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A Dutch-based developer and Kodi addon repository administrator has shut down his operation following threats from anti-piracy outfit BREIN. Due to the XvBMC-NL repo offering addons including Covenant and IPTV Bonanza, BREIN accused its operator of facilitating access to infringing content. He is now required to sign an abstention agreement and pay a settlement of 2,500 euros.
As the battle to prevent unauthorized content getting into the hands of the masses continues, Kodi remains one of the leading platforms for such consumption.
Completely legal as it leaves its official download platform, the Kodi software is easily modified to provide access to pirated movies, TV shows, and live sports. From here on in, usage of such a setup to infringe copyright is illegal in Europe.
With this established, anti-piracy outfit BREIN has been attempting to stem the tide of platforms offering 'pirate' addons in the Netherlands. One of those was XvBMC-NL, a repository which contained addons including the hugely popular Covenant and live TV addon IPTV Bonanza.
According to a report by BREIN, last month the Dutch developer and administrator of XvBMC-NL received an unwelcome visit to his home by bailiffs sent by the anti-piracy group. BREIN hasn't made the precise contents of its message to 'Z' known but it's clear that it views his work as illegal and contrary to copyright law. The developer shut down soon after.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:24PM (2 children)
(Do point out which version of kodi you use(d/tried). Leia (18.x - current) and Gotham (13.x - 2014) are very different experiences (and that is before you start messing with the skins))
Regarding watching local files. Just enter Videos - Files - [first time 'add videos' and select a directory, should at this point be one of two options available] - select relevant added directory - just browse it.
The "non-obvious" part might be to try "videos" as well as "movies" (and possibly "tv shows").
I didn't even look at plugins for the first couple of months (used it to play from an smb-server in the lan, the setup btw was pretty much similar as above, but I selected "smb" instead of "root directory" for the 'add videos')
However I do agree that the "media library" is an unwanted distraction - so I just skip using it. But quite frankly, unless you are in a controller/remote-control/touch-screen setup then kodi is a worse choice than just using a command line player. (Unless you want the media library, appearantly some people like it).
Using Kodi on an RPi, works pretty nice - especially the integration with lirc (IR-control).
What drove you to the impression that you need plugins (except the ones that comes bundled - not that a non-coder should notice those) to use kodi for local files?
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Tuesday August 14 2018, @05:01PM (1 child)
The fact that I could find no way to play a local file using Kodi. If it's there, somewhere, it is very well hidden. Searching the Internet on how to play local files using Kodi, I found some instructions involving a plug-in. It may or may not have been the built-in plug-in that you mentioned; I don't remember. Even if it was, a media player that requires a plug-in to play media is not exactly a media player, is it?
For those asking what version I have (which in itself is not very encouraging; if you need to know the version of your media player, in order to play media, something is definitely wrong), I have version 17.6, the version that comes with Raspbian
In any case, given the other answers to my comment, I don't think that Kodi is for me.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:11PM
Thanks for the answer - I suspected a wonky guide was involved somewhere.
The bundled plugins are stuff like the skin and a media library functions (those pure eyecandy that can be ignored, mainly for the sake of importing nfo-files) - so only the skin (which is what would be called "the UI" in other programs) needs to be involved (of the plugins) for playing local files.
I have a suspicion you ended up with a guide how to set up the media library (and that one is a PITA to deal with), if you encountered the word "scraper" it was such a guide.
Regarding the "the file not included in the directory" complaint. I added "root directory" on my first run, so my entire fs was included in the directory (not using the media library has major advantages).
Well, Gotham was back when it was called XBMC. Quite frankly all media players I use now (including mplayer and VLC) was very different experiences when I started using them compared to how they are now.
But yes, I agree the player isn't for you (at the current intended usage). You seem to expect a computer-style media player rather than a home theatre media player and in that case Kodi is just about the worst mismatch possible outside of touchscreen interfaces (which Leia (18.x) aims to handle as well - so it gets progressivly an even worse match for you).