{"slug": "kodi", "name": "Kodi", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Open-source media center app for playing local and network video, music, and photos.", "recommenders": 8, "commenters": 20, "warners": 3, "score": 6.705, "rising": -1.29, "first": "2025-11-21", "latest": "2026-10-22", "why": "HN commenters like it for playing media straight from a NAS or network share, as a Jellyfin client, and as an appliance-style build on cheap hardware.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 9, "compare": 0, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Jellyfin client", "Appliance builds"], "caveat": "TV navigation", "short_quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://kodi.tv/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Kodi"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like it for playing media straight from a NAS or network share,", "cites": [{"id": 783948992, "item_id": 48996812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996812", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years.", "excerpt": "Same here. XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years. Every once in a while I check out the alternatives with their custom server software and thick \"stacks\" and conclude that they don't offer me anything I want to do that I can't do with just shared files.", "context": "family media setup for 15+ years", "use_case": "home media playback from NFS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}, {"id": 763359154, "item_id": 47709947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47709947", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it works pretty well for content directly from my nas/cifs/smb via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I would probably go Blu-Ray at least to have higher resolution content... Ripping isn't too bad (I use make-mkv then re-encode with handbrake). I don't really notice going up from 1080p, but really notice going below 1080p content. I also don't mind h.265's blurry handling of degradation over the blocky/chunky h.264... I haven't really observed enough lower bitrate AV1 to compare. I have a Shield TV connected through", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback from NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Netflix Prices Went Up Again \u2013 I Bought a DVD Player Instead"}]}, {"text": " as a Jellyfin client,", "cites": [{"id": 776767408, "item_id": 48547963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547963", "by": "aidenn0", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client.", "excerpt": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client. I only switched away from it because streaming services would break periodically. I ran it with LibreELEC on a random ARM SBC at first, then switched to using a NUC with a standard linux distro. The Pulse8 CEC adapter is a must if you go the latter route. AppleTV with Infuse (note that Infuse is neither free as in \"beer\" nor \"speech\") is what I use now for Jellyfin and video content", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 793755441, "item_id": 49609715, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49609715", "by": "NoGravitas", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client", "excerpt": "Interesting! I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client, but it would be interesting to try Android TV again on the same device, since I 90% only use it for things on Jellyfin. How is the music player on it?", "context": "", "use_case": "media client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 784498002, "item_id": 49031125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031125", "by": "radcod3", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "even my parents use it via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I use jellyfin with Infuse, Kodi, mpv-shim and a couple of mobile clients as well. No major issues so far, even my parents use it via Kodi.", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}]}, {"text": " and as an appliance-style build on cheap hardware.", "cites": [{"id": 800370192, "item_id": 50023137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50023137", "by": "burnedbyhell", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too.", "excerpt": "The basic install of Kodi on LibreELEC blocks the ads on YouTube. I left Roku after using it for a long time, and the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too. For mobile, I use NewPipe which allows background YouTube as well. Might not work for everyone but I never see an ad on YouTube.", "context": "", "use_case": "TV streaming without YouTube ads", "switched_from": "Roku", "story": "Sorry, I'm in a meeting"}, {"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}, {"id": 741933232, "item_id": 46370827, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370827", "by": "skirmish", "date": "2025-12-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source.", "excerpt": "Another safe option I use: Vero V [1], it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source. Great support by Sam, the founder, too. [1] https://osmc.tv/vero/", "context": "", "use_case": "TV media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off Live Plus"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaints are clunky keyboard and TV navigation", "cites": [{"id": 803145552, "item_id": 50196597, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196597", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it.", "excerpt": "It's not just dated, it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it. I should have written down everything that was wrong with Kodi when I used it, I could have filled a whole page of 1 line complaints after a month. It technically works I guess but it suffers from the death by a thousand cuts syndrome.