When we launched 18.7 across all platforms a couple of weeks ago, it became apparent that there were some problems on Android that wouldn’t wait until a future point release to be fixed. These issues – regressions, specifically around micro-stutter and discontinuities on multi-chapter streams – came about because we’d re-introduced MediaCodec JNI over MediaCodec NDK to address scaling/aspect ratio issues that people were seeing on AFTV devices.
As such, we immediately paused deployment through Google Play while we sorted things out. We fixed those in an 18.7.1 interim release, which we rolled out through the Android Play beta channel. However, this immediately revealed new problems: automatic feedback showed program exceptions when playing DRM-protected streams on incapable devices (due to the devices’ DRM security level).
To avoid segfaults, and thus Kodi termination, we again halted the beta rollout, and went back to work. We’ve now updated the code to handle exceptions identically to the previous NDK, but we’ve also fixed the aspect ratio issues we were seeing on AFTV – hopefully, the best of both worlds.
So, with that done, we can start the roll-out once more with a new version of Kodi 18.7 just for Android (internally marked as 18.7.200). This will initially be rolled out on the Play store beta channel, and then – assuming no other glitches trip us up – it will then become the official, final “mass market” 18.7 for Android. It has no impact on other platforms.
The beta APK is rolling out now, so should be pushed to registered beta testers. All going well, we’ll then release it to a broader audience in due course with a general Play update, and it will, of course, also be available for download directly from the Kodi website.
If you’re interested in helping us to make the best media centre software there is, you can sign up to the beta programme here.
LibreELEC 9.2.3 (Leia) the final version has arrived based upon Kodi v18.7.1.
Changes since 9.2.1/9.2.2:
improvements for the RPi
several minor updates
Kodi 18.7.1
Change for Raspberry 4:
With LE 9.2 and later you need to add “hdmi_enable_4kp60=1“ to your config.txt if you want to use 4k output at the RPi4. Before you needed “hdmi_enable_4k=1“ that is now deprecated.
Raspberry 4:
It would be nice to have the 4B running the latest mainline kernel as other devices in LibreELEC 9.2, but adding support for an all-newSoC chipset is a huge effort and the Pi Foundation needed to align initial 4B software with the current Raspbian release to maximise compatibility with existing software and to keep the workload sensible. Generic x86/64 devices are running Linux 5.1, while Raspberry Pi devices (0/1/2/3/4) are using Linux 4.19 with some new/extra code.
In this initial release 1080p playback behaviour and performance on the 4B are broadly on-par with the previous 3B/3B+ model, except for HEVC media which is now hardware decoded and massively improved. New 4K video capabilities still have plenty of rough edges to be smoothed out, but the Pi Foundation developers have been pushing fixes to the test team at a phenomenal rate over the last month and that will continue as the userbase expands.
The 4B now uses SPI flash for the bootloader. Current firmware supports SD card boot only – Network and USB booting are still on the Pi Foundation to-do list. Also on the list is HBR audio (current audio capabilities are the same as the 3B) and 3D video. The 4B hardware is HDR capable, but software support has a dependency on the new Linux kernel frameworks merged by Intel developers (with help from Team LibreELEC/Kodi) in Linux 5.2 and a kernel bump will be needed to use them. Once the initial excitement and activity from the 4B launch calms down, serious work on HDR and transitioning Raspberry Pi over to the new GBM/V4L2 video pipeline can start.
Rockchip:
Our Rockchip releases remain in an state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 5.x kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.
Amlogic
Our original goal was to announce Allwinner and Amlogic images alongside Rockchip as part of the LibreELEC 9.2 release, but while overall readiness has greatly improved in recent months – each has specific technical challenges to overcome before they meet our basic critera for a public release. On the human side of the project several maintainers also have reduced availability for support due to work and family commitments. Combining these factors together, the team felt it was better to be patient and not rush releases.
So instead of releasing LibreELEC 9.2 stable images, we are announcing the start of official nightly images from our master development branch.
If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.
Upgrading
On first boot the Kodi media database will be upgraded. Depending on your hardware and media collection size this could take several minutes. Please be patient.
TV Zion v4.1.1 is out and fixes some minor bugs as well as adds a new feature. For more on the changelog, check below. The has introduced an awesome, new look with the v4 UI so if you missed the app for a while, now it’s the best time to get it. It is among our list of the best streaming apps of 2020 because it delivers exactly what it promises.
What It This App About?
TV Zion APK v4.1.1 is a great Android app with a huge library and great video quality. TV Zion is really easy to use and works great on any Android device like an Android TV Box, Android smartphone or tablet, etc. You can also keep up with your favorite TV shows as episodes are updated every day. So don’t wait up, jump in, and watch free episodes and movies online with this great app.
