So, here we are, back in the room after a day of sidebar meetings, coding, hacking, experimenting, and general conferencing. Time for some more structured sessions, starting with some of our partner projects.
Chewitt started us off with an overview of LibreELEC: hardware updates and changes, new chip set support, some challenges with older SoCs, plans for standardising e.g. kernel trees more, and so on. He also covered topics such as the challenges around supporting set-top box DVB tuners, plus deprecated video drivers and implications for users. Beyond that, the project is healthy, with a broadly stable user base and positive finances.
Keeping with third-party projects, Flole next gave a brief update on Tvheadend, mostly around development status, plans for a new interface, CI/build process, and a few others.
(As an aside, both projects have recently celebrated milestone anniversaries: LibreELEC is ten years old, and Tvheadend has just passed 20. Happy birthday to both projects!).
And to collect the set, samnazarko then took the floor to talk about OSMC. As a turnkey, commercial consumer device, things are going well, although there’s pressure from RAM prices as you’d probably expect. He talked about the challenges around TV-led playback versus player-led (basically, where’s the decoding being done), and took a long detour through HDR technologies, colour spaces and tone mapping.
Next up, sarbes spoke about upcoming UI changes, mostly in the sense of textures and component rendering. These will deliver significant performance gains on low-end and embedded devices, and anything using a heavier, multi-layer skin.
razzee then took us through some website updates. These aren’t really user-facing, but shouldd give us some performance benefits as well as security improvements: library updates, a new framework, and updates to the CMS itself. We also discussed future options and suggestions for the site.
This conversation segued into blog/website workflow, how we could streamline that or open it up to more contributions, and how our AI tools could perhaps help with some contect-aware automation..
Juddering towards the end of the conference, jernej talked us through Linux colour APIs, which expose hardware capabilities to help with HDR on this OS.
And that’s about it. Thanks to everyone for attending, and, equally, thanks to everyone reading this for the support. You are the people who make Kodi what it is.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DevCon-2026-Barcelona-Revisited-Part-II.webp.webp.webp10801919Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2026-04-04 22:38:232026-04-04 22:38:23DevCon 2026 – Barcelona Revisited – Part II
Announcing the release of Kodi 22 “Piers” Alpha 3!
Usual words – the step from 21 to 22 is a major release, but it’s also an Alpha at this stage, so you’re going to get some bugs as well as funky new features. That is, of course, a major part of the point of early release software: please raise Github issues with full debug logs to help us resolve any regressions you wonderful testers come across.
Okay, what’s new in this version?
Changelog
Release highlights
Added support for taglines in TV shows
Added support for H264 AVCC subtitles
Added support for full IANA language tags
Added JSON RPC methods “Player.GetChapters” and “Player.OnPropertyChanged”
Upgraded FFmpeg to v8.0.1
Upgraded Python to v3.14.3
Changed MySQL/MariaDB charset to utf8mb4 and collation to general_ci (case insensitive)
Video
Improved Blu-ray support for both menus and playback
Improved TV show episode handling for blu-ray
Improved changing chapters in movies
Improved seeking during tempo change
Audio
Changed default samplerate from 44.1kHz to 48kHz
Fixed missing 200ms of audio at the start of video playback
Fixed occasional missing audio when changing playback speed
Fixed AC3 audio duration being incorrect for non-48KHz content
Improved handling of low-latency audio
Subtitles
Fixed handling of WebVTT (ISOBMFF) subtitles
Fixed PGS/VobSub subtitle selection for foreign audio tracks
Fixed crash when handling some BCP47 language tags added in Alpha 2
Library
Improved tagline handling for movies and TV shows
Games
Added N64 support using software rendering
Improved shader support
Fixed Black screen for games with unaligned textures
Fixed crash when changing resolution
Streaming and network
Fixed playback of tcp:// streams
Fixed media info display for strm:// streams
Fixed occasional errors resuming UPnP playback
Stacks and compressed archives
Added support for folder stacks, useful for DVD/Bluray folders
Improved playback of folder stacks
Improved handling media inside compressed archives
Fixed handling of zip files greater than 4GB
Profiles
