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Kodi / OSMC (lemm.ee)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by somnuz@lemm.ee to c/foss@beehaw.org

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I have Kodi installed now, I will probably test OSMC later today, are there any other programs similar to them that I could test?

What I am mostly interested in:

fullscreen mode (dark mode / theme preferably, even if I would have to make it manually somehow)
option to navigate my drive or external drive
xbox controller support
subtitles support

What I want to accomplish is quite simple, every now and then I want to play a movie from my pc on my tv (connected via hdmi) and I don’t want to use mouse or keyboard while watching it to pause or turn the volume up a notch.

Kodi is kinda okay for all that but it feels a little wonky and pretty often makes a mess with my files, creating duplicates or ghost files on lists..

Thanks for any help!

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[–] tburkhol@beehaw.org 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

There's mythtv, but it's significantly more complicated than kodi and doesn't have the streaming plugins. IME, mythtv makes a nice backend for Kodi, especially if you want to capture live TV OTA/cable. For just watching stuff, Kodi is great. It doesn't really honor any file hierarchy you might set up under its "Movies" or "Music" tabs, but you'll find that structure preserved in "Browser."

I've found OSMC, which is just a dedicated OS wrapper around Kodi, a little wonky, but that could be just me. I'm used to ssh-ing in to systems to maintain them, and it took me a long time to understand OSMC's connman network manager. I think it's probably fine if you intend to interact only though Kodi's on-screen controls, but osmc feels like a 'weird' linux. Doesn't even log to /var/log/syslog

[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, so.. For now, I feel like I am just stuck with Kodi, but I’ve found a really great theme that kinda helps me cope with that and makes the overall feeling much less clunky.

Maybe one day I will discover something better and more suited for me.

[–] tburkhol@beehaw.org 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If it's the control you find clunky, Kodi does support LIRC, and USB infrared receivers are like $20. You should be able to convince it to listen to your TV or universal remote for menu navigation, volume, etc, which will make it feel a lot like a normal/smart TV. I use the Kore app on my phone.

But UI is the Achilles heel of most open source software.

[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

Dang, I really felt that last sentence.