Important – TVZion has been shutdown, it’s no longer working. Click here to read more.
How To Use TV Zion v4.1.1
TV Zion app uses a very simple user interface from which you can browse the different contents available inside the app. With awesome functions like Auto Play Next Episode just like Netflix and Resume From Last it is now even easier than ever to use. You can find all the movies sorted by categories and all the seasons and episodes of your favorite tv shows. You only need to select any of them and press the play button to start watching them within the app. And other than movies and tv shows, anime is also on the menu, therefore, if you’re a fan of Japanese animations, you’ll be delighted to use this application. Also, it supports all the most used services like Trakt.tv, Real Debrid, Premiumize, and external players as VLC and the best you can get in my opinion MX Player.
New Version v4.1.1
This is the latest version of TV Zion APK as of today and has been released on August 2019.
[Zionclub] [New] Link, Subtitle validation [Settings > Link validation].
Is It Safe?
Yes, the TV Zion app is safe to use app. But one thing to consider, when using this app as any streaming apk, is your online privacy. So you should always use a VPN to protect your identity and security when streaming free videos online. So if you consider protecting your internet identity and demand high-quality privacy, then protect your online presence with a trusted VPN service like IP Vanish or Private Internet Access. Both are paid services but guarantee your online anonymity without keeping logs or paid records!
Download TV Zion v4.1.1 APK
Select here in order to DOWNLOAD the app for Android devices.
You can also download TV Zion v4.1.1 from the TV Zion Official Filelinked Store, use code 57458882. For more Filelinked codes, check out our Best Filelinked Codes of 2020 list.
For more apps and downloads, visit the dedicated section of Dimitrology Downloads here.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TV-Zion-v4.1.1.jpg11421824Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2020-05-31 21:28:422020-12-15 18:41:18TV Zion v4.1.1 Better Than Ever For Movies & TV Shows
If you need the simple answer, that’s it. The main difference between HBO Go / Now and HBO Max is that although they cost the same price, HBO Max has more content! The new service, HBO Max went live on May 27. It now includes the legacy HBO content but also more content from the larger Warner Media world. What is strange is that both services will co-exist and to make things more complicated they are priced the same. HBO and HBO Max cost both $14.99 a month. But as mentioned above, HBO Max includes movies and tv shows from TBS, Cartoon Network, TNT, TruTV, CNN, Adult Swim, and even selected shows from Turner Classic Movies.
HBO Max Supported Devices
You can watch HBO Max on the following devices:
PC Windows 7 or newer
Android TV
Android phones and tablets with Android 5 or newer
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with iOS 12.2 or newer
Mac with macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) or newer
Google Chromebooks
Any web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
Samsung TVs (selected models only)
Apple TV 4 / 4K or newer
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Chromecast
AirPlay
What To Expect on HBO Max
As we mentioned above, HBO Max features everything from HBO Go / HBO Now and more. As Netflix and Amazon Prime Videos, HBO Max will have new movies every month. It also will feature HBO Originals like Westworld and Insecure. Some of the newest addition currently in May 2020 are: Legendary, Love Life, On The Record, Craftopia, Looney Tunes Cartoons and The Now Too Late Show With Elmo.
More To Come In 2020
HBO Max has also confirmed the following upcoming originals too:
The Flight Attendant, starring Kaley Cuoco
The Friends unscripted cast reunion
A new season of Search Party
Expecting Amy, with Amy Schumer
Raised by Wolves, Sci-Fi series from director Ridley Scott
Close Enough, comedy series
Adventure Time: Distant Lands, the first out of four Adventure Time specials.
To find out more on HBO Max, visit the platforms official website here: www.hbomax.com/.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/HBO-Max.jpg6961193Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2020-05-28 18:46:562020-05-28 18:46:59What’s the difference between HBO and HBO Max
You may have noticed that we’ve adopted a RERO approach to Kodi – release early, release often. Our aim is to fix problems more quickly, and then get those fixes out into the wild equally as quickly. This might mean some issues escape alongside the bug fixes, but, overall, it should mean better software, sooner, and without the disruption of a major version bump.
So, with no further fanfare: another release in the Kodi 18.x “Leia” cycle. The usual rules apply: bug fixes, not new features or functionality; most will be invisible, but will be much-appreciated if you’re been suffering from a problem we’ve managed to address.
