Re: running kodi (xmbc) on debian

On 2015-02-22 07:24:31 PM, Michael Fothergill wrote:

> I notice that you can run something called kodi on linux that allows TV
> channel shows to be downloaded and watched on your PC.

Last time I looked at this, which was admittedly awhile ago, it was
downloading these shows from a TV torrent site. This sort of task is not
something that you need XBMC/Kodi for, and I found their implementation
of it very lacking. I ended up using transmission and an rss feed to do
the same thing but without XBMC/Kodi mucking things up.

> You could however, try what they call freesat and run that in conjunction
> with either chromecast, netflix or Amazon instant video.
>
> But I think at least in principle, a lot of the free stuff you could get
> with freesat you could find online via kodi, and (if I understand it
> correctly) if you used e.g. Amazon instant video there would be a way to
> access it via kodi along with the free stuff.

For whatever reason, Netflix and Amazon video only seem to work happily
inside of a browser these days. I know that in the past Netflix
explicitly didn't work on Linux, and required doing some virtualization
if you wanted to use it. I still don't know if they will stream HD to a
Linux box. In the end, I decided that downloading was better than
streaming.

> I read somewhere online that if you ran Amazon instant video via kodi on
> your PC it wouldn't allow you to get HD channels for security reasons but
> you could get the HD channels if you used the Amazon fire box.

Just FYI, Amazon also blocks HD if you try to play it through the
Chromecast.

> For me at any rate, it seems that if you have a pc and a TV then you should
> not need a TV box.....
>
> I am interested to know a couple of things.
>
> Has anyone tried using e.g. kodi and Amazon instant video in the debian
> world, and, what other software other than kodi are people currently using?

I've been using Debian's XBMC on an old laptop connected to the TV for a
long time. *Mostly* it works really well and is much better than any
commercial product I've used.

That said, the XBMC version that comes with Debian is old, and a lot of
the scripts in the XBMC repository don't apply to it. I installed Kodi a
couple weeks ago, but eventually got rid of it because it wasn't getting
along with Xmonad. In my time using it, I still noticed some of the
scripts were broken or just low quality, and required digging through
forum posts in order to make them work.

I think that a lot of the HTPC software tries to hide the fact that it's
running on a computer, or encourages you to never leave its own
interface. I think that this is a mistake. I use XBMC to access a nice
list of video on a media server. I use mpd to listen to music. I use a
web browser to watch web videos. I use a console to launch emulators. I
control everything with a IR reciever, a logitech harmony remote, and a
wireless keyboard.

From reading your responses, it seems to me that if I subscribe to Amazon Instant Video

and then hook up my TV via HMDI as in effect a monitor for the pc and load up the browser

I should be able to watch the channels effectively on the TV.

The mouse I use is wireless so I reckon I could choose the channels with that.

So I would not need the IR receiver or a remote etc.

The xbmc does not seem much better than freesat. I think a freesat box plus the Amazon through the browser would work for me.

Thanks.

Hope this helps,

wireless keyboard.

Hope this helps,
MM