Anyone using Kodi?

[phylodog]

I've got a friend with a Fire Stick loaded with Kodi. Thinking about getting one myself, seems there's a lot of content out there available and I'm getting ready to spend a lot of time laying around with nothing to do. Figured I'd check to see if anyone else is using it to get the scoop.

 

[Mounty09]

Tagging for interest.

 

[badapples]

I have a fire stick with kodi and sling TV. That and my antenna w its locals is all I have. You can find pretty much anything you want inside of kodi.

 

[SumtnFancy]

Have been using Kodi since about thanksgiving. Have maybe had 2 obscure movies that I've searched for and haven't found. It takes patience but works well with a learning curve. It is our only source of TV and has been everything we have wanted. Well worth the price, especially if you already have either Prime or Netflix. Prime works well because we have thousands of songs on Prime music (90% of them free), so we can listen to music too... lots of songs have lyrics on screen as well.

 

[long coat]

I set it up with my Raspberry Pi 2. So far so good. You can find live TV, movies, PPV, HBO & a lot more.
I set up another one for my parents, but have not given it to them yet.
The Pi is only $35, so it might be cheaper.

 

[Shadow8088]

I have a Raspberry Pi 2... it works quite well. It's all about the add-ons/repositories you use that will get you the content you want. Some of it more legal than others.

To be honest, I only used the Pi2 because it is what I had. A modded Fire stick would be my second choice after a fire box.

I use Openelec on my pi to run Kodi.

It's also worth spending the $4 to unlock the video hardware. Completely took the pressure off the CPU and pushed it to the built in video

 

[phylodog]

It's also worth spending the $4 to unlock the video hardware. Completely took the pressure off the CPU and pushed it to the built in video

If I could get my Son (Senior at Purdue in electronic & computer engineering) to come home and teach me about a Raspberry Pi I'd go that route but he has more important things to do than hang out with Dad lol.

Is unlocking the video hardware something you do with the Fire Stick or with Kodi? I'm about to order one, researching it will give me something to do I guess.

 

[long coat]

The Pi is very easy to set up. You can pick up the board for $35, then pick up the other parts power (phone charger), hdmi cable, case. or buy a kit for $50-70. I picked up a wireless keyboard at Walmart for $20 that works great.

 

[steveh_131]

I've been using Kodi since it was a dashboard for the original xbox, known as 'xbox media center'.

I'd recommend getting it from amazon or best buy for $40 and loading kodi on there yourself. It can be done in 5 minutes with a youtube tutorial. The people selling them on facebook for $90 claiming they're 'modded' are lying. It's not modded, it's not even rooted. They just installed an app and doubled the price, or more.

Now, the 'content' that these people are claiming is mostly pirated and illegal. You can access youtube, netflix, amazon prime, hulu, etc. if you purchase subscriptions. But all these claims about pay-per-view and movies only in theaters are all pirated feeds, and don't even work that well. I'm not opposed to pirated content, but there are much better ways to do it.

I think the 'unlocking hardware' thing is for the pi, you definitely don't need to do it with the firestick.

Anyway, holler if you need a hand with it. They're cool devices.

 

[phylodog]

Well I got a Fire Stick with Kodi on it. Thus far it has proven to provide lots and lots of things I can click on which then give me lots of error messages. Lots of pretty icons and cool names, quite a few blank screens where nothing happens for several minutes. I've probably spent more money on less but its been awhile lol. I've got a friend coming over in a few hours to try to show me to ropes.

 

[bwframe]

Well I got a Fire Stick with Kodi on it. Thus far it has proven to provide lots and lots of things I can click on which then give me lots of error messages. Lots of pretty icons and cool names, quite a few blank screens where nothing happens for several minutes. I've probably spent more money on less but its been awhile lol. I've got a friend coming over in a few hours to try to show me to ropes.

 

[magic man]

I ran Kodi for a little while through my MacBook. I had trouble finding decent content that worked and when I did find something I actually wanted to watch I seemed to have trouble with it streaming smoothly or the overall picture quality. It sounded good in theory, but didn't impress me. YMMV

 

[steveh_131]

Now, the 'content' that these people are claiming is mostly pirated and illegal. You can access youtube, netflix, amazon prime, hulu, etc. if you purchase subscriptions. But all these claims about pay-per-view and movies only in theaters are all pirated feeds, and don't even work that well. I'm not opposed to pirated content, but there are much better ways to do it.

^ This guy's pretty smart, huh.

How much did you pay for it?

The firestick is a good device for the $39.95 that you should have paid for it ($20 on sale). But you need to supply it with content from a decent source.

Subscribe to netflix or hulu and it will stream that stuff with no problem.

Kodi is a fantastic app, it does its job just fine. But those addons are mostly garbage. If you've got a PC on your network with some storage space, your best bet is to stream from it. Send me a PM if you want to know how to get it going.

 

[steveh_131]

And by the way, I think it's a shame that these facebook scam artists have ruined Kodi's reputation with their nonsense. It has been the heart of my entertainment center for over a decade.

 

[phylodog]

My friend's works pretty well. We used it for three weeks while at the farm during hunting season because we don't pick up and decent channels with the OTA. If I can get this one to do what his does I won't regret the purchase. Using it is just a bit chaotic, especially when I'm pounding Oxycodone lol.

 

[steveh_131]

Are you sure it's getting a good signal from your wifi?

Can't help with the addons for pirated content, I went a different direction. Hopefully your friend can help out.

 

[Nacelle]

I tried kodi for a while on my 4 tunner htpc. I couldn't find a reliable way to get the guide to work to give more info past a couple days. And only for the locals I pick up. I'm sure it was right in front of me and I didn't see it. So I went back to Win7 Media Center. If the wife doesn't like it, you don't use it.

 

[RyanGSams]

I have Kodi loaded onto my Android phone. Use it pretty regularl. And can even downlaod another app to stream to my Chromecast to watch it on my TV. I'm not using for OTA though only the Genesis app for movies.

 

[phylodog]

Are you sure it's getting a good signal from your wifi?

Can't help with the addons for pirated content, I went a different direction. Hopefully your friend can help out.

I couldn't navigate through the various parts of the system, it looks totally different from the one my friend has. He was familiar with it and was able to get me pointed in the right direction. I'm still getting through the episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix. Once I finish that up I'll spend more time playing with Kodi.

 

[bluewraith]

I have a raspberry pi B+ running Kodi, but since buying a chromecast I'm thinking about turning it into a retro pi game station. Netflix won't work on the raspberry and I like the responsiveness of YouTube and other apps. I can even start a game of monopoly of my phone and cast it to the tv.
If Google would open up the chromecast to local media I doubt I'd have any use for Kodi.