Why do folks use KODI?

I am from the OG XBMC days. When XBMC was created it was the latest n greatest for those of us XBox online gamers and opened up a whole new world for us for accessing media. When XBMC transformed to KODI it was another revelotionary time for Cord Cutters. Now with the advent of the APK stand alone apps, KODI use has dropped off considerably. But, imo as XBMC and KODI programming codes are used in many APKs, they might never be gone completely from the cord cutting world.

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Kodi can potentially have more content and can be customisable with builds.

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I still use Kodi Xenon Plus 5.0 and maybe I’m using crappy iptv services but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been watching something on iptv that was freezing and switched over to Kodi’s iptv section to finish watching it uninterrupted.

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i found that kodi works well and has a lot of things avaible the newer builds work quite well using real debrid helps a lot apks come and go kodi gives you a really nice array of stuff
maybe it ue to the expectation that as time goes on more and more things will go underground
kodi is perfect for that not bbeing a standalone apk that will get caught by the ace for piracy

even troypoint has stopped putiing standalone apks in the rapid app installer

I was wondering the same thing, I’m glad I’m not alone.
I started with Kodi, but am happy with were I’ve settled.
I found Kodi frustrating most of the time and moved on from it.
It’s nice to know I can always go back if need be.

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I find Kodi to be slow. Using a 4K Firestick. Takes for ever to go from one task to another. You have to get add ons repositories installs blah blah blah. Lots of work. I use APK’S

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Kodi much better on android boxes than Firestick because they have more RAM…. Kodi is my choice for sports otherwise it’s APK for basically everything else

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I use Kodi on my multiple firesticks solely as an SMB client to display and play my movies which are hosted on an RPi running OpenMediaVault. The movie metadata is created/updated on the RPi using tinyMediaManager (tmm). Kodi does a really nice job of cataloging and organizing my movies using the tmm-generated metadata. If there was an APK that is as good or better than Kodi at doing this, I’d be interested in trying it. I haven’t really looked for one in the past since Kodi has been doing such a good job for me.

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Because it works fantastic. Links are what they say they are. For sport streams it’s flawless and a good build is updated regularly. I didn’t use it for at least 2 years now I find myself using it weekly

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I use kodi more than my iptv & apk’s put together.
I find it brilliant for football streams & the one click debrid movies are top quality. Still using the Xanax build that I have used for over 12 months. :+1:

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I use kodi for the boxing mostly unless anyone knows a good apk

I have been using kodi for years, building my own platform from apps, searching and testing for the ones that work the best and using them.
Apks made things easier, I’ve found that Bee and Cinema has been having issues, so I stopped using them-I use UKTURKS which has a lot to offer besides good quality movies-TeaTV is good-Floxoid is good-If you go to setting for all movies named I would set up how you want them to run.
For Firesticks you need to install a cleaner and ETC…

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I still keep Kodi around for a backup in case there are any problems with my normal live tv services and/or movie streamers, since the Diggz Matrix Xenon Kodi build setup works so beautifully! I also use kodi still as an all in one media center whenever I want to do multiple things… such as stream movies, watch live tv, watch sports, and play retro arcade games! The Xenon build is set up to do all of that, and it’s great if you’re using a device with limited storage and don’t have the room to download multiple game rom files for gaming. Music too. So if I’m in the mood to go to an all in one location to do those things mentioned, I’ll sometimes still use Kodi.

I use APK’s as well as Kodi…but I prefer Kodi for watching Movies and TV shows because the player in Kodi is better and I get better sources. The apk’s are a good backup or for someone not too tech savvy but nothing compares to Kodi’s functionality when it comes to video. Sports,TV and movies just play flawlessly.

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I still use Kodi on windows, android as well as several linux boxes, so I am familiar and most comfortable using it. Not to mention it still is a “better” solution for accessing local content on a home server.

Oh, and my internet is wireless and sucks as I live 20 bucks from anywhere.

