# Kodi



## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

I've no commercial or other link with the company but I kept hearing about kodi.tv over the last few days so gave it a try. 

It's an absolute swine to install and initially get working but once sussed out, it's tip top. 

No end of channels, including up to date movies such as 'The Danish Girl', no kit to buy, no ads and so far, no buffering. 

I've just watched 'The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part II' and it was perfect.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

further to this, I've since watched several up to date movies, with them and none have had any problems whatsoever. 

I was a little concerned about legalities but according to the site, one is allowed to stream a movie but not to record it which is something I wasn't aware of.......


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## azoreseuropa (Nov 10, 2013)

Is it illegal ?


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

azoreseuropa said:


> Is it illegal ?


That was my concern but their website says it is legal because you only stream the programme but it does point out that you are not allowed to record it...... and I don't record it anyway because of the amount of memory it'd take up.


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## thegypsyinme (Jan 17, 2014)

Hi travelling-man, we bought our second KODI/Raspberry PI last year. It's absolutely great. As you say for some people it is a swine to install. Luckily, for me, my husband is an electronics engineer, retired, so he had some idea of what to do. Some of the channels have been blocked, but there's still lots to choose from. At present we are catching up with the Black List. We've watched Homeland, never watched it in the UK as my husband worked away a lot. And, my favourite series, Outlander, amazing!


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

I watched the most recent series of Game Of Thrones on it but other than that, I've only watched movies so far.......and they're are some real corkers on there! 

I did find that I occasionally have to clear the cache to prevent buffering but that's not exactly a problem.


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## advolex (Mar 8, 2015)

I've had a few Kodi players since they were called XBMC. It's a software player, so you need some hardware to install it on. Originally it was installed on the XBOX, but nowadays you can install it on practically every device, Android phones, iPhones, routers, sat receivers etc. My latest installation was on a sat receiver with Android. Works great, but I only use it to stream videos locally to different TV-sets.

kodi.tv I never tried, but will do so. It looks like a re-broadcaster that streams over the Internet, live streams and video-on-demand. Every user must make up his own mind whether it's legal to stream from remote sites or not. In my opinion it's not illegal if you don't decrypt and don't upload. That's illegal. Obviously you cannot redistribute copyrighted videos or music without becoming liable for damages. But if you only stream for your own pleasure, the damages should not exceed the cost for the pay-to-view. And nobody would charge you for a couple of Euros.
The problem with legal streaming is mostly that you need a proxy service (unencrypted to be on the legality safe side) to spoof your location (which is not yet illegal), as most "legal" TV stuff is restricted to access in the original country only. A VPN service would perhaps do, but I've heard that many services limit the bandwidth so you would get stutter. Kodi tries to rectify this situation by buffering, within limits.

I'll check some day if kodi.tv proxies the requests to their service. If they charge for the service, they probably would.


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## Transcend (Dec 25, 2015)

May I please ask what speed internet connection is required for smooth playback? I have read a lot about Kodi but have no first-hand experience. I imagine the first key to success is a fast internet connection, from an ISP that does not throttle at peak times.


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## thegypsyinme (Jan 17, 2014)

Hi Transcend,

Yes, it does work better with a high internet speed, which fortunately, we have! Our internet speed measured (using a server in UK to our home here in Portuga) was 5.5 mbps. I think you need at least 2 mbps to make it workl.

P.S. We are in beautiful Penang next weekend lane:


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## thegypsyinme (Jan 17, 2014)

P.S. Trancend

According to Netflix you should have at least 5.0 to get HD quality video streaming. What is the speed in Penang? (Batu Ferringi)


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## advolex (Mar 8, 2015)

kodi.tv is the portal of the software project. You cannot get any content from the site, neither in the form of video streams nor direct downloads. But software and add-ons are available for download. An add-on is necessary to stream any content. Kodi in itself is an advanced player, not a downloader. The disclaimer says it all:

"Disclaimer: Kodi 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." (About | Kodi)


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## thegypsyinme (Jan 17, 2014)

Hi advolex,

I use KODI to stream videos to my home. That's all I need to know


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## advolex (Mar 8, 2015)

thegypsyinme said:


> Hi advolex,
> 
> I use KODI to stream videos to my home. That's all I need to know


And it's probably more than most of us need to know.


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## Transcend (Dec 25, 2015)

thegypsyinme said:


> P.S. Trancend
> 
> According to Netflix you should have at least 5.0 to get HD quality video streaming. What is the speed in Penang? (Batu Ferringi)


Hello thegypsyinme,

That's very good. There should be no problem then with a reasonably fast connection. If we say 5 mbps is the minmum speed to aim for, I am sure that all ISPs offer that (and substantially more). My concern is still that ISP throttling could cause problems, but the only way is to test it and see. I am always wary of asking ISPs if they throttle connections, as it becomes obvious that I want to undertake some dodgy downloading.

I have an 8 mbps fibre connection here in Penang (Tanjung Tokong). I have measured it and it is genuinely 8 mbps (no throttling), although there have been periods of poor connections and low speeds. I have put this down to roadworks or new cable laying and have never felt the need to complain. Fibre may not be available in Batu Ferringi (it's not even available in all developments in George Town, Gurney, Tanjung Tokong etc.). However, TM offer good speeds.

If you are coming to Penang, you will be pleased to hear the weather has been very nice since Christmas. Clear blue skies and a nice breeze. Low humidity and no haze. Better bring a hat .

Isn't expat life strange? You're coming to Penang from Portugal, and at the end of the month I am going to Portugal from Penang. The truth is, I'm not sure I could live full-time in Penang and want to see what Portugal has to offer. Sorry for going off-topic.


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## thegypsyinme (Jan 17, 2014)

Hi Trancend,

We are pleased to hear about the weather in Penang. Only ever been in October and August in the past. Have a good trip to PORTUGAL in the near future 

We are sure you will enjoy the country and what it has to offer.

The Gypsyinme


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## Ghal (Feb 24, 2009)

Hi All,

My 2 cents worth on Kodi.

I use Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV Stick, the adsl speed to the house is about 2.5Mbps. I haven't seen any buffering issues. 
The Amazon Fire Stick is the best device I have seen for running Kodi - however a couple of words of caution: 
1. on power-up the Fire Stick checks to see what its geographical location is; if its not in UK, US or Germany it will not work - I avoid this by using a vpn back to the UK.
2. its registered to your amazon account - I use a UK address for this.

The vanilla Fire Stick (cost £35) gives you access to BBC iPlayer and STV apps (using the vpn) - by subscribing to Amazon Prime you can also get access to Amazon Prime Video's, TV Shows and Music (costs about £80 per annum) - however you don't need Prime Subsciption to use Kodi on it.

By loading Kodi you can access the various streaming services - I found it best to download Blackboxtv to make it easier to find streams and for the cataloging. 

Link for how to load Kodi to a Fire Stick
How to sideload apps like Kodi onto the Fire TV â€” Using nothing but the Fire TV | AFTVnews

Link for how to load Blackboxtv
The Black Box Build & Wizard Add-on For Kodi or Xbmc | Tutorial : Iptv .Xbmc .Simple tv .Android

Blackboxtv add-on can also be loaded to non-Fire Stick Kodi installs - just google it and should come up with youtube videos abd help guides.

How this all helps.


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