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 791787329, "item_id": 49486708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49486708", "by": "spearfish", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi, has always been a bit of a faff on the keyboard, and that works well with the gamepad.", "excerpt": "This has always been a bit of a drag, but the way we/I used to do websites and the way I still like to do them, was to focus on content, then apply a style and javascript layer as decoration. The keyboard navigation and accessibility considerations come more naturally then. For those that don't see this as important it feels like a case of cart before the horse. I ended up stuck on my back, bed-bound in 2005, with a ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}]}, {"text": " and general flakiness, including frequent crashes on Apple TV.", "cites": [{"id": 801250832, "item_id": 50078177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078177", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi", "excerpt": "The way I use mine is just running a standard desktop (with the scaling turned up so it's a bit more readable) and then browsing for the video files on my NAS in the file explorer. I have one of those Logitech wireless keyboard/trackpad combos for input. Obviously this is pretty clunky, but it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi. I use Linux on mine, but you could do the same thing in Windows if you", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 756531088, "item_id": 47283193, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283193", "by": "socalgal2", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton.", "excerpt": "This sounds awesome but reading the comments it sounds not quite there yet? Right now I use an AppleTV with Kodi installed via developer account. Unfortunately, Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton. I'm not much of an Apple dev. After much gnashing of teeth I managed to get a from source build running so I could maybe look into why it crashes and contribute but I've never debugged an AppleTV app ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on Apple TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}, {"id": 803145552, "item_id": 50196597, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196597", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it.", "excerpt": "It's not just dated, it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it. I should have written down everything that was wrong with Kodi when I used it, I could have filled a whole page of 1 line complaints after a month. It technically works I guess but it suffers from the death by a thousand cuts syndrome.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Jellyfin client", "summary": "Several commenters use Kodi's Jellyfin add-on as their main client and call it decent.", "quotes": [{"id": 776767408, "item_id": 48547963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547963", "by": "aidenn0", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client.", "excerpt": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client. I only switched away from it because streaming services would break periodically. I ran it with LibreELEC on a random ARM SBC at first, then switched to using a NUC with a standard linux distro. The Pulse8 CEC adapter is a must if you go the latter route. AppleTV with Infuse (note that Infuse is neither free as in \"beer\" nor \"speech\") is what I use now for Jellyfin and video content", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 793755441, "item_id": 49609715, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49609715", "by": "NoGravitas", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client", "excerpt": "Interesting! I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client, but it would be interesting to try Android TV again on the same device, since I 90% only use it for things on Jellyfin. How is the music player on it?", "context": "", "use_case": "media client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 784498002, "item_id": 49031125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031125", "by": "radcod3", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "even my parents use it via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I use jellyfin with Infuse, Kodi, mpv-shim and a couple of mobile clients as well. No major issues so far, even my parents use it via Kodi.", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}]}, {"label": "Appliance builds", "summary": "Runs as a set-and-forget box via LibreELEC, Raspberry Pi images, or Debian-based Vero hardware.", "quotes": [{"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}, {"id": 800370192, "item_id": 50023137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50023137", "by": "burnedbyhell", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too.", "excerpt": "The basic install of Kodi on LibreELEC blocks the ads on YouTube. I left Roku after using it for a long time, and the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too. For mobile, I use NewPipe which allows background YouTube as well. Might not work for everyone but I never see an ad on YouTube.", "context": "", "use_case": "TV streaming without YouTube ads", "switched_from": "Roku", "story": "Sorry, I'm in a meeting"}, {"id": 741933232, "item_id": 46370827, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370827", "by": "skirmish", "date": "2025-12-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source.", "excerpt": "Another safe option I use: Vero V [1], it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source. Great support by Sam, the founder, too. [1] https://osmc.tv/vero/", "context": "", "use_case": "TV media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off Live Plus"}]}, {"label": "Network shares", "summary": "Plays files directly from NFS, SMB, or NAS shares without extra server software.", "quotes": [{"id": 783948992, "item_id": 48996812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996812", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years.", "excerpt": "Same here. XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years. Every once in a while I check out the alternatives with their custom server software and thick \"stacks\" and conclude that they don't offer me anything I want to do that I can't do with just shared files.", "context": "family media setup for 15+ years", "use_case": "home media playback from NFS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}, {"id": 763359154, "item_id": 47709947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47709947", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it works pretty well for content directly from my nas/cifs/smb via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I would probably go Blu-Ray at least to have higher resolution content... Ripping isn't too bad (I use make-mkv then re-encode with handbrake). I don't really notice going up from 1080p, but really notice going below 1080p content. I also don't mind h.265's blurry handling of degradation over the blocky/chunky h.264... I haven't really observed enough lower bitrate AV1 to compare. I have a Shield TV connected through", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback from NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Netflix Prices Went Up Again \u2013 I Bought a DVD Player Instead"}]}, {"label": "Long-term reliability", "summary": "Some report years of trouble-free family use and say it works flawlessly.", "quotes": [{"id": 783948992, "item_id": 48996812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996812", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years.", "excerpt": "Same here. XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years. Every once in a while I check out the alternatives with their custom server software and thick \"stacks\" and conclude that they don't offer me anything I want to do that I can't do with just shared files.", "context": "family media setup for 15+ years", "use_case": "home media playback from NFS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 784498002, "item_id": 49031125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031125", "by": "radcod3", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "even my parents use it via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I use jellyfin with Infuse, Kodi, mpv-shim and a couple of mobile clients as well. No major issues so far, even my parents use it via Kodi.", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 742688960, "item_id": 46418060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46418060", "by": "b3lvedere", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Open Office and Kodi work flawlessly.", "excerpt": "I bought a 64GB model for around \u20ac200 from someone who bought it for his kids, but these kids did not like it. I already did a lot of research on the device, plus i have over a thousand games in my Steam library, so this made it a very logical purchase. I ordered a 1TB disk from Amazon and installed within 15 minutes thanks to the IFixit documentation. It\u2019s a very versatile piece of hardware if you want it to be. Gam", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why I Think Valve's Retiring the Steam Deck LCD"}]}, {"label": "Simple setup", "summary": "Commenters describe setup as simple, with one preferring it to Roku.", "quotes": [{"id": 800370192, "item_id": 50023137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50023137", "by": "burnedbyhell", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too.", "excerpt": "The basic install of Kodi on LibreELEC blocks the ads on YouTube. I left Roku after using it for a long time, and the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too. For mobile, I use NewPipe which allows background YouTube as well. Might not work for everyone but I never see an ad on YouTube.", "context": "", "use_case": "TV streaming without YouTube ads", "switched_from": "Roku", "story": "Sorry, I'm in a meeting"}, {"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "TV navigation", "summary": "Keyboard and on-TV controls are called clunky, with one commenter calling it unusable on a TV.", "quotes": [{"id": 803145552, "item_id": 50196597, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196597", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it.", "excerpt": "It's not just dated, it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it. I should have written down everything that was wrong with Kodi when I used it, I could have filled a whole page of 1 line complaints after a month. It technically works I guess but it suffers from the death by a thousand cuts syndrome.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 791787329, "item_id": 49486708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49486708", "by": "spearfish", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi, has always been a bit of a faff on the keyboard, and that works well with the gamepad.", "excerpt": "This has always been a bit of a drag, but the way we/I used to do websites and the way I still like to do them, was to focus on content, then apply a style and javascript layer as decoration. The keyboard navigation and accessibility considerations come more naturally then. For those that don't see this as important it feels like a case of cart before the horse. I ended up stuck on my back, bed-bound in 2005, with a ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}]}, {"label": "Flakiness", "summary": "Described as flaky and suffering many small problems, and it crashes often on Apple TV.", "quotes": [{"id": 801250832, "item_id": 50078177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078177", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi", "excerpt": "The way I use mine is just running a standard desktop (with the scaling turned up so it's a bit more readable) and then browsing for the video files on my NAS in the file explorer. I have one of those Logitech wireless keyboard/trackpad combos for input. Obviously this is pretty clunky, but it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi. I use Linux on mine, but you could do the same thing in Windows if you", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 803145552, "item_id": 50196597, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196597", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it.", "excerpt": "It's not just dated, it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it. I should have written down everything that was wrong with Kodi when I used it, I could have filled a whole page of 1 line complaints after a month. It technically works I guess but it suffers from the death by a thousand cuts syndrome.