The official Kodi 18 download isn’t available for public release yet, but the nightly alpha previews give a good sign of what new features are coming to the popular media center software.
Overall, the Kodi 18 download, Leia, has the following technical changes completed:
- More than 6140 (code chunks changed)
- More than 1911 pull-requests (collection of commits that were included in one go)
- More than 7776 changed files
- More than 350.000 code lines removed
- More than 397.000 code lines added
- Over 35 opensource developers
- A lot of free time developing and testing these changes
Kodi 18 Latest Update
September 10th: Kodi 18 beta version #2 is now available! Grab the latest Kodi 18 download today and give the addon a spin. The most notable fixes in Bet 2 are EPG and PVR interface optimizations and Live TV related fixes. Those of you who take advantage of free live TV options in Kodi should see some improved reliability.
August 27th: The Kodi 18 download for beta #1 is officially available! Use the download instructions at the bottom of the guide to try out beta 1 today. The final Kodi 18 download will be available later this year.
Much of the work in Kodi 18 Leia has been to standardize the backend code, which should mean less errors and better video processing for everyone! Some of the other features noted in this Kodi 18 download:
- Revamped music library to read metadata instead of just file name.
- Live TV overhaul – Need a USB or network tuner such as HDHomeRun.
- Xbox One Support
- More standardized Android code: Now includes leanback search integration and Google Assistant voice integration
- Better remote and controller support
- Revamped video player support
- Digital Rights Management (DRM) support for login and subscription based DRM services.
- Libretro API added for full game client support. Libretro is the most popular backend for classic game emulators and inclusion into Kodi will open up a whole world of users who can emulate old games within the Kodi interface. Setup can be tricky for beginner users, so we are interested to see how each setup is on Kodi, particularly getting your game controllers (including Playstation and Xbox) to work.
- Improvements to nearly all backend PVR clients supported by Kodi including FilmOn, HDHomeRun ArgusTV, and others. This should mean better menus, feel, and look for viewing live TV channels via an over-the-air tuner.
- Improvements made to Inputstream clients, which improve network streaming protocols. This should hopefully open the door to creating native Kodi addons for online streaming services such as Sling TV, Youtube TV, and other live IPTV sources.
- Better Bluetooth support. This should allow controllers, remotes, keyboard, mouse, and other accessories better access to control Kodi.
- Speech-to-text and recommendations support on Android TV. This should allow Kodi to better integrate into the Android backend and be included in the recommendation tiles that come standard on newer Android devices (such as the nVidia Shield).
- Improved Python based web scraper support.
- Added game client addons for many popular third-party game consoles
- Added new PVR clients for Zattoo Box, Teleboy, and Seldovanitv.
- Added ability to inspect addon dependencies before installing
- Added addons for game controllers and peripherals
- Audio engine improvements
Note that all of the changes in Kodi 18 means that old skins are NOT compatible. This means that skin developers will need to add Kodi 18 support before you can use it. This happened back during the Kodi 16 to 17 transition as well.
If your skin is not supported with Kodi 18, you will most likely see the Kodi logo on startup and then Kodi will crash before it gets to your main menu. It is highly recommended that you change your skin back to the default Estuary before you upgrade.
Check out the guide below to get the Kodi 18 download today. The process runs the same across all operating systems.
Once again, installing the Kodi 18 Download is NOT recommended on your main Kodi box. It is considered to be in alpha stage and there are still bugs to work out.
As soon as the Kodi team updates everyone on the status of Kodi 18, we will provide more information in this post.
If you want to test out Kodi 18 before public release, you can install the nightly release by following these steps:
Kodi 18 Beta Download
- Visit the Kodi download page by clicking here or navigating to kodi.tv/download on your box..
- Select your operating system. A popup will appear and you’ll want to click on the Development Builds tab.
- Read the text warning you about what the nightly builds are meant for and refer to the guide on how to submit bug reports. When you are ready to download, click the appropriate button beside the word Nightly.
- The nightly build will download. When it is complete, launch it and install just like any software.
Let us know on Twitter or Facebook what feature in Kodi 18 you are looking forward most to.
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The post Kodi 18 Download (Leia) + New Features Preview appeared first on Kodi Tips.