Improved creating profiles in custom folders
Fixed deadlock when viewing Weather with multiple profiles
Highlighted current profile in profile selection dialog
Platforms
Android
Fixed Auto Frame Rate (AFR) when resuming from standby
Improved handling of Dolby Vision L5 metadata
Improved handling of foreign subtitles
webOS Video
General improvements for Dolby Vision support
Improved handling of Dolby Vision L5 metadata
Fixed tempo control
webOS Audio
Improved audio passthrough support
Improved volume handling in non-passthrough mode
Improved Dolby Digital audio when using eARC
Fixed AAC playback on some older versions of webOS
Windows
Added front-to-back rendering
Changed default audio output to XAUDIO and WASAPI
Fixed Kodi unable to run on Windows 8.1
Linux
Improved power management for systems without logind
Extended range of keyboard keys and remote buttons
Fixed long-pressing keyboard keys on Wayland
FreeBSD
Extract to disk instead of RAM for large compressed archives
A little love for developers and security researchers
(For researchers) Dropped some unused code that kept tripping CVEs
(For developers) New KodiAI app on GitHub
(For developers) Added support for Visual Studio 2026
(For developers) Improved compatibility with C++23
(For developers) Added meson support for building dependencies
Known Issues
Kodi is incompatible with MySQL 9.6 (‘sets’ is now a reserved keyword). A fix will be devised for the next v22 prerelease.
Blu-ray stream details aren’t saved in the library
Builds
If cutting-edge software is your thing, you can get Alpha 3 from here. Select your platform of choice, and look in the “Prerelease” section. Again, though, please: expect some breakage, don’t use this as your daily installation unless you know how to get things working again, and please share your experiences back with us so we can really get going on those bugs. And take a backup first!
As usual, in the full spirit of open source, you can see what’s changed since Alpha 2 here and from v21.3 here.
UPDATE 15 Jan 18:00 UTC: The hosting provider has fixed some faulty RAM in one of the systems, and also resolved an issue in network configuration. Normality has now been resumed; thank you for your patience.
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UPDATE 13 Jan 19:00 UTC: The servers didn’t come back up for some reason – we’ve tried a few things, but that didn’t work so we’re now working with the hosting provider to resolve this. We don’t yet have any timeline for resolution.
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We don’t do this very often, but, sometimes, life happens, and it’s only fair to forewarn you.
We’ve been notified by one of our hosting providers of scheduled maintenance that will take our mirror servers off air for a while. During this window, you will not have access to downloads of anything we host – so, basically any new downloads of the Kodi application and add-ons. Kodi itself will remain available where it’s hosted in a third-party repository (e.g. an app store).
The window for this maintenance is:
Monday, January 12 2026, between 10AM and 6PM PST – so 18:00 12 January to 06:00 13 January UTC.
We’ll obviously bring everything back on line as soon as we can, but assume no access within these hours. If you have to try installing anything, be aware that it will error and none of the admins will be able to check what’s happening either. Please, just ignore any errors on launch for now, and wait until the mirrors all come back and synchronise.
Well, hello everyone! It’s that time of year again, when your favourite development team rouse themselves from their long winter slumber and emerge, blinking in the light, to reconnect with their fellow creatures. Welcome to DevCon 2026!
We’re coming to you this year from about an hour outside Barcelona, which makes this a return visit. Not that it matters, I guess; you probably know how this works by now, so let’s get straight in …
As seems to be tradition now, we kicked off with a round of reminiscences – how long people have been team members, how they first got involved in Kodi, and past DevCon glories. Hey, don’t judge, we don’t get to see each other very often.
keith then gave a quick board/financial overview. The Kodi project remains firmly solvent, although we do get far less money from donations and sponsorships than once was the case. DevCon is our largest single expense, so we’ll almost certainly skip 2027 to make sure we can invest in hardware, hosting, Weblate, trademark fees and similar.
Speaking of trademarks, we’ve been working through many years of Foundation legacy, tidying up loose ends. It’s all long overdue, but there’s a chunk of legal and government costs there that we still need to incur.
