After a lot of experimenting (and plenty of help from AI 😅), I think I’ve finally reached the point where I can say my Kodi home media setup is complete!

I’m running a centralized MariaDB setup, automated library updates, and a small dashboard to keep an eye on everything.

It’s been working really well and I’m pretty happy with it, so I made a quick diagram showing how the whole setup works.

Sharing it here because I’d love to hear what other Kodi users think. 👀

Anything you would improve, automate further, simplify, or do completely differently?

Always looking for the next unnecessary improvement to a setup that already works. 😂

I kind of hack it with Plex by creating a TV Library, overriding “Season 1” title and treating all the mkv files as episodes in the season. I’m kind of a nerd in that if I’m going to the trouble of ripping a disc, I might as well make the extras available too.

I saw the above on Apple TV on a past purchase,
and I was thinking this kind of interface would be perfect for my ripped UHD content.

I installed kodi through homebrew on my LG c3. My HDD is attached to my router and mounted to kodi as samba share. Works fine so far, media is scanned, information and covers show etc.

When I delete a folder of a TV show, or a movie, it still shows in kodi, despite updating library on startup being set. How can I have it automatically remove deleted files from the library, without having to do it manually?

I made this lil GUI batch subtitle downloader based on subliminal a while back. Over the past couple weeks, I've made a few huge improvements as well as adding proper debian linux and macOS support. (Release notes here) Windows still seems to get the best scan speeds.

Docker support coming soon!

You can find the project here: https://github.com/fosterbarnes/rustitles

Bug reports and suggestions welcome at https://github.com/fosterbarnes/rustitles/issues

Let me know what ya think :)

just got the content of my drive scanned on kodi by tmdb helper, but i still liked the folder system i used on it, so i was accessing the movies from media > videos > drive. now it says path not found or invalid, even if the drive is plugged, i can still see the movies only as a giant list or with filters different than the ones i had [just folders based on starting letter]. dunno why it worked before and now doesn’t, i would like to go back to that or to before tmdb helper when i just accessed the drive from the movie section in the main menu. any help?

Can anyone recommend hardware that doesn't come with pre-installed malware that all the cheap Chinese ones apparently come with ?

Most of our use is to simply play back audio books or play movies from USB drives to fall asleep to (we're **that** old now :-p )

I have KODI running on my andriod cable box and I utilize their remote (Bluetooth). Needless to say, typing text/searches is a pain and eats up batteries! The box is programmed to accept only one input, so switching to a different Bluetooth keyboard combo is buried 3-4 levels. Hence I live with the cumbersome KODI text input.

Wondering if there isn't a all-in-one option for cable commands and keyboard for KODI. Thoughts...

Basically if I used imgburn to get the iso of a commercial dvd, and put it on my tablet storage can Kodi decrypt it?

I'm having a strange scraping problem with Dragons: Rescue Riders using the TMDb TV Shows scraper in Kodi 21.3.

The important part is that Season 2 identifies correctly as Dragons: Rescue Riders, while Season 1 does not. They are both seasons of the same show and are stored as separate folders under the same Kodi source.

My source is:

D:\movies and shows\rescue riders\rr

The source is set to "This directory contains: One TV show."

Season 1 is here:

D:\movies and shows\rescue riders\rr\Dragons.Rescue.Riders.S01.COMPLETE.WEB.X264-STARZ[TGx]

The actual episode files are directly inside that folder and are named with S01E01, S01E02, etc.

Season 2 is in a separate folder under rr and scrapes correctly as Dragons: Rescue Riders. I have not had any problem with Season 2.

Season 1, however, is not simply failing to find the show. Kodi repeatedly identifies it as completely unrelated shows. I've seen it identify the folder as Sweetie (2021) and Home Movies (1999), among others.

I have also tried multiple different torrents/releases of Season 1, with different files, to rule out the possibility that the problem was caused by incorrect metadata or an unusual release. They all produce essentially the same incorrect scraping behavior.

I've also tried multiple metadata providers in Kodi. TMDb is the only provider I've found that can actually find Dragons: Rescue Riders at all, so switching providers doesn't appear to be a solution.

I tried using a tvshow.nfo with the TMDb ID for Dragons: Rescue Riders (94045), including putting the NFO in the Season 1 release folder. This either didn't work or resulted in a separate Dragons: Rescue Riders entry with no episodes.

