Friday, August 21, 2015

adventures with Kodi

On Tuesday, I went down to Office Depot to mail back my replacement Amazon Fire TV (they're a UPS outlet).  Also recycled three ink cartridges for credit (got a total of 3 cents).

Naturally I went over to look at the laptops and a salesman came over.  I guess he had nothing better to do.

I asked him he knew anything about TV tuner cards.  He didn't and said he doesn't watch much TV any more.  I told him I'm watching more on Netflix and Hulu.  He said why waste time (and money) with those.  He uses Kodi.  He installs it on his computers and even has it on his phone.  He says the hot product these days is the DragonBox which is a media player installed with Kodi.  I asked him if he had one and he said he didn't need one because he knows how to install Kodi himself.  And apparently has installed it for others too.

I had heard of Kodi (when it was known as XBMC) and was now intrigued enough to actually try it.

And so here are my adventures with setting up Kodi...  (Well, it's just the notes I took.)

how to install kodi
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_Kodi_for_Windows

Wednesday early a.m.
download Kodi (kodi.tv)
install Kodi (on Steven's laptop)
ok it's bare, how to get videos?
I assume video add-ons, which ones to get?
apparently there are a lot of third-party add-ons of questionable legality, but let's try some of the built-in ones
I assume these are kind of like adding channels to the Roku or installing apps on the iPad
lets try HGTV, works, video looks good, but can't get the subtitles to work, so far nothing I can't get on the web

how about HGTV Canada, videos here are prohibited from playing in the U.S. (I believe)
that works, even says subtitles are available for download but when I try says not subtitle service installed
let's choose opensubtitles.org for both movies and TV
notice some videos don't play, Bryk House plays, but subtitles not found
when I try to play videos from hgtv.ca, it just says loading and doesn't play

how do you get all the pirated shows?
in this youtube video this guy uses 1channel
try later

let's try the Hallmark Channel
movies, home and family, Cedar Cove / home and family has just numbers for titles, the first one happens to be the Waltons Reunion
I guess it's OK, but how do you uninstall

how about MeTV?
well got the Jack LaLanne Show
but that's available on the website

here's how to install 1Channel
you can also use the addon installer


later. First let's try ESPN3
works though the sound cut out on the first video I played (NBA Showcase)

what is PBS Thinktank? (it's just PBS)

back to sleep

Wednesday afternoon

requires Fusion Installer, ok how I get that?

now install 1channel
hey I guess it works, try Jurassic World has no sources
Kingsmen works, but no subtitles found
try TV, periodically getting connection failed, Failed to connect to url http://www.primewire.ag ...
try again and it sometimes works / but more often than not, it's failing

try install Genesis, failed to install a repository
this is like beta software (or even alpha)
exited and came back in, hey Genesis is there!
hey pulls up Dog Whisperer list of episodes, but when I try to access the episode, says no stream available
try Arrow, season 3 episode 1 plays with captions
try The Middle, season 1, episode 1 plays with captions
NCIS Los Angeles, season 1 apparently unavailable, except for the last episode, other seasons available?
Monk season 5, episode 1 unavailable but episode 2 is available
the Middle season 1, episode 2 is playing, but the subtitles are playing about 10 seconds too soon
(well, what do you want for free?)

hey pulled up some episodes of Dog Whisperer Family Edition on 1channel, no subtitles though (so far)
It's Me or the Dog episode lists pull up on Genesis but can't find any working streams

Wednesday evening (at ccoh)
install Kodi on HP laptop
doesn't appear in start menu or on desktop (though apparently it's supposed to)
create my own shortcut by linking to the exe file
let's install the fusion installer this way this time
have to double-click on "add source"

then go to config wizard
a lot more stuff got installed this way

how do you install captions on Kodi again?
choose opensubtitles.org

try playing The Middle, s1e01, no stream available, s1e02 no stream available
s1e03 worked but the subtitles kept needing to be adjusted as the video played (had to keep increasing the delay) what a pain
s1e02 seems better synchronized

home
read how to load kodi on amazon fire tv (I'm tempted)

Thursday morning
more experimenting with Kodi: King of Queens, Harry Potter

I can see the attraction [of Kodi], practically every movie and every TV show
but not really, not every TV show is there and even if it is, it doesn't always load
and if it loads, the quality is not consistent, sometimes it's pretty good, sometimes not
subtitles are hit and miss and often out of sync
If it's on netflix or Hulu, I would watch it there as you get a much more reliable and consistent quality
but if it's not, this would be a good way to watch/preview something you might be interested in purchasing (streaming or DVD)
and you just might might hit on a good quality video stream