We then moved onto a conversation about AI tools, options on the market, and their value – both relative costs and how they might work within the extended Kodi development ecosystem.
Next up, GSoC 2027 – how much do we want to participate, who might mentor, what potential projects.
razze then picked up a theme we’ve been watching for a couple of years now – the viability of moving from Slack to [matrix] as the latter continues to mature. One of the biggest challenges is the inability to migrate channel histories. As such, we’ll quite probably stay where we are unless we have some more compelling reason to make the switch.
Sticking with razze, we then switched direction to Flatpak and how that’s shaping up for future releases. We have some challenges about packaging add-ons, the resultant size of any downloads and what options we might have there.
Rewinding slightly, keith next lead a conversation about our existing use of AI, and our KodiAI tool. This is a home-grown capability that came about to get around the restrictions of mainstream tools, although it still uses those tools behind the scenes. We’re currently using this for PR code reviews and issues, but we also talked about future possibilities and where we might go next. We may well come back to this for a bit of a deeper dive over the next couple of days if time allows.
Moving on, garbear took the floor to update everyone on progress with Retro player and peripheral/accessory support. Those updates include multi-disc support to emulated games that came on more than one CD – effectively, a playlist. He also covered further work on video filters – a long-standing “coming soon” feature formerly known as shaders – and how they can be used to alter the appearance of a game in realtime.
While he was up, garbear then moved on to release management: some of the challenges we have with the 21.x series due to Android API bumps, and some of the plans for the release of 22.x alpha to beta to release.
Next up, yol took us through some server topics, specifically around current OS versions, implications and options.
A quick segue into upcoming conferences, events and similar, and we’re pretty much done for the night.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DevCon-2026-Barcelona-Revisited-Part-I.webp.webp.webp10802133Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2026-04-03 16:35:562026-04-03 16:35:56DevCon 2026 – Barcelona Revisited – Part I
Alive GR Kodi Add-On – Current Status, Developer Statement, and Best Alternatives
Alive GR Kodi Add-On – Current Status, Developer Statement, and Future Possibilities
The Alive GR Kodi add-on, often searched as alive gr kodi, alive kodi, greek kodi, or kodi greek add-on, was once one of the most important Greek add-ons available for Kodi. For many Greek Kodi users, AliveGR became the default choice for accessing Greek live TV and other Greek-language content.
Today, however, Alive GR Kodi is no longer working properly, and its future remains uncertain. The original developer, Twilight0, has publicly acknowledged the situation and has shared his thoughts regarding a possible revival — not as a Kodi add-on, but as something different.
What Was Alive GR Kodi?
Alive GR (also known as Alive Kodi) was an unofficial Greek Kodi add-on that gathered Greek content into one place. It gained popularity because it reduced the need to install multiple add-ons for Greek media.
At its peak, Alive GR Kodi provided access to:
Greek live TV streams
Greek movies and TV series
Radio stations
Other Greek multimedia sources
Because of this, it became one of the most recognizable Kodi Greek add-ons.
Who Developed Alive GR Kodi?
Alive GR Kodi was developed and maintained by Twilight0, a Greek developer who hosted the project on GitHub:
This GitHub account contained the add-on’s source code and repository files. For a long period, this was the official distribution and update channel for Alive GR Kodi.
Why Alive GR Kodi Is Not Working
The main reason Alive GR Kodi no longer works is simple: it is no longer actively maintained.
Kodi add-ons that rely on external sources require constant updates. When maintenance stops:
Stream sources change or disappear
Repositories fail to connect
Add-ons stop installing or stop functioning
This is exactly what has happened with Alive GR Kodi.
Developer Statement: Possible Revival as a Cross-Platform App
In July 2025, Twilight0 publicly addressed the future of AliveGR on his Twitter (X) account (@TwilightZer0). Instead of announcing a return of the Kodi add-on, he shared that he was considering a completely different direction.