You can find full details of closed pull requests on GitHub, so explore that if you want the details, but TL;DR…
Audio
Fix to not reset user-set volume (Android)
Fixes around multi-channel audio track support
Playback/Display
Fixes to Bluray subtitle language recognition
Fix playback of bus-encrypted bluray discs
Improved library handing for plugins if media source is removed
Use JNI instead of NDK for MediaCodec (Android)
Further work on maximum width and height/vertical-shift (Android)
Fixes around realtime handling of TS streams
Interface/Look-and-feel
Fix for watch icons not showing when content type is not set (Estouchy)
Fix navigation in skinsettings (Estuary)
Fix crash in favourites dialog
Apply safe area insets to Kodi GUI (iOS)
Fixes around focus after touch action
Improvements around dialog/toast handling
Fixed behaviour when accessing locked media sources
Music
Fixes around library handling of “isalbumartist” field
Fixes around expansion of .ISO images to avoid GUI freezes
Ensure album artist isn’t blanked out when scraping
Build System
Fix downloading dependencies from mirrors (Windows)
Library updates – bump gnutls (3.6.11.1) and nettle(3.5.1)
PVR
Fix EPG corruption when new channels are added during startup
Network
Improvements around handling of proxy credentials
Fix for proxy empty fields (proxy, username, password)
Addons–
Fix crash if an incompatible VFS addon is present
Fix display of title for compressed package directories
Fixes around addon settings folder naming
Subtitles
Fixes around decoding of HTML escape characters
Fix around SMI (SAMI) subtitles and quoted start tags
Profiles
Fixes for issues related to switching profile
Fixes to saving of lock preferences (master lock, lock video windows, etc.)
Other/General
Add “Swiss German” and “Portuguese (Brazil)” to language codes
Fix to guard against assert in tinyxml
Fix stack overflow when trying to find NFO files in a RAR file
Implement range checking in URIUtils::resolvePath
Implement support for extended local headers in ZIP files used by some scrapers
Thanks as ever to all who found a bug, reported it, helped isolate it and, in some cases, provided a fix.
The full Kodi 18.7 changelog can be found in our GitHub milestone. If you want to read back on what was actually changed in v18 itself, or in previous versions, you can find the corresponding articles in the relevant blog posts.
Application deployment on different platforms (notably, Google Play and the Microsoft Store) varies due to circumstances outside of our control. It may thus take a few more days to appear everywhere, so just stay tuned.
Update: because of the current global situation, and the resultant adjusted work schedules in many organisations, please be aware that we’re currently experiencing longer than usual review times before acceptance/publication. This is likely to delay full availability on curated app stores by seven days or more.
As most who read this will know well, Kodi is a free and open source media centre software application. It is created and supported by the group of unpaid volunteers known as Team Kodi, along with a large number of members of our very large and active user community. The software is freely available for anyone to download and use, and to fork and modify if they so desire. It is not a commercial product, and no money is gained from it, as it is not sold.
One important point of note is that whilst Team Kodi produces media centre software, one thing that we do not provide is actual media. We don’t make films, television channels or programmes, nor do we directly provide them as part of the software package that we distribute.
Similarly, we do not produce hardware – there is no “Kodi Box” that’s supplied by us. This is a key fact, as there are many third party hardware suppliers out there who do supply such boxes, which either come pre-loaded with Kodi on them or onto which it can be loaded by the end user.
To the uninitiated this may seem like a trivially small distinction, but it is actually a very important one. As noted, we make the software available to anyone who may wish to use it, and do so for free. But this does not mean that we are responsible for how those end users make use of the software, and how they may modify it when installed on their boxes. We have no commercial interest or stake in any such sale, nor do we receive any monies from any media player box sold anywhere.
Kodi also does not provide any media itself. Users must provide their own content or manually point Kodi to third party online services. The Kodi project does not provide any support for bootleg video content.
Unfortunately, some of these vendors are less than scrupulous, and modify the Kodi product with third party addons giving access to illegally supplied or otherwise-pirated media sources. Hence we wish to make it crystal clear that Team Kodi does not condone, support or benefit from any such usage or device. Indeed, through our official Foundation policies, we actively deny support for any such device on our community forums, and through our trademarks and other legal means will act against any vendor who falsely claims any such endorsement from us.
This has also, on numerous occasions, lead to false or misleading statements being made about both the Kodi software and also the team behind it. These have been from a range of sources, from sellers wishing to falsely claim association or endorsement from us to YouTube channels wishing to make a buck by offering “support” (usually involving 3rd party piracy addons) and, sadly, even from media outlets (both mainstream and technical) where a little basic research would yield the truth.
