Every film and computer enthusiast already knows what Kodi is, perhaps one of the most important programs that can be found, one of the most revolutionary and controversial in some respects. For those who do not know it, Kodi is the perfect multimedia solution, open source and free, the best that can be found for managing and watching TV videos, DVDs and PC movies and also streaming .
Kodi's fame comes not only from its many features to organize the video library and find new content on the internet, but also from its expansion possibilities thanks to the numerous addons that can be installed on it and that can be created by anyone.
Kodi is therefore an open-source media player, initially called XBMC, designed specifically for use on large screens and televisions, with the possibility of being able to modify it according to preferences.
The open-source nature Kodi nature has favored the growth of a community of developers who continually creates new addons to increase their functions.
READ ALSO: Guide to get started with Kodi: configuration and content addition
The reasons why Kodi is so popular compared to many similar programs to watch videos on the computer are basically two:
First of all because Kodi is excellent in his way of managing multimedia files and folders with videos and music.
It is also capable of playing any multimedia content, music or video, and transforms every PC even as small as the Raspberry PI into a perfect streaming Media Center to be connected to the TV.
The second reason for such popularity is in the dark side of Kodi, made of extensions that lead to access to pirated content.
Since the program is open source, anyone can create and distribute addons of all types and include them in a repository, that is, in an unofficial list of addons.
Actually the creators of Kodi are strictly against piracy, and many legal addons are included in the program to access streaming content such as Netflix or other regular sites.
Addons are add-ons or program extensions similar to those of Chrome or Firefox, which improve the functionality of Kodi.
These add-ons allow, for example, to watch live TV channels, play video games, customize Kodi to your liking and add other sources.
On the official Kodi website you can browse the catalog of legal addons sorted by categories and download the ones that you consider most useful, all free.
The Kodi program can be downloaded and installed for various PC, tablet and Smartphone platforms.
On the Kodi.tv website you will find Kodi downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs.
On PC you can use Kodi both as a standard program in a window and as a full screen application.
Then there are the official links of Kodi as an application for PC Windows 10 and as a Kodi app for Android .
Unfortunately, Kodi is not available for iPhone, unless it is installed on a device unlocked with Jailbreak.
Currently the latest version of Kodi is 17.1, called Krypton .
Kodi's interface may not seem very easy or modern, but still remains very functional.
The main screen of Kodi is divided into sections: Movies, TV Series, Music, Music Videos, TV, Radio, Addon, Images, Videos, Favorites and Weather .
At the top there is the gear button to enter the system settings, where in particular you can change the language and also the graphic skin in the interface settings .
Also on the top left is the shutdown button to exit Kodi.
When entering one of the sections, you can go back by pressing on the section title at the top left or using the ESC key.
Kodi is optimized for keyboard use, also using arrows to move around menus.
Any item that does not interest can be removed from the main menu or configured by indicating the folder from which to take videos, movies, music, etc.
In the settings it is possible, among other things, to manage profiles in order to separate the contents according to the user and protect a profile with a password.
So once Kodi is up and running, you can open music or videos that are on your PC, or even install addons to connect to streaming sources such as Youtube, Netflix or online TV channels.
Kodi supports various file-sharing protocols such as SMB and NFS, so you can connect to a NAS or a media server.
The Kodi TV section is used to manage the channels of a DVB-T device, that is, from a digital terrestrial TV card for PC via antenna, not via the internet.
For online TVs it is possible to add addons from the official main repository, such as that of Video Mediaset to give an example.
Kodi supports every audio and video format, including watching DVD and Bluray.
The music manager is also very good, to search and sort playlists of songs stored on the computer.
Kodi is the best program to manage msuica and video on PC and multimedia servers and also among the best Media Center programs together with Plex.
Although for many people this may be a foregone conclusion, it was still worth talking about since I had not done so on this blog yet.
Finally, it is important to note that it is possible to buy an Android TV Box for 30 Euros or a little more on the internet and then install the Kodi app on it to be able to use it as a complete multimedia player to be connected to your PC in wifi and attach to the TV .