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I mainly used Kodi as a media player. I have a Synology NAS filled with movies and documentaries and played the media via my firesticks in different rooms. Have since moved to using Plex but still miss some aspects from Kodi :slight_smile:

Long time downloader/streamer from the days of Kazaa,Emule and the like. I’ve recently upgraded to a Mecool KM2 (a long line of boxes in my life) and I have used/tried every APK for video out there. I had stepped away from Kodi for the same reasons stated here. I have found recently though that Kodi add on Seren when used with a vpn and real debrid provides consistently better quality links through RD especially for older TV shows. Other APKs break or buffer endlessly when pausing for any length of time. With Trakt integration as well this becomes one stop shopping. Through all the years of the powers that be playing “Wack a Mole” with all these APKs Kodi has seemed to weather the storm quite nicely. Just my 2 cents from an aging pirate.

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I don’t want to waste my valuable memory on an Archaic system like KODI. KODI is a memory hog!There is nothing user friendly about KODI. It is nothing but a collection of software bandaidd patches! The best thing KODI developers could do is scrap the entire Dinosaur and rewrite it from scratch!! APKs all the way!.

This is my first post, so Thanks to Troy for making it possible. Yes, I remember when Kodi was the only gateway to streaming. It would take hours to install all the recommended add-ons. I’ve also been down the road with “builds”, and thankfully have realized they are nothing but overkill, a waste of space, and not needed. I have only two add-ons - Seren and The Crew - which provide, with Real-Debrid, plenty of quality links. Most links indicate DD (Dolby Digital) sound which, through my Denon AVR, put me in movie surround sound heaven. Subtitles are also much easier to access. Today, with standalone apks, I think Kodi is more for the streaming purists who have the time and patience to invest in this enjoyable hobby. Some still consider Kodi a kludge, but it actually works and works well.

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Hello, this is also my first post. It’s a bit lengthy as this topic is timely for me and I’ve got a variety of observations regarding Kodi I am a novice regarding watching streaming media. I use Kodi on my Android TV for the following features:

  • smb client to access 16 TB of local media from 24 x 7 Linux Ubuntu server (550 movies and 5000+ TV show episodes - I’ve ripped all my DVDs and now keep them in a closet for backup)

  • user interface on TV readable across the room from sofa using TV remote and mouse

  • once I finally discovered tinyMediaManager and used it to create the metadata files for Kodi, now I like the library function with poster image, fanart, synopsis, cast, etc. Without tinyMediaManager, Kodi library is totally useless because none of the Kodi scrapers work properly.

I would really like to find a replacement for Kodi to do the above mentioned items. I think the Kodi design as a media manager and media play is horribly outdated. Here are the things I would really like to have:

  1. reliable smb client access to local media on Android TV and Firestick. I do not like UPNP/DLNA. I find it slow, cumbersome and unreliable.
  • I’ve tried Plex and find the server to be extremely resource intensive and complex. The Linux version never worked properly - Roku clients could not play movies. I also don’t like the Plex Android app user interface - seems tedious to me.

  • I’ve also tried VLC which I really like on my Windows 7 desktop and laptop. The Android version completely changed the user interface and made it just as bad or worse than the Plex app. Android VLC is also unreliable, sometimes finding the smb shares but often not or finds them for a while then they go away :unamused:

  1. universal media player that will play any type of media - videos of any format, audio of any format, picture slideshow with choice of audio accompaniment, text scrolling, etc. Kodi is terrible at this - treats video, music videos, movies as mutually exclusive objects - not possible to make multi-media playlist and have it function properly.

One thing Kodi does well is allowing audio passthrough so when I use Kodi on my Windows 7 desktop home theater pc with HDMI to Yamaha receiver, I get full surround sound including DTS

I am new to streaming. I recently got a Firestick 4K so I can experiment and not worry about breaking anything. I find the Android TV to be somewhat temperamental and require a factory reset more than once.

I apologize for the length of this posting. I will be more succinct in the future.

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