Our aim has always been to give our users the best media experience possible, and to ensure that, whilst they are free to use our software in any manner they wish, it is done with full knowledge and understanding of what they may be doing, enabling them to make responsible choices. Sadly some of these sellers, either deliberately or through ignorance, confuse the users as to what may be legal and what is not.
We do not support media piracy, we support the best media player possible for everyone and provide a media centre, not “free TV and movies”. In the past, out of our very scant resources, we have worked in cooperation with media companies on such matters to check illegal activities and we will continue to do so. We do not have resources to be involved in litigation, especially those in foreign jurisdictions. We are disappointed and reject the incorrect characterisation of Kodi, its software, or its volunteer community.
Licence:
Kodi is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later, with some individual source files distributed under additional other licences. Full details of these can be found here.
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Kodi-v18-Leia-Beta-4.jpg10801920Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2020-05-18 22:48:342020-05-23 18:01:34In Defence of Our Good Name
My Opinion About The SuperBox S1 PRO & Why I Will Never Review It
This is my opinion about the SuperBox S1 PRO since I got asked by a lot of you to share it with you. I got plenty of emails from various sellers in order to review this device and recommend it. And even if they give you crazy money if you “convince” people to buy it, I refused. I also refused to get one as a sample to review since they want to add their link in the video description.
Now, I am not saying that the SuperBox S1 Pro is a scam. At the end of the day you pay for it and it arrives. The issue is that it seems “shady”, or even illegal if they do not have the licenses which means they will be shut down at some point. Then you will be left with a cheap, outdated tv box and no service. Because let’s face the elephant in the room, if you buy this Superbox, you only do it for the live tv and movies, the Blue TV, and the Blue VOD apps that are included.
I am not biased quite the opposite I would love to make money. But not if the cost is to lose my credibility and your trust.
Also, I am very disappointed by some “reviewers” that recommend this device. It’s just a matter of time until this service shuts down and leaves all those people with a cheap box that is outdated.
I will never affiliate with a product I don’t believe in, even if I lose hundreds or as in this case thousands of revenue. Your trust has no price tag.
I want also to point out that I am not here to preach ethics. A user can do whatever he wishes with his money. I know a lot of people use IPTV, but it is different if you get a month to month subscription, different if you pay up-front a lifetime subscription, especially with my blessing (or any other YouTuber / Reviewer).
This is my opinion about the SuperBox S1 PRO and the reason why I will never review it.
If for some reason you still want to buy one, you can even find it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/34JZ5Mn
https://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/My-Opinion-About-The-SuperBox-S1-PRO-amp-Why-I.jpg7201280Dimitrologyhttps://dimitrology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WEBSITE-LOGO-2020-SMALL.pngDimitrology2020-05-18 16:41:122020-12-25 20:05:42My Opinion About The SuperBox S1 PRO & Why I Will Never Review It
And…. here we are again. The latest Kodi release in the 18.x “Leia” cycle, with more (count them!) and better (measure them!) bug fixes for your various delight, delectation, and delirious… discussion?
18.6 is here. More nasty (and not-so-nasty) problems fixed, more bugs squashed, more happiness and love for all. This release is all about backports: where practical, we’ve brought bug fixes forwards from the forthcoming 19.x release, so you get the benefit sooner rather than later.
As usual, you can find full details of closed pull requests on GitHub, so explore that if you want the details, but the summary would be…
Audio
Fixes around visualisations
Fixes around pause/resume
Fixes around TrueHD crashes
Workaround firmware bug (AMLogic v23) (sidenote: there are many more Android audio fixes that can’t be merged into 18.x “Leia” because of old AMLogic workarounds)
Fix to correctly resume audio-only MPEG-TS streams
Correct headphone enumeration (Android)
Build System
Updates for missing includes
Updates for Cmake (Windows)
Updates for device handling and packaging (macOS)
Games
Fixes for launching disc images and .zip files
Fixes for black screen for RGB emulators (Rpi)
Interface/Look-and-feel
Fixes around TextureCache
Fixes for windowing, refresh rate, mode change and others (Android)
Fixes for floating/split keyboard (iOS)
Fix for artist slideshow (Estuary)
Fix media view from addon given content
Playback/Display
Fixed race condition for OnPlaybackStarted
Fixes for MIME type (Android)
Support for DolbyVision streams via addons
Fixes for maximum width and height/vertical-shift (Android)
Fix for scanning in sub-directories
Fix size of EAGL layer on external screen (iOS)
Fix for glTexImage3D (Linux)
Fix for seeking issues
Reset playlist on new file playback
PVR
Fix for multiline episode names
Other/General
Fixed incorrectly formatted region time
Pass JSON serialised path settings to python scrapers
Fix file access on auto-mounted sources
Fix seeking with FileCache lockup
Fix passthrough on USB devices (Android)
Fix crash if profile.xml gets broken
Fix cache forward size on EOF
The nature of point releases is that most of these changes won’t be visible to most people unless they address a specific problem you’ve stumbled across. That said, they’re all real bugs, and real fixes, so thanks as always to all who found a bug, took the time to report it and, in some cases, provided a fix.