I also tried the TMDb ID in the folder name, without success.

I don't want to rename/restructure the torrent folder because the files are actively being seeded and I'd prefer to keep the torrent's file paths intact.

So my main question is: why would Season 2 correctly identify as Dragons: Rescue Riders while Season 1, using the same scraper and source, is being matched to completely unrelated shows? Is there a way to manually tell Kodi that the already-scanned Season 1 files belong to the existing Dragons: Rescue Riders show?
EDIT, SOLVED: the solution is in the comments below.

I need help mapping the Channel/Guide overlay to the Red or Guide button on my LG remote.
Photo 1 shows the Channel button/overlay that I want to map.
I tried using the Key Mapper add-on, but I don’t know what this particular function is called. I searched under the Player OSD and PVR sections, but I couldn’t find it.

Photo 2 shows the LG TV remote that I want to configure.

Photo 3 shows what I want to open directly when I press the Red or Guide button on the remote: an overlay displaying all available channels, which allows me to easily navigate through the channels and change channels.

Does anyone know which Kodi function or action I need to map to the Red or Guide button to open this channel overlay directly?

ISSUE is Solved please read comment by @warpedgalaxy

i have iphone 7 and i can't download .ipa files :((

Hi Kodi community,

I have been using Kodi for many years and really appreciate what it represents: an open media center based on open standards and local control.

I always wanted a simple "play this on my TV" feature for online media without relying on Chromecast, proprietary casting ecosystems, or cloud services. And please, no complex addon setups which break every few months.

So I built PlayOnDlna.

The idea is simple:

1. Open online media on your Android device

2. Share it with PlayOnDlna

3. Select your Kodi instance or DLNA/UPnP player

4. Playback starts on your TV

Currently supported use cases include:

✅ Sending online media to Kodi and DLNA MediaRenderers

✅ YouTube integration via Android share menu

✅ Playlist management and playback

✅ Kodi as a target player

✅ Other DLNA/UPnP compatible TVs and receivers

✅ No account required

✅ No cloud service required

✅ Open source (GPL-3.0)

The goal is not to replace Kodi, but to complement it with a lightweight Android remote workflow.

I originally created this for my own setup because I wanted something closer to the simplicity of Chromecast, but based on open standards instead.

I would love feedback from Kodi users!

Website:

https://scovillo.github.io/playondlna/

Source:

https://github.com/scovillo/playondlna

F-Droid:

https://f-droid.org/packages/io.github.scovillo.playondlna/

Thanks!

Hopefully this post doesn't break any rules — it doesn't seem to be in a gray area or something.

I've created a somewhat new screensaver for Kodi, inspired by the old displays in airports. It looks like this:

There is also a small video of it here on YouTube.

It has several unique features other screensavers, I believe, don't have:

1. It is extendable: 2 sources of data for the screen are built-in (phrases and date-time-weather-now playing); one is packed as a separate script — recently added
2. It contains a script to generate addons for support of your preferred symbols in your preferred font, in case you don't like my choice or you need something on top
3. It knows how to find installed extensions for it an even can open their settings

The interface to create your own extension is very simple — it's just one function that returns the new state, and you don't really need to care about layout too — it should be done automatically.

Of course, there are some settings too, and hopefully it can work for any scenario.

The repo is on GitHub, and I'd love to get your feedback!

https://asm0dey.github.io/kodi-splitflap/

What is this behaviour? I have a series with subs but they wont display in kodi unless I do this voodoo every time an episode plays:

1. Switch from subs 1/2 to 2/2

2. Switch from subs 2/2 to 1/2

3. Skip one episode forward

4. Skip one episode back

And then Sub 1/2 will display, how does this make any sense, anyone got ideas?

So, my child is off to college this week. Is there a way to have Kodi stream from my NAS at home? Or does this require Plex??

Ideally, I would set up the NAS as a share, like I do locally.

I'm hoping I came to the right place for this question as there seems to be conflicting answers I'm getting in another community. I'm running Kodi 21.3 on a Nvidia Shield. In settings, Display, General my resolution is 3840x2160 and the refresh rate is 59.94Hz. If I want to watch a movie that is native 1920x1080p 23.98Hz and my TV supports it, I have to have 1920x1080p 23.98Hz checked off in the Whitelist correct? If I don't have it checked off it'll default to 3840x2160p 58.94Hz and try to upscale. Is this correct also? I'm being told to leave everything unmarked in the Whitelist and Kodi will automatically change the resolution and refresh rate.

