But there is one parameter that deserves special attention. This is the ability to use a forced 3D effect, or, as it is called in the settings, a stereoscopic image.
Music
With music settings, not everything is so simple. It seems that the main parameters are exactly the same as in a regular software player, however, to obtain information about tracks and albums from the Internet (like ID3 tags), it is better to select Universal Scrapper as a source.
But it is better to disable the setting for preference in receiving information online. The fact is that when loaded, it completely replaces all existing tags.
In the playback settings there are options for setting rewind steps and setting an automatic volume level not only for a single track, but for the entire album (a very necessary function).
In file lists, you can specify how information about them will be displayed. For karaoke and reading CDs, all parameters can be left unchanged (it is unlikely that most users will want to connect a disk drive to a mobile device, since this is completely impractical and difficult). Well, if you want to sing, that’s optional.
A television
Finally, a few words about how to configure the Kodi TV module. Most users install the application mainly just to watch its main purpose).
In the Kodi application, TV settings are performed in the corresponding section of PVR modules. You don't need to use all of them. In or regular online broadcasting, it involves the use of only one module - PVR Simple Client, on which you need to tap and turn it on. The rest can be safely disabled.
In the programs section everything is simple, but it is advisable to increase the update to about 700 minutes, which will allow you to use battery power somewhat more economically.
But it’s better to activate the last channel playback option. Then, when you log into the application, you can watch TV, even if you are just going to listen to music.
Next, you can configure the channel switching delay time. This is useful when quickly scrolling from one channel to another, and not when selecting the desired channel by pressing the number buttons. You can also set a recording of the selected channel, although with playlists and Torrent TV this clearly looks irrelevant.
Add-ons
So, we've sorted out the media. Now let's look at what is offered as add-ons. The very first and most important thing is to enable automatic updating, since the functionality of the application is constantly expanding and adding new modules.
You can install module updates immediately from the repository. True, it is completely English-language, so you can download Russian versions, and then use the installation tool from the ZIP archive. But you can use Sippius as a repository.
By the way, all add-ons are sorted by category. For example, if you want to use audiobooks, you just need to select the appropriate item and click on the install button.
Everything is simple with video too. Many users prefer the Ukrainian resource FS.UA or the Russian portal MY-HIT.RU. You can find almost anything on them. Torrent TV is set up right away.
It is better to choose “Kinopoisk” as a source of information. Additionally, you can use photo add-ons that allow you to download and view images from the VKontakte social network.
For videos, you need to indicate your preferred category (clips, films, TV series, etc.) of your own free will.
For television, you also need to specify the path to the source of playlists and channel tables. A good choice would be to activate the link to the EDEM.TV resource. Unfortunately, it is not possible to paste copied addresses into the settings fields, so all data will have to be entered manually.
After completing all the settings and installing add-ons, the application must be restarted, although you can do it much easier by unchecking and re-checking the TV item.
For more comfortable channel switching, you can additionally install Kore (virtual remote control via Wi-Fi). However, when installing the add-on, you will have to create an account with a login and password, and also select a computer system to manage (for example, if the desktop Kodi program is installed on your laptop). In addition, when connecting to the Internet, you must first test by clicking on the corresponding button. The interface of the program itself is quite simple, the main Kodi application is in perfect harmony with it, and all the main buttons, playlists, etc. are displayed on the screen. Thus, even outdated TV models can be turned into real SmartTV panels, and computer equipment into multifunctional media players.
And of course, it is simply impossible to describe all the parameters and settings of Kodi, so only the most basic points have been touched upon here. If you want, it won’t be difficult to figure out everything else.