Screenshot
According to his statement:
He is thinking about reviving AliveGR as a cross-platform app
He already has the technical tools to do so
The project would require significant time and resources
He stated that this could involve quitting one of his jobs
Because of this, he mentioned the need for funding, possibly through a GoFundMe campaign
He also clarified that:
The app would be free to use
It would likely include ads, possibly as a small banner
A public poll was shared alongside this statement, showing mixed community interest.
Current Status According to the Developer
Following questions from users in later months, Twilight0 confirmed that:
There is no active development yet
The project remains in the planning phase
He will announce any updates publicly if and when they happen
This confirms that:
There is no active revival of Alive GR Kodi
There is no working replacement app at this time
There is no confirmed release date or roadmap
Kodi Add-On Issues Reported by Users
In replies to the developer’s posts, users reported that:
AliveGR Kodi repositories could not be reached
“AliveGr Play” failed to install
Live TV streams were not working
Manual installation was required but unreliable
These reports align with what most users experience today when attempting to use Alive GR Kodi.
What This Means for Greek Kodi Users
For users searching for alive gr kodi or kodi greek add-on, the current reality is:
The original Kodi add-on does not work reliably
The GitHub repositories are inactive
There is no maintained Kodi version
Any future revival would likely be outside Kodi
Until a new solution is officially released — if ever — Alive GR Kodi should be considered discontinued.
Reports of a Temporary Workaround
There have also been isolated reports from the Kodi community suggesting that Alive GR Kodi was made to work temporarily by a user located in Australia. According to these reports, the add-on functioned after manual intervention and adjustments, rather than through the original repository or an official update.
It’s important to clarify that:
This was not an official fix
It did not come from the original developer
It does not represent a stable or long-term solution
It is mentioned as a paid assistance service
These cases appear to be individual technical workarounds, rather than a true revival of the Alive GR Kodi add-on. As such, they do not change the overall status of Alive GR Kodi as an unmaintained and unreliable add-on for most users.
Greek Content via the Bugatsinho Repository
While there is no direct replacement for Alive GR Kodi, some Greek Kodi users turn to other active repositories that still provide Greek-related content. One such example is the Bugatsinho repository, which is actively maintained and includes add-ons that may offer Greek media depending on availability.
Unlike abandoned repositories, Bugatsinho’s repo remains online and maintained, making it a more reliable option for users looking for working Kodi add-ons. However, it is important to note that it is not an Alive GR successor, nor does it aim to fully replicate AliveGR’s functionality. The availability of Greek content may vary over time, depending on the add-ons and sources included.
Why Greek Kodi Add-Ons Often Stop Working
This situation is not unique to Alive GR. Many Greek Kodi add-ons stop working because:
They depend on third-party websites
Streaming sources change frequently
Development is handled by one person
Long-term maintenance becomes unsustainable
Without continuous updates, even popular add-ons eventually fail.
Final Thoughts
Alive GR Kodi was one of the most influential Greek Kodi add-ons ever created. However, today:
It is not actively maintained
It does not function properly
The developer has shifted focus to a potential future app, still only in planning
Unless something changes, Alive GR Kodi remains part of Kodi history rather than a usable solution.
For now, Greek Kodi users should be cautious of outdated repositories claiming to offer “working” Alive GR versions, as these are not official.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/watch-all-the-greek-tv-live-channels-with-alivegr-iptv-kodi-addon-by-twilight0-youtube-thumbnail.jpg480640Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2026-01-06 12:26:312026-01-06 12:26:34Alive GR Kodi Add-On Status: Why It No Longer Works & Best Alternatives
It is the season for giving, so, for those who want the latest and greatest, this is for you: hot on the heels of Kodi 22 “Piers” Alpha 1 (and Kodi 21.3 “Omega”), we present the perhaps predictably-titled Alpha 2.
Usual words – the step from 21 to 22 is a major release, but it’s also an Alpha at this stage, so you’re going to get some bugs as well as funky new features. That is, of course, a major part of the point of early release software: please raise GitHub issues with full debug logs to help us resolve any regressions you wonderful testers come across.
Okay, what’s new in this version?