Hi everyone,

I’m a subtitle editor, so I pay extreme attention to shot changes (making sure subtitles don’t cross cuts) and always fix them using Subtitle Edit. That’s why I picked up on this issue right away.

Here’s some context: My main setup to watch movies and series is a Raspberry Pi 4B running Kodi, connected via HDMI to a 65" LG BX OLED.

Recently, I bought a 75" TCL C6K MiniLED running Android TV, where I installed Kodi + rclone. Just for testing, I played several movies from my library and noticed the subtitles were out of sync—not just on one movie, but on every single one. This isn't something I could have missed or overlooked given how closely I work with subs.

I double-checked the same files on both my PC and the Raspberry Pi setup, and the sync was frame-perfect on both.

To fix it, I created a copy of the .srt file and used Subtitle Edit to test offsets in +100 ms increments. It turned out that +400 ms was the exact offset needed to get it in sync on the TCL.

After investigating, I learned that this is caused by MediaCodec (Surface) hardware acceleration in Android TV. To confirm this, I disabled MediaCodec (Surface) in Kodi and tested the original .srt file (without the +400 ms delay). Sure enough, the sync was perfect.

However, disabling MediaCodec (Surface) isn't a viable solution:

• Kodi loses direct access to the TV’s color engine.
• HDR fails to trigger properly.
• Dolby Vision content ends up displaying with inverted/corrupted colors.

Source: Kodi GitHub Issue #27673: Subtitle Synchronization Issues - Not Frame Perfect

TL;DR. This is a summary:

Why does this happen on Android and not on the Raspberry Pi / PC?

In Kodi's source code (VideoPlayerVideo.cpp), subtitles are matched using Presentation Timestamps (PTS) right when the frame is decoded.

1. On PC and Raspberry Pi (Linux): The rendering pipeline has very low latency. As soon as the frame is decoded, the GPU sends both the video and the subtitle to the screen together in a single synchronized pass.
2. On Android TV (MediaCodec / Surface): Video decoding is handed off to an Android OS rendering queue (RenderManager.cpp), creating a separate path for video and UI overlays.
3. The Decoupling & Result: Kodi’s UI draws the subtitle based on the decoding timestamp. However, the TV's processor holds the video frames in a display buffer for processing (picture enhancements, motion smoothing, frame rate matching, etc.). Because of this buffer delay, the video hits your screen ~400 ms after Kodi has already displayed the subtitle, causing the constant desync.

The Workaround: If you want to keep proper HDR/DV support on Android TV without sacrificing subtitle sync, leave MediaCodec (Surface) enabled, open the subtitle menu during playback, and set:

For HD/4K content

• Subtitle offset: Delayed by 0.400s
• Select "Set as default for all media"

For SD content

• Subtitle offset: Delayed by 0.100s

Since SD content is much less common nowadays, I recommend changing this value manually when watching SD content rather than making it the default.

I hope this was helpful to you all. It really worked for me, which is why I wanted to share it. Best regards!

• Ember Media Manager is pretty much dead.
• MediaElch is officially abandoned.
• MediaCompanion is abandoned.
• TinyMediaManager wants money for basic functionality.

EMM haven't worked for over a year now, and today Elch started crashing on manually searching for art with tMDB. Elch also takes 5+ minutes to load my database.

Are there any working media managers for KODI these days (that doesn't charge for basic functions)?

Does anyone know of a way to make Kodi respond to the Media Play/Pause button on a keyboard while it's not in focus???

Im usually using my main monitor for gaming or browsing the internet while watching tv or videos on my secondary monitor and Kodi is the only application that doesn't allow me to use the play/pause button when its out of focus. i've looked up and down on google/reddit and i can't seem to find a real solution to this, i did find a ahk script ( https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/tjkmzl/comment/ig8y8ja/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button ) but it errors out and i don't know how to fix it.

hello everyone, i just installed kodi 18.9 and will not fit to my jailbroken ipad mini on ios 9.3.5 .
any advice to scale it properly ?
also touch is not working correct when app launches

Is there a user guide for newbies anyone can recommend? I find that if an error occurs, I am referred to a log. I take some pride in finding the log but the text is gibberish to me and unhelpful.