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 756531088, "item_id": 47283193, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283193", "by": "socalgal2", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton.", "excerpt": "This sounds awesome but reading the comments it sounds not quite there yet? Right now I use an AppleTV with Kodi installed via developer account. Unfortunately, Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton. I'm not much of an Apple dev. After much gnashing of teeth I managed to get a from source build running so I could maybe look into why it crashes and contribute but I've never debugged an AppleTV app ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on Apple TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}]}, {"label": "Breaking add-ons", "summary": "One commenter left because streaming-service add-ons broke periodically.", "quotes": [{"id": 776767408, "item_id": 48547963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547963", "by": "aidenn0", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client.", "excerpt": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client. I only switched away from it because streaming services would break periodically. I ran it with LibreELEC on a random ARM SBC at first, then switched to using a NUC with a standard linux distro. The Pulse8 CEC adapter is a must if you go the latter route. AppleTV with Infuse (note that Infuse is neither free as in \"beer\" nor \"speech\") is what I use now for Jellyfin and video content", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}]}, {"label": "Skinning docs", "summary": "Making a custom skin is described as an awful, poorly documented experience.", "quotes": [{"id": 799937952, "item_id": 49996122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996122", "by": "nullify88", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Have you tried making a skin for Kodi? Awful experience, poorly documented", "excerpt": "> AI is kinda motivating everyone to do everything on their own instead of gathering up and contributing to one (or two) projects, which is something I'm worried about in Open Source software as a whole. I think the people who are relying upon AI the most, might not contribute to OSS anyway. I can certainly say I am in that boat because I do not have software development skills and I do not want to learn how to do it", "context": "non-developer using AI to write own software", "use_case": "media player", "switched_from": "Kodi", "story": "God of War on PSP, recompiled to WebAssembly and running in the browser"}]}, {"label": "Users left", "summary": "Some longtime XBMC/Kodi users moved to Plex, one citing issues with Kodi.", "quotes": [{"id": 736105697, "item_id": 46006606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46006606", "by": "par", "date": "2025-11-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to love using this, and then when it switched to Kodi I got a bit confused but kept using it.", "excerpt": "XBMC really takes me back. I used to love using this, and then when it switched to Kodi I got a bit confused but kept using it. Finally I moved over to Plex because I recall having some issues with Kodi i can't remember these days. But while I love Plex, i don't love the proprietary feeling of it, and would still prefer something truly open.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox"}, {"id": 784517330, "item_id": 49032333, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49032333", "by": "reprodev", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex", "excerpt": "I think that's put it maybe a bit better than I did. I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex but was really stubborn about it. Once I made the move over because my new Smart TV had the Plex app I was sold. Jellyfin hits that sweet spot of being what Plex was but I hope they manage to weather the storm of losing a lot of their core team from the beginning.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "XBMC", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}]}], "who": [{"by": "ryandrake", "context": "family media setup for 15+ years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996812", "date": "2026-07-21"}], "tags": ["for NAS users", "for Jellyfin users", "for Raspberry Pi", "for home theater PCs", "for families"], "use_cases": ["media center", "media playback", "media player", "jellyfin client", "media center on tv", "tv streaming without youtube ads"], "compared": [{"slug": "plex", "name": "Plex", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "jellyfin", "name": "Jellyfin", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "infuse", "name": "Infuse", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "libreelec", "name": "LibreELEC", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030547", "title": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186318", "title": "Plex laid off the whole player team", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50071310", "title": "New Apple TV 4K", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018088", "title": "Sorry, I'm in a meeting", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49991243", "title": "God of War on PSP, recompiled to WebAssembly and running in the browser", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604861", "title": "Jellyfin 12.0", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 3, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803145552, "item_id": 50196597, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196597", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it.", "excerpt": "It's not just dated, it's unusable on a TV. Just the keyboard is reason enough not to use it. I should have written down everything that was wrong with Kodi when I used it, I could have filled a whole page of 1 line complaints after a month. It technically works I guess but it suffers from the death by a thousand cuts syndrome.