Thursday afternoon
hook up FireTV, ok it's working


well let's install kodi on Sue's PC first
then install the Fusion Installer
instead of using config wizards, lets just use the addon installer
let's install Genesis
click on Genesis
click on install Genesis
do you wish to install the chosen add-on
and its respective repository if needed?
click install button
downloading your selection  please wait...
your selections have been installed
OK
videos / addons / notice both Genesis and youtube have been installed
setup subtitles
try opensubtitles.org
installation failed (what?)
exit and go back, set subtitle language to english, ok now it takes
ok I guess it's working
NCIS Los Angeles started playing, then started stuttering, exit and go back in
Get Smart plays

ok, let's go for the amazon fire tv now
download kodi
enable adb debugging on amazon fire TV
Setting About Network, IP address is 192.168.200.69

now I have to either install Amazon Fire TV Utility App or adbFire app
adbFire looks a little simpler, so I'll choose that
apps from unknown source on
download adbfire 1.29 for Windows
53.2 MB

move adbfire to own folder and extract (click on zip file)
run adbfire.exe
screen looks different from the webpage
check the video
nope
help goes to this video
not really helpful, I dunno

here you go, click on new
Description FireTV
Address 192.168.200.69
pull folder c:/adbfire
save
connect (looks like it's already connected?)
install APK (browse to the apk file earlier downloaded, open)
install?  yes
wait (progress bar on bottom running)
installed (OK)

run Kodi on FireTV
settings, applications, manage installed applications, Kodi
launch application
it works!

now to put on Genesis, first install fusion
now lets install addon installer
setup subtitles

ok play around with Kodi
Arrow, The Flash, The Middle, etc.

I guess it has it's uses.  It's too flaky and inconsistent to be my first choice if the movie or show is alredy on hulu or netflix, but otherwise...
I wouldn't recommend it to the average user or to people who want the highest quality / I guess mainly to the cheapskates...

installed Phoenix

and now nothing plays on the Fire TV besides Kodi :(
power off and plug back in, seems to be working again

Friday
back to FireTV
seems to still work, CBS News plays though it stopped after a couple minutes, exited and went back in and was OK
install Movie4K.to
errors out
how do you remove an addon?

ok, let's try IceFilms then
failed
try again, installed
seems a little flaky, asked for verification (type in what you see), but got Frozen to play
got David Blaine to play, but now video slowing down
not much luck getting anything else to play

try Movie4K.to again
nope got error trying to run again, forget it, uninstall

try Ice again, asked for verification, forget it, uninstall

watch The Middle Pilot on Fire TV, Kodi, Genesis
Hulu still plays so I guess the Fire TV is OK with Kodi now?  I was afraid installing and playing Kodi would mess up the other applications.

Since trying out the Fire TV recently, it seems more stable than before.  I like the hulu subtitles and am getting used to the Netflix subtitles.  And now with Kodi support, this might be the box to get (for techies who don't mind playing around).  So, score one for the Fire TV.  (Not that I'm particularly recommending it.)

Note: Kodi works with only jailbroken Apple TV 2 and only up to version 14.2.  Doesn't work with Roku.

Hey, let's try clear data on Kodi.

uh oh, there goes all my addons

OK, reinstall fusion, addoninstaller, genesis, 1Channel
now Project Free TV.so shows up, let's try that first
then do 1Channel and Genesis
play Person of Interest

Friday evening
try Movie4K.to on my HP laptop, it works

home
let's try put on Movie4K on FireTv with the other setup script
uninstall Genesis and 1Connect
but when I try to access the fusion installer, says unable to connect

clear data and try from scratch
try install the fusion installer
unable to connect
couldn't retrieve directory information.  This could be due to the network not being connected.  Would you like to add it anyway?
no

maybe the site is down?
I guess I'll try again later

let's try install Genesis by itself then

ok that worked!
install a few more from the Kodi add-on repository

doze off to KordKutters (which is a Kodi channel, but also on youtube)

Saturday morning
try fusion installer again, nope unable to connect
installed, but dont see movie4k
maybe you have to register?


try again, ok it works this time, I mistyped the url
ok choose isengard, videos
see a lot of stuff, but don't see movie4k 
I do see 1channel though, so install that

ok let's go with super repo since that has 1channel, Genesis, Phoenix
and get rid of the others
clear data to start fresh

install all this time (instead of just video)
Data: 14.98 MB and slowly going up, now 16.62 MB, Cache steady at 65.98
ok install Genesis
data now up to 60.98 MB and slowly going up

try install Movie4K.to with my addon installer on my computer and sure enough it gets an error when running.

OK, maybe the problem is with the addon installer

ok let's try fusion addon again, this time it takes
choose config wizard
started then beeped with a message, don't know what the message said (error or success)
check video addons / nothing there
exit (as per instructions) and go back in
nope

try again, hey this time it works!
and movies4k.to works too

OK so now I got movie4k on my Fire TV.  Not that I'm going to use it much.  It was just the challenge of trying to see if it ran on the Fire TV.

Now playing a WWE even on Phoenix.  It plays but periodically pauses to buffer.  Probably because my internet connection ain't that fast.

Watch Next on Netflix.  No problems.

Now notice that Fire TV is lagging the controller presses
unplug and plug back in
run Kodi, seems better, but not perfect
try to run Netflix, Hulu, etc.  video won't play
clear Kodi cache
Bloomberg plays, but not Netflix
Kodi data is taking up 281 MB, clear it
now Netflix runs

decided to add some "legitmate" addons to Kodi
currently CNET, DIY, Esquire, HGTV, HGTV Canada, TestTude, Udacity, Travel, YouTube (which was installed automatically).
controller seems much more responsive
still has some problems buffering HD videos, stuttering or pausing after a while,
but seems ok
playing a video on HGTV Canada

I spoke too soon, now Hulu, Netflix, YouTube doesn't play, getting an error when trying to play
maybe it's because the video is still playing on Kodi?
go back to Kodi and stop the video (click on the stop button), then exit Kodi
now Hulu plays, Netflix plays

OK, we'll see if that's it..
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