Kodi
A free media player and home theatre application.
Kodi (formerly XBMC) plays local and streamed media on a remote-controlled, ten-foot television interface. It runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS (jailbroken), Raspberry Pi, and dedicated set-top-box hardware. Add-ons in Python extend the core to handle just about every media source you might have, from local file shares to streaming services to live TV via PVR backends.
The project began in 2002 as Xbox Media Center for the original Xbox, then went cross-platform and dropped the platform-specific name in 2014. Several Linux distributions are built around Kodi as a "media-centre appliance OS" — LibreELEC, OSMC, CoreELEC — which turn small ARM single-board computers into HTPC devices.
The XBMC Foundation governs the project. Kodi has at times had a complicated reputation because some unofficial add-ons enable piracy, but the core software and official add-on repository are entirely legitimate. For self-hosted media playback on a TV, Kodi remains one of the most flexible options.
Install
Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install kodi Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install kodi Arch: sudo pacman -S kodi macOS: brew install --cask kodi
Authors
- XBMC Foundation