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 801250832, "item_id": 50078177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078177", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi", "excerpt": "The way I use mine is just running a standard desktop (with the scaling turned up so it's a bit more readable) and then browsing for the video files on my NAS in the file explorer. I have one of those Logitech wireless keyboard/trackpad combos for input. Obviously this is pretty clunky, but it's a hell of a lot less flaky than something like Kodi. I use Linux on mine, but you could do the same thing in Windows if you", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 800370192, "item_id": 50023137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50023137", "by": "burnedbyhell", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too.", "excerpt": "The basic install of Kodi on LibreELEC blocks the ads on YouTube. I left Roku after using it for a long time, and the experience with Kodi is far better. Simple setup, too. For mobile, I use NewPipe which allows background YouTube as well. Might not work for everyone but I never see an ad on YouTube.", "context": "", "use_case": "TV streaming without YouTube ads", "switched_from": "Roku", "story": "Sorry, I'm in a meeting"}, {"id": 799937952, "item_id": 49996122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996122", "by": "nullify88", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Have you tried making a skin for Kodi? Awful experience, poorly documented", "excerpt": "> AI is kinda motivating everyone to do everything on their own instead of gathering up and contributing to one (or two) projects, which is something I'm worried about in Open Source software as a whole. I think the people who are relying upon AI the most, might not contribute to OSS anyway. I can certainly say I am in that boat because I do not have software development skills and I do not want to learn how to do it", "context": "non-developer using AI to write own software", "use_case": "media player", "switched_from": "Kodi", "story": "God of War on PSP, recompiled to WebAssembly and running in the browser"}, {"id": 793755441, "item_id": 49609715, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49609715", "by": "NoGravitas", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client", "excerpt": "Interesting! I have been using the Jellyfin addon for Kodi as my main client, but it would be interesting to try Android TV again on the same device, since I 90% only use it for things on Jellyfin. How is the music player on it?", "context": "", "use_case": "media client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 791787329, "item_id": 49486708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49486708", "by": "spearfish", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi, has always been a bit of a faff on the keyboard, and that works well with the gamepad.", "excerpt": "This has always been a bit of a drag, but the way we/I used to do websites and the way I still like to do them, was to focus on content, then apply a style and javascript layer as decoration. The keyboard navigation and accessibility considerations come more naturally then. For those that don't see this as important it feels like a case of cart before the horse. I ended up stuck on my back, bed-bound in 2005, with a ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}, {"id": 784517330, "item_id": 49032333, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49032333", "by": "reprodev", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex", "excerpt": "I think that's put it maybe a bit better than I did. I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex but was really stubborn about it. Once I made the move over because my new Smart TV had the Plex app I was sold. Jellyfin hits that sweet spot of being what Plex was but I hope they manage to weather the storm of losing a lot of their core team from the beginning.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "XBMC", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784510192, "item_id": 49031887, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031887", "by": "M95D", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Kodi.", "excerpt": "I use Kodi. I never used Plex or Jellyfin. I'm not even sure what they are. They look like media players, but... over the network? I don't really understand how that works. In a web browser? Why whould anyone run a media player in a browser? Can anyone explain?", "context": "", "use_case": "media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784498002, "item_id": 49031125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031125", "by": "radcod3", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "even my parents use it via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I use jellyfin with Infuse, Kodi, mpv-shim and a couple of mobile clients as well. No major issues so far, even my parents use it via Kodi.", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 783948992, "item_id": 48996812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996812", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years.", "excerpt": "Same here. XBMC/Kodi pointed at NFS has served me and my family well for 15+ years. Every once in a while I check out the alternatives with their custom server software and thick \"stacks\" and conclude that they don't offer me anything I want to do that I can't do with just shared files.", "context": "family media setup for 15+ years", "use_case": "home media playback from NFS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783641328, "item_id": 48977583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977583", "by": "Gud", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "hook up and old laptop to it with Kodi", "excerpt": "I use the internet browser on the TV to watch the local broadcasts(SRF). Next I will get a dumb monitor and hook up and old laptop to it with Kodi.", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent"}, {"id": 776767408, "item_id": 48547963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547963", "by": "aidenn0", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client.", "excerpt": "Kodi