The full v18.6 changelog can be found in our GitHub milestone. If you want to read back on what was actually changed in v18 itself, you can find the corresponding articles in the blog posts – Kodi 18, Kodi 18.1, Kodi 18.2, Kodi 18.3, Kodi 18.4 and Kodi 18.5.
Application deployment on different platforms (notably, Google Play and the Microsoft Store) varies due to circumstances outside of our control. It may thus take a few more days to appear everywhere, so just stay tuned.
In the upcoming Kodi 19, tvOS will be added as new platform. It will be fully featured, supporting top-shelf* and the Siri remote, with support for both the Apple 4 and 4K. Similar to iOS, it will require jailbreaking or side loading.
We wanted to thank Memphiz for the base on which this effort was completed and to davilla from MrMC for his support. Thanks also to team members sy6sy2 for being brave enough to start tackling this, and to kambala and Fuzzard for contributing the lion’s share of the work.
Unfortunately, in order to keep things maintainable, we have decided that iOS 32-bit will no longer be supported from Kodi 19 onwards. We understand this will affect our users, and we don’t make this decision lightly. As a small team of volunteers, we have to balance maintainability and the time it takes to add new features in the future.
It’s also important to note that iOS 32-bit users are not being abandoned: they will, of course, have Kodi 18 to run on indefinitely. From Kodi 19 the oldest iOS devices supported will be the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPod touch 6th gen.
Cheers,
phunkyfish from KODI.tv
* top-shelf is not available with the free dev certificate
LibreELEC 9.2.1 (Leia) the final version has arrived based upon Kodi v18.6, the 9.2.1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support compared to the LE 9.0 release.
Changes since 9.2.0:
WireGuard support added to settings
improvements for the RPi4
serveral minor updates
Change for Raspberry 4:
With LE 9.1.002 and later you need to add “hdmi_enable_4kp60=1“ to your config.txt if you want to use 4k output at the RPi4. Before you needed “hdmi_enable_4k=1“ that is now deprecated.
Raspberry 4:
It would be nice to have the 4B running the latest mainline kernel as other devices in LibreELEC 9.2, but adding support for an all-newSoC chipset is a huge effort and the Pi Foundation needed to align initial 4B software with the current Raspbian release to maximise compatibility with existing software and to keep the workload sensible. Generic x86/64 devices are running Linux 5.1, while Raspberry Pi devices (0/1/2/3/4) are using Linux 4.19 with some new/extra code.
In this initial release 1080p playback behaviour and performance on the 4B are broadly on-par with the previous 3B/3B+ model, except for HEVC media which is now hardware decoded and massively improved. New 4K video capabilities still have plenty of rough edges to be smoothed out, but the Pi Foundation developers have been pushing fixes to the test team at a phenomenal rate over the last month and that will continue as the userbase expands.
The 4B now uses SPI flash for the bootloader. Current firmware supports SD card boot only – Network and USB booting are still on the Pi Foundation to-do list. Also on the list is HBR audio (current audio capabilities are the same as the 3B) and 3D video. The 4B hardware is HDR capable, but software support has a dependency on the new Linux kernel frameworks merged by Intel developers (with help from Team LibreELEC/Kodi) in Linux 5.2 and a kernel bump will be needed to use them. Once the initial excitement and activity from the 4B launch calms down, serious work on HDR and transitioning Raspberry Pi over to the new GBM/V4L2 video pipeline can start.
Rockchip:
Our Rockchip releases remain in an state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 5.x kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.
Amlogic
Our original goal was to announce Allwinner and Amlogic images alongside Rockchip as part of the LibreELEC 9.2 release, but while overall readiness has greatly improved in recent months – each has specific technical challenges to overcome before they meet our basic critera for a public release. On the human side of the project several maintainers also have reduced availability for support due to work and family commitments. Combining these factors together, the team felt it was better to be patient and not rush releases.
So instead of releasing LibreELEC 9.2 stable images, we are announcing the start of official nightly images from our master development branch.
If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.
Upgrading
On first boot the Kodi media database will be upgraded. Depending on your hardware and media collection size this could take several minutes. Please be patient.