Video/audio
Upgraded to FFmpeg 8
Added HEIF/HEIC support
Fixed playing streams with more than 256 audio+video+subtitles tracks
Improved audio channel handling
Improved subtitle selection for “forced_only” subtitles
Library/Sources and Management
Added Season Plot
Added Movie/TV Show Original Language
Fixed bug in Alpha 1 where scanning fails if local NFO files are present
Improved Video Version importing
PVR
Fixed Daylight Saving Time switching issues
Weather
New Weather Skinning API
Various fixes and improvements for the Home widget and Weather window
Python
Upgraded to Python 3.13.7
Added ability to set available fanart
Platforms
Windows
Multiple Kodi instances can now be run simultaneously
Android
New dialog explaining microphone permission
macOS
Fixed high CPU usage in the background
LG webOS
Improvements for new Media Pipeline
Fixed very bright subtitles and GUI when playing HDR / DolbyVision content
Fixed subtitles sometimes not displaying
If cutting-edge software is your thing, you can get Alpha 2 from here. Select your platform of choice, and look in the “Prerelease” section. Again, though, please: expect some breakage, don’t use this as your daily installation unless you know how to get things working again, and please share your experiences back with us so we can really get going on those bugs. And take a backup first!
As usual, in the full spirit of open source, you can see what’s changed since Alpha 1 here and from v21.3 here.
The more observant of you will have noticed that we’ve had some issues getting this version out to everyone, so some of you will have received this already depending on what channel you use (Flatpak, Google Play, winget community repos…). No matter, it’s here for everyone now.
While work is well underway on our next major release, with Alphas already out for Kodi 22.x “Piers”, this doesn’t mean we’ve given up on 21.x “Omega”, as that’s very much still our current release. So, with minimal fanfare, we present to you a package of changes, bug fixes and backports that we like to call Kodi 21.3 “Omega”. Full changelog from 21.2 here.
Release Summary
Major user-facing changes include:
Video
Added HDR support on Xbox One
Fixed Blu-ray playback on Linux
Fixed audio/subtitle issues when resuming Blu-rays
Fixed handling of HDR10 light metadata changes
Fixed subtitle selection for ISO 639-1 (two-letter) language codes
Library/Sources and Management
Improved speed of video library rescans
Fixed multi-episode files overwriting the first episode
Fixed info dialog for certain Movie Versions
Fixed some false positives detecting Movie Versions
Music
Fixed CDDB lookups using Gnudb.org’s CDDB API
Fixed album search failing for artist names
Audio
Fixed rare Pipewire crash when connecting/removing audio devices
PVR
Fixed crash when a PVR stream is stopped via remote app
Peripherals
Added support for Turkish keyboards on Linux
Fixed enabling and disabling Pulse-Eight CEC adapters
Fixed the Delete and Alternative Insert keys on macOS
Fixed minor visual glitches when managing peripherals
Addons
Fixed updating add-ons after 25 days of inactivity (extended to ~68 years)
Skin/GUI
Fixed busy dialog crash when multiple dialogs are opened
Fixed suspend dialog remaining open after the system wakes up
Improved touch support for slider dialog arrows
Network
Added support for HTTP Basic Authentication
Fixed some network streams failing due to interrupted HTTP/2 transfers
Updated libnfs to v6 for embedded platforms
Updated CA certificates to 2025-07-15 from the Mozilla CA certificate store
I know we always say this, but, genuinely – sincere thanks go out to everyone who’s helped to identify, isolate or fix any issues. If you know of anything that’s still irking you, please, post in the forums, or raise an issue on Github, as we can’t fix what we don’t know about.
As this is a point release, there are no major changes since the previous version, and you should be fine to install this straight over the top of any existing Kodi 21.x installation – indeed, this will happen automatically on many platforms. However, as for all software installations, back up your userdata beforehand if you’ve any doubts or have anything you can’t afford to lose (and definitely do this if you’re going for a major version upgrade).
A list of all changes for this version can be found at GitHub. If you want to read back on the full history of v21 itself, or of previous versions, you can find the corresponding articles in the relevant blog posts.
