In recent times, multimedia centers have become popular to play all kinds of video, music or image files on our devices. They are very varied and each of them can be adapted to a series of users with different needs. One of them is Kodi, a multimedia player and content manager that can play on almost any screen, in almost any format music, video, streaming, and photos.
It has become so popular due to its add-ons or plugins, extensions that add a lot of functionality in the original design, similar to the extensions of Chrome, for example.
The problem is that some of these third-party extensions do illegal things, streaming copyrighted movies or paid football matches, and downloading paid series and music, so Kodi is being persecuted by film companies, television broadcasters, and copyright agencies.
There has also been a lot of talk about whether Kodi is legal or not, as it is a very controversial application. In this article, we will clearly talk about Kodi, why it is so popular, what is it’s Add-on and what is legal and illegal in Kodi.
What is Kodi and why it is so popular
Kodi was created in 2002 under the GNU / GPL license, that is, a free project that can be distributed freely. In the beginning, it was called Xbox Media Center (XBMC) because it was created with a multimedia center to manage the videos, photos, and music of the first Xbox console, with some additional functions, such as weather forecast.
The idea was to create a customizable and easy-to-use interface to manage all your multimedia content. Soon versions for Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android (including Android TV), Raspberry Pi and Xbox One were created.
This is one key to its success. Everyone has their own collection of videos, photos, and other multimedia content that they like to watch on TV through customizable menus, and Kodi allows to do all this through the computer or the console, but also from small portable devices, size as an Android TV or a Raspberry Pi, which can be carried in your pocket and connected to any TV quickly. There is even a self-running Linux LiveCD version that starts from a pen drive. The menus have large icons and texts optimized for viewing on a TV, even if you feel far from the screen.
After reading the above article hope its clear to everyone what is Kodi and why it is so popular. In next we are going to explain what is Kodi Addon, Builds, and Repositories.
What are Kodi’s Add-ons, repositories, and builds?
Well, they are things that have nothing to do with each other, so let’s go in parts.
Kodi Add-ons
The add-ons or plugins, whatever you want to call them, are additional packages that improve the functionality of Kodi. Kodi is not very useful on its own, so it is based, to a large extent, on both official and non-official Add-ons. These Addons not only improve the Kodi functionalities but also add multiple possibilities.
Thanks to the Addons you can watch live TV, play some games or even customize Kodi completely. You can enter the official website of Kodi to find hundreds of accessories. The unofficial Addons Kodi can be installed natively. In contrast, to install unofficial Kodi Addons you will have to add your source or install it from a ZIP file.
Kodi Repositories
Let’s talk now about the Kodi repositories. In simple words, a repository is a place where the Addons of which we have spoken in the previous section are stored.
Each repository usually has different add-ons, so you may prefer to search the internet for the repository that contains the specific add-on you are looking for. Fusion, Xfinity or SuperRepo are some of the repositories that have the most popular Kodi Add-ons.
Kodi builds
A build or compilation of Kodi is a customized version of Kodi that comes pre-installed with several Addons and that also usually includes a different user interface. If technical skills are not your thing, a custom Kodi build can help you have everything you need without any effort since you will not have to download or install or configure many Addons.
Most of the TV Boxes that come with Kodi have installed a customized version of Kodi to give their buyers a unique experience. However, Kodi’s builds are not exclusive to TV Boxes. Installing a custom compilation of Kodi is as easy as adding the corresponding repository to your existing Kodi installation. The Beast and the Nemesis builds are among the most popular for Kodi today.
Although these builds are ideal for novices, they are not recommended. This is because some Kodi compilations include Addons without the corresponding repository being added, so there will be no easy way to update them. Because of this, the add-ons will be outdated and your only option will be to eliminate the Kodi build. At first, there is a small learning curve when using Kodi, but it is worth learning to use it in the medium or long term.
What can you do with Kodi
If there is something Kodi highlights, its versatility. These are the things that Kodi can do, using official functions and add-ons. If you use third-party extensions, the possibilities are endless.
- Music: Play MP3, MIDI, AIFF, AAC, WAV, FLAC, AC3, DTS, AMR and more.
- Videos: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, RealVideo, QuickTime and many more.
- Image: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and many more.
- Streaming: Supports all types of streaming and Broadcasting content from live TV and private servers
- TV series: organize the content by seasons, download summaries of chapters and remember where you got, to continue at another time
- DVR/PVR: Kodi allows to record live broadcasting TV channels and watch them later
- Others: Play games, listen to the radio, check the weather forecast, and much more.
On what devices does Kodi work?
Kodi was originally designed to work on the Xbox, but it works on almost all of today’s operating systems, including Windows, FreeBSD, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Apple TV and many more. The procedure to install Kodi on most of them is similar to installing any other application, except for iOS. Although if you have an iPhone with a jailbreak, you only have to add a repository and download Kodi. If you have not done a jailbreak on your tablet, phone or whatever you have iOS, you can also install Kodi, but the process is a bit more complicated.
There is no official support for ChromeOS, but the fact that you can now run Android applications on ChromeOS means that you can run Kodi on certain Chromebook models.
You can also get Kodi to work on many streaming devices like Nvidia Shield, Amazon Fire TV Stick and even the Raspberry Pi 3, as long as it does not bother you to take some work.
Conclusion
Is Kodi is legal? The short answer is Yes. Kodi is an excellent multimedia player that supports almost all formats. With a little tinkering in the configuration, Kodi can become your definitive content center. You can play all the files that you have stored locally and obtained them through streaming over the Internet. The truth is that once you get used to Kodi, it’s hard to quit.
