Finally a solution to my need of having XBMC (now renamed as kodi starting on version 14) on a small, cheap, fanless gadget. Checkout this wikipedia what is Kodi (formerly XBMC)
Some background. I was using HTPC that runs windows 7 edition to record tv shows. Checkout my old post on the equipment used to accomplish this. Overtime, I find myself annoyed by the sound of the HTPC's fan and the requirement of the HDHR not properly receiving signals. Just imagine your favorite show not being recorded because the antenna signal somehow got interrupted. Also the difficulty of troubleshooting why the HTPC powering on without any scheduled recording was a challenge. I tried using XBMC on windows and even used NextPVR. Still, the wake up issue and the loud fan is a turn off.
2014 is when Amazon released Fire TV and eventually the Fire TV Stick. This runs Fire OS which is android-based. Many thanks to the folks in the open source community and XBMC Foundation for being able to develop XBMC/kodi on android platforms and great thanks to Amazon for producing such great and open product.
To setup, first you need the Amazon Fire TV Stick. You can buy one from ebay that is already installed with XBMC but what is the fun in that. It will be cheaper if you do it yourself. Just buy your own Amazon Fire TV Stick and install XMBC/kodi because there's no need to root the unit. Its as easy as installing an app (e.g. apk) on the platform also known as side loading.
I don't need to repeat what others already posted therefore will simply provide the links below instead. That will give full credit to the authors of those pages. There are youtube videos on these links as well. You can find also lots of folks posting instructions on their own youtube pages too.
XBMC install instructions on Amazon Fire TV Stick:
http://kodi.wiki/view/Amazon_Fire_TV
Afterwards, launch xbmc/kodi and install the USTV VOD addon:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=188490
If you feel the need to discover what XBMC/kodi has to offer going forward, checkout their page:
http://kodi.tv/
Enjoy!
Update as of July 4: Another good addon to XMBC/KODI is Genesis. Its got a lot of good stuff ranging from latest tv shows and movies. However, not all source are available particularly the latest movies. Its all streaming therefore you don't keep a local copy. That to me you are not copying it. However, read up all the disclaimers though. Its available from SuperRepo. Here's instruction how to add it: https://superrepo.org/kodi/addon/plugin.video.genesis/
No comments:
Post a Comment