Application deployment on different platforms (notably the Microsoft Store) can vary considerably due to circumstances outside of our control, so just be patient, and the update will inevitably find its way through.
Windows Store/Android Deployment
Due to the internal and external hoops we need to jump through, it might be a little while before the update appears for you, and that’s before our usual staged approach to deployment. Sit tight, and it will be with you in due course (maybe the next week or two).
🎄 Best Streaming Devices to Buy or Gift for Christmas 2025 (Ultimate Guide)
If you’re looking for the best streaming devices to buy in 2025 — whether for yourself or as the perfect Christmas gift — this guide covers the top options across Apple, Android TV, Google TV, and budget streaming sticks. Below you’ll find optimized comparisons, clear recommendations, and affiliate-link slots ready for you to paste into your blog.
🎯 Best Streaming Device for Apple Users (2025)
Apple TV 4K — The Best Streaming Device for the Apple Ecosystem
If you’re deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, Mac, HomePod, HomeKit), the Apple TV 4K remains the most premium and polished streaming device available in 2025.
⭐ Why Apple TV 4K Stands Out
Industry-leading 4K HDR, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision support
Stunning audio with Dolby Atmos
Ultra-fast performance thanks to Apple Silicon
Clean, ad-free interface (tvOS)
Perfect integration with AirPlay, Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud Photos, and HomeKit
👤 Who Should Buy It
Apple users wanting the smoothest, most secure, most reliable streaming experience
People gifting to Apple fans for Christmas
Anyone who wants a premium, long-lasting device with constant updates
⚠️ Drawbacks
More expensive than most Android TV devices
Best value is unlocked only if you already use multiple Apple services
Android TV and Google TV devices offer unmatched flexibility, app compatibility, and price options — perfect for Android users or anyone wanting an affordable tech gift for Christmas.
1) NVIDIA Shield TV — Best Overall Android TV Streaming Device (2025)
If you want the most powerful, most future-proof 4K streaming device, the NVIDIA Shield TV is the #1 choice.
⭐ Why It’s the Best
Supports 4K HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos
AI-powered upscaling makes HD content look close to 4K
Flawless performance for apps like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube
Can act as a Plex server or local media hub
Supports gaming through GeForce Now and Android games
🎁 How to Choose the Best Streaming Device for Christmas 2025
Here’s a fast comparison to help readers decide:
Your Priority / Use Case
Best Streaming Device
You use iPhone / iPad / Mac / HomeKit
Apple TV 4K
You want maximum performance and future-proof hardware
NVIDIA Shield TV
You need a cheap but reliable streaming box
Xiaomi TV Box S 4K
You want something easy and ultra-affordable
ONN Android TV UHD
You want the best smart-home integration
Apple TV (Apple HomeKit) or Google TV Streamer 4K / FireTV
🎄 Final Thoughts: Best Streaming Gifts for Christmas 2025
Streaming devices are among the best tech gifts for Christmas — affordable, universally useful, and compatible with any modern TV. Whether you want the premium Apple experience, the raw power of NVIDIA Shield, or the budget-friendly Xiaomi box, this guide gives you everything you need to choose the right device.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/0683db72-d152-4cbe-81e5-6d3f04e14abf.jpg10241536Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2025-12-09 17:22:192025-12-09 17:22:21Best Streaming Devices to Buy in 2025 – Apple TV 4K vs NVIDIA Shield TV & Top Android Boxes (Christmas Gift Guide)
So, here we go once again – development (and developers) never actually sleep, so we’re pleased to present the first public preview of our next significant release: Kodi v22, “Piers”.
This is a major release, so, as you’d expect, it comes with many new features. However, it is also an Alpha release, so there’s a very good chance that something won’t work the way it’s intended to. As such, please be aware that installing this will most likely break things, which is kind of the point of releasing it: please raise Github issues with full debug logs to help us resolve any regressions you wonderful testers come across.
So, all that aside… what’s actually changed?
