A few reasons why I don't use Kodi.

by rmbarrett

There is just no point when you've got AndroidTV.

  • Archos Player connects by SMB or DLNA and there is basically no setup required beyond that. No need to sort your ahem downloads at all. Kodi and it's various media scrapers are resource (and time) hogs, and choke on mixed video folders as well as some arguably poorly named files.

  • Kodi: click, wait, click, wait, click wait. AndroidTV apps seem to function instantaneously.

  • Kodi plugins: inefficient web scrapers that rarely work when you want them to. AndroidTV: there are plenty of apps that get the job done for the streaming crowd. For those who must, PopcornTime or ShowBox (with a mouse) makes Kodi look like it is still designed for use on the original Xbox.

  • HDHomerun just works. And the live channel feature just can't be matched in Kodi. It doesn't have the speed to simulate that Cable TV snappiness.

  • STB emulator and IPTV apps are lightning fast. My friends watching me flip through channels think I've switched to Homerun.

  • Kodi just doesn't really handle casting. I don't know why people try to get it to work and expect it will perform even half as well as an AppleTV or Chromecast/Google Cast device.

  • just about every streaming video source looks like garbage. Say what you will about AndroidTV's YouTube app, but the Kodi plugins just aren't built to the same standard. Horrible buffering, and occasionally scaling issues. No thanks.

  • AndroidTV's leanback launcher is fast and free of lag.

Here is ONE for Kodi: It does play H.265/HEVC without a hitch. Archos simply needs to do a better job with their codec pack.

Please add to this list to help offset the huge number of "I bought an Android box for $300 to watch Free shows" posts.

pawdog

Why not make a post praising Archos Media Player without trying to dog Kodi. I'm always looking for great solutions for my media library. Kodi, Plex, Emby, all are in the mix. If Archos is good it can come into the mix also. If it's good it's good.

Now regarding some of the stated problems with Kodi. Take the pirate Addons out of the equation. They are not part of Kodi, not made by Kodi, not endorsed by Kodi. They are allowed by Kodi because of the architecture of the software.

The Addon structure however gives Kodi the ability to have pretty much any interface a skin developer can dream up. Kodi is not married to any one interface.

Don't understand what you would be casting to Kodi if you are on an Android TV anyway. I also don't understand where you are getting any lag With Kodi. I run it on Nexus Players, Fire TV Boxes, Android tablets, Windows Machines and it has always been very responsive. One does however need to use a skin that is appropriate for the power of the device.

Revrence the scraper thing. As I am writing this post I have installed the Archos software and it seems no faster at scraping and indexing my library than Kodi. 11000 episodes 750 movies seem to be taking quit a while.

I am liking what I see with the Archos software so far. I can understand someone wanting to have the Android TV style interface. Think I'll go ahead a buy it. Thanks for introducing me to the Archos Player never would have tried it otherwise.

trinipirate

I use Kodi on my Shield in addition to HDHomerun, SlingTV, and other apps. Don't use it for IPTV because that's always an iffy situation in my experience. But there are some great addons and sources that give you fast HD video. For me, it works well for what I need it to do... stay current on my shows.

Andrroid

My first big problem with Kodi is the UI. Some people might consider it a pro, that its UI is consistent across platforms. Personally I love the Android TV leanback UI guidelines that Google laid out. I think the Plex client conforms to this UI beautifully and Kodi obviously does not.

My second big problem is the open source nature. While open source has its pros, it also has its cons. In this case, the constant infighting that manages to get out to the public. Its unprofessional and hampers development. Community development like this often suffers from too many egos in one room. There is no proper leadership or authority to maintain order, allowing chaos to ensue. I know Koying revived his fork but who knows how long that will last; its a side project as far as I am concerned; development could cease tomorrow.

Ariakkas10

Why is it an either/or situation?

You can use kodi with AndroidTV apps.

Also, I haven't messed with Archos player, but isn't it just a list of folders? That's hardly attractive

VoodooAndPowells

What is this STB emulator you speak of? Do you mean the Live Channels app coupled with an HDHomerun?

Also Archos doesn't do NFS but Kodi does. I have yet to find another video player for Android that does NFS. Until then I'll keep using Kodi.

OssotSromo

An OP who thinks Kodi is supposed to be shitty streaming software 14 year olds who don't have storage think it is. And that it's an OS and not a god damn app.

Also, one you get your media situation not to be a cluster fuck, Kodi doesn't require any set up. I can literally point it at my smb, wait for scrapers to finish, and boom. I've got about 5tb of data it's scraping as well.

Sabnzbd, couch potato, and sub folders. Done and never have to do shit.

rmbarrett

How about "Why I love native AndroidTV apps versus the alternative"? This still going to get downvoted to hell?