has a decent Jellyfin client. I only switched away from it because streaming services would break periodically. I ran it with LibreELEC on a random ARM SBC at first, then switched to using a NUC with a standard linux distro. The Pulse8 CEC adapter is a must if you go the latter route. AppleTV with Infuse (note that Infuse is neither free as in \"beer\" nor \"speech\") is what I use now for Jellyfin and video content", "context": "", "use_case": "Jellyfin client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 775785168, "item_id": 48486573, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486573", "by": "ssl-3", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.", "excerpt": "> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering? Yes, I think so. With strong caveats. I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b). I just p", "context": "", "use_case": "living room local media player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Raspberry Pi 5 \u2013 16 GB, $350"}, {"id": 767763106, "item_id": 47985194, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985194", "by": "sarah-robiin", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Also great integration into Kodi and Jellyfin.", "excerpt": "I use it since countless years. Works very reliable, supports all kind of complex configurations, best way of receiving OTA TV and radio. Just the ext.js UI is a bit dated and buggy, but it works. And we still got TvhClient on mobile... Also great integration into Kodi and Jellyfin. Or simply use custom hook scripts or its API.", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback with Tvheadend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tvheadend: Self-Hosted IPTV Server"}, {"id": 763359154, "item_id": 47709947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47709947", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it works pretty well for content directly from my nas/cifs/smb via Kodi.", "excerpt": "I would probably go Blu-Ray at least to have higher resolution content... Ripping isn't too bad (I use make-mkv then re-encode with handbrake). I don't really notice going up from 1080p, but really notice going below 1080p content. I also don't mind h.265's blurry handling of degradation over the blocky/chunky h.264... I haven't really observed enough lower bitrate AV1 to compare. I have a Shield TV connected through", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback from NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Netflix Prices Went Up Again \u2013 I Bought a DVD Player Instead"}, {"id": 757922929, "item_id": 47370183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47370183", "by": "morb", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "alongside Kodi and YT Leanback mode", "excerpt": "As others have noticed, this is similar to ytch.xyz. What ytch does better is that it is mostly keyboard navigable (with minor annoyances), which also makes it usable with a remote control, unlike this. I actually do use ytch (alongside Kodi and YT Leanback mode) on my Raspberry Pi HTPC that is controlled by remote only. Works fine. Chromium, kiosk mode, entry in ~/.local/share/applications/ytch.desktop, and you're g", "context": "", "use_case": "HTPC media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Turn Your YouTube Subscriptions into a Retro TV Guide"}, {"id": 756531088, "item_id": 47283193, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283193", "by": "socalgal2", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton.", "excerpt": "This sounds awesome but reading the comments it sounds not quite there yet? Right now I use an AppleTV with Kodi installed via developer account. Unfortunately, Kodi on AppleTV is not well supported so it crashes a ton. I'm not much of an Apple dev. After much gnashing of teeth I managed to get a from source build running so I could maybe look into why it crashes and contribute but I've never debugged an AppleTV app ", "context": "", "use_case": "media center on Apple TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plasma Bigscreen \u2013 10-foot interface for KDE plasma"}, {"id": 742688960, "item_id": 46418060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46418060", "by": "b3lvedere", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Open Office and Kodi work flawlessly.", "excerpt": "I bought a 64GB model for around \u20ac200 from someone who bought it for his kids, but these kids did not like it. I already did a lot of research on the device, plus i have over a thousand games in my Steam library, so this made it a very logical purchase. I ordered a 1TB disk from Amazon and installed within 15 minutes thanks to the IFixit documentation. It\u2019s a very versatile piece of hardware if you want it to be. Gam", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why I Think Valve's Retiring the Steam Deck LCD"}, {"id": 741933232, "item_id": 46370827, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370827", "by": "skirmish", "date": "2025-12-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source.", "excerpt": "Another safe option I use: Vero V [1], it runs Debian + Kodi, so it is all open source. Great support by Sam, the founder, too. [1] https://osmc.tv/vero/", "context": "", "use_case": "TV media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off Live Plus"}, {"id": 736105697, "item_id": 46006606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46006606", "by": "par", "date": "2025-11-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to love using this, and then when it switched to Kodi I got a bit confused but kept using it.", "excerpt": "XBMC really takes me back. I used to love using this, and then when it switched to Kodi I got a bit confused but kept using it. Finally I moved over to Plex because I recall having some issues with Kodi i can't remember these days. But while I love Plex, i don't love the proprietary feeling of it, and would still prefer something truly open.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "", "story": "XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox"}]}