Video/audio
Upgraded to FFmpeg 7
Audio book chapter support
Movie Versions/Extras full redesign
Movie Sets support setting info and artwork
Better stream selection
Automatic cleaning of cached images/artwork
Blu-ray multi-episode support
New Blu-ray episode selection menu
Blu-ray episodes now have their own progress, media info and artwork
Library import/export now handles Blu-ray episodes
Episode ranges are now supported and shown in the library
Movie Versions/Extras are now supported for Blu-ray discs
PVR
New Recently Added Channels (plus new widget)
New Providers window (requires skin support)
New Custom Timers
Improved channel groups
Improved saved searches
Improved recording functionality
Improved EPG search
1-minute EPG resolution (requires skin support)
Games
Shader support (from Google Summer of Code 2017/2019)
Improved mouse and keyboard support
GUI
Reduced memory usage for single- and dual-channel textures
Improved performance and memory usage on OpenGL and OpenGLES
Improved large texture image quality with better performance on slow devices
Implemented front-to-back rendering for better performance (OpenGL(ES) only)
Network
Improved SMB GUI settings
Support for SMBv2.0 devices lacking SMBv2.1 features such as “large MTU”
Fixed connecting to Windows SMB servers with no password
Drastically improved performance at listing large SMB directories
Platforms
Windows/Xbox
Initial Windows ARM64 desktop support
Python 3.13 on Windows/Xbox
Enabled XAudio2 sink for Windows desktop (was previously only on Xbox)
Enhanced Video Super Resolution feature with 10-bit SDR support (Intel and Nvidia) and HDR10 (Nvidia)
Android
Enabled file sharing to other apps and players
Improved channels on the home page
Upgraded to Android 15
Minimum Android version is now 7.0
Android support for 16KB page size
LG webOS
New unified media pipeline
Linux
HDR passthrough on OpenGL (was previously only on OpenGLES)
Support for the Wayland Color Management protocol, therefor supporting HDR on Wayland with compatible compositors
Scanning for new content will fail if local NFO files are present (fixed for Alpha 2)
Filesystems that use milliseconds can trigger a rescan
If you love life on the bleeding edge of new, you can get Alpha 1 from here. Select your platform of choice, and look in the “Prerelease” section. Again, though, please: expect some breakage, don’t use this as your daily installation unless you know how to get things working again, and please share your experiences back with us so we can really get going on those bugs. And take a backup first!
As usual, in the full spirit of open source, you can see what’s changed since v21.2 here.
<tap, tap, tap> – Is this thing on? Yes, it is, and so it’s time to once again introduce the highlight of the Kodi year – friends and fellow travellers, welcome to DevCon 2025!
This year we’re coming to you from Tirana in Albania (or Tiranë in Shqipëri in the local language†). A country that, I suspect, most people know little about, Albania has a long and … bumpy history, mostly involving other countries and some less-than-friendly regimes: Romans (both western Roman and eastern Byzantine), Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians, Italians, from imperial territory to independence, from international engagement to isolationist communism to modern democracy. Sitting astride both the Aegean and Ionic seas, the country now embraces the promise of full modernity and EU membership as it strives to turn its back on the darker chapters of recent history and take its rightful place in Europe.
As in previous years, we’re going to aim to do a daily update (content-dependent), so let’s see how it goes. Without further ado, then, let’s get straight into it with Day One.
We began with round-table introductions and a typical retrospective: reminiscences for older heads, background for newer ones. We’re coming up to a quarter of a century of XBMC/Kodi, and, as you’d expect, there’s now a significant story of how we got to where we are, and some of the main contributors and contributions along the way.
We continued with an update on the Foundation’s financial position from keithah. We’ve always been very transparent that we’re not a wealthy project, and we’ve never actively pursued financial gain for either Foundation or individuals. That hasn’t changed, although money is gradually getting tighter as e.g. major sponsors fall away, with limited opportunity to replace them in the current climate. We remain solvent, and can both pay our bills and invest in development hardware, server infrastructure and, yes, this conference, but we do need to generate new and more regular income to make sure that remains the case. In terms of priority, then, we wait to see if this is the last DevCon for a while.
Next up, we had a readout on the experience of our most recent release manager, garbear. Getting Kodi tagged, packaged and released on multiple platforms is a significant undertaking, so even point releases involve a good chunk of work. Even apparently minor changes involve merging new translations, for example, plus there are inevitable rule/eligibility checks on software stores and similar. Indeed, our most recent “Omega” 21.2 release actually included a complete update to the entire add-on ecosystem precisely because of translation issues, which means 100+ separate components needed to be built and released alongside the core Kodi application. Even that caused further ripple effects: we needed to update binary add-ons as well, which then, in turn, caused problems for existing 21.1 installations. This led straight into a more practical conversation, with garbear joined primarily by martijn, yol and lrusak to talk about how we could improve things: APIs, ABIs, links, scripts, dependencies, redistributables, SDKs, implications for different platforms – and, yes, much, much more about translations. Releasing new versions of Kodi is most certainly not a trivial task!
This conversation then segued into a long debate about build systems, and the complexity that Kodi brings: there are few, if any, multi-platform applications that use the same code base on quite so many target operating systems. If you think about most other applications that might be available on multiple platforms, the chances are that they use completely different code bases that are then built on specific tools to produce applications that might look similar, and might behave similarly, but are actually very different. Alternatively, you have very many applications that are basically web pages, rendered in a platform-specific wrapper – these can deliver a very consistent experience and rich multimedia, but in a very different way. Kodi doesn’t work like that: it’s a huge amount of C++ and other code that’s custom built to be as consistent as possible across platforms, and, while that resolves very many issues, it also creates some others at the bundling stage on some platforms.
A change of direction next: 78andyp joined to talk us through his recent work – and further plans – around Blu-ray support in Kodi. Currently, Kodi supports three disc playback modes: Kodi can show the Blu-ray menu, with all the navigation overhead; you can ask to play the main movie, and Kodi will just take a guess and play the longest media item on the disc, which may or may not be what you want; or you can go into file view, and wander around until you find that the main movie is labelled as item 636 out of a list of … well, lots. This is obviously all less than ideal, with further implications depending on whether it’s a multi-version disc, an episodic series disc, whether there are extras, and so on. Add to this the complexities of ISO versus physical disc, “playlists” with multiple episodes, or initial scraping versus play-time, and there’s clearly more to be done – and that’s the gauntlet picked up by 78andyp: to make playing a Blu-ray in Kodi as straightforward as playing a media file. This is very much a work-in-progress, but there’s a current 3,000-line pull request that aims to at least start this journey, addressing the simple file view for episodes at play-time. And, like so many things, this process is unveiling other side-quests on the way, ranging from NFO support through ranged episodes to library handling – for both Blu-rays and, potentially, DVDs. There’s clearly huge potential for much more to come, so watch this space, shiny disc fans!
(There was a sidebar conversation during this presentation in which ksooo raised some very valid questions about vision and the natural constraints on Kodi: what are the design principles we are using that ultimately drive what should and shouldn’t be included in Kodi versus, say, a media manager, and thus what are the dialogue boxes or other user interactions that are acceptable? Similarly, how effective could a heuristic be, when will it need user intervention, and what should that intervention look like? Does it need some external “priming”, or metadata information?).
And that’s it for Day One – it’s late, and dinner calls. We’ll be back tomorrow with more, so please, join us then!
† Fun fact: Albanian is the only surviving member of the Albanoid group of languages, and so stands alone, with no direct modern relatives. It’s the official language of Albania and Kosovo, one of the official languages in North Macedonia and Montenegro, and a widespread minority language in Italy, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Greece. Add in the Albanian diaspora across the Americas, Europe and Oceania, and there are three or four times more native speakers worldwide than there are inhabitants of modern Albania – including singers Dua Lipa and Rita Ora.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/DevCon-2025-Tirana-Part-I.webp.webp.webp23044096Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2025-08-18 08:21:342025-08-18 08:21:34DevCon 2025 – Tirana – Part I
