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If you can't setup your own Kodi box, I don't know how in the world you would be sold one and actually use it. It isn't simple to setup and it is more complicat

If you can't setup your own Kodi box, I don't know how in the world you would be sold one and actually use it. It isn't simple to setup and it is more complicated to maintain (for someone who couldn't just set one up themselves).

dec0dedab0de 10y ago
the interface is very easy to use, from what I understand these "fully loaded" ones alreaddy have the apps installed and configured, so it would probably be easier than a roku for most people. Then they just dont do any maintenance
- slantyyz 10y ago
  >> the interface is very easy to use If they're selling Android Kodi boxes from China (which I suspect they are, since they're widely available, preconfigured and cheap), then I would disagree. These boxes have incredibly flaky UIs. As for Kodi itself, it's fairly usable, but I would say the process of adding non-public repos for shady add-ons might be a little overcomplicated for a non-enthusiast who just wants to watch a soccer stream.
- rconti 10y ago
  The interface is one of the worst I've ever seen. I still don't understand how and when and why "Videos" or "Movies" get indexed. You have to have the patience of a monk to attempt to add a media source with a remote control. "Let's see, does it want smb:// ? Should I include my username as part of the string?" My Kodi install on my smart TV has one purpose: To play things out of a directory on my NAS. Yet I have it added roughly 7 different ways, and have no idea how or why things get cataloged. All I know is I'm too afraid to remove any of the sources because I'm not sure which one's being used. And I'm not sure I know how to remove a source, either. I struggled with Kodi on my jailbroken AppleTV2 and it never worked right. At least it does the basic job of playing media from my NAS, so I'm happy. No waiting for Plex to decide to index my content, no fuss, no muss. Open Kodi, play files from NAS.
mathgeek 10y ago
If it's anything like the bandit cable box market of the 90's, buying one means you go back to the source if it needs to be repaired/updated.
muse900 10y ago
You'll be surprised... My uncle and auntie are using it now... they are into their 70's and don't know how to use any tech apart from a remote control. A cousin of mine, who's a dentist in his mid 40's and hmm lets say he lacks behind on technology, found a way to set it up and gave it to them. They use it and they don't even understand that its using the internet to stream pirated data... I told them that and they were like "no, he bought it for us from amazon, why they sell illegal stuff there, its free". So yes I have valid proof of 2 people that don't know how to Google - Google fully using it.
blowski 10y ago
A very non-technical friend of mine bought one on eBay and said it was very easy to use. Just plugged it into the TV over HDMI and it worked great. It gave access to just about every cable channel and every film and TV show. It cost £50 - his theory was that if he had to buy a new one every month, it was still cheaper and easier to use than the alternatives.
snowwolf 10y ago
I think that's one of the big problems the Kodi team has with these 'fully loaded' boxes [1]. People buy them and they work for a week, and then the streams break, etc. and these people have no idea how to update them so they come on the various Kodi support forums blaming Kodi for all the problems. Meanwhile the sellers have disappeared and are selling the boxes under a new name. [1] https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/ https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters...
- thirdsun 10y ago
  And it leaves a rather bad reputation. Similar to Bittorrent. Recently an absolutely non-tech-savvy friend of mine explained to a bunch of friends how he was streaming pirated movies, TV etc. via Kodi. I was blown away that he even knew about XBMC / Kodi, the classic media center I've been using for more than a decade (though never with subpar, crappy streams). Needless to say he only knew about it since it was advertised as enabling piracy. He most certainly didn't download it from official sources and will run into problems in no time. I just wanted to say that I was very surprised to see Kodi reach mainstream awareness and it's a little sad that this was enabled via the infamous piracy spotlight.
  - dublinben 10y ago
    Don't kid yourself. The users of Kodi have always been using it to watch their own pirated media collections. They just weren't using streaming services, so there was a higher barrier to entry. Now that it truly is a one stop shop for pirated media access, it's reached the primetime.
    - thirdsun 10y ago
      > Don't kid yourself. The users of Kodi have always been using it to watch their own pirated media collections. Yes, me included. I think that's an entirely different discussion, but let me just point out that I love to buy content that I own. I do it with music all the time. Buying about 5-10 lossless digital albums is a weekly habit for me. I can't do that with movies since content creators / publishers don't allow me to buy that kind of content in a digital, DRM-free format I truly own. - It has to be DRM-free as I want to play it with my media player of choice and possibly long after the service I bought it from may or may not be around any longer. - While I don't care for the physical medium and would prefer to play the movie in Kodi, it could be Bluray if it wasn't for the long delays between theatrical release, US Bluray release and the release in my country. I don't care for localization. I require the original audio track / language. I'm not content with the delay between US Bluray and local Bluray release while the movie is already available on torrent sites. Bottom line: I'd gladly pay for movies if it was as easy and consumer friendly as buying music.
kalleboo 10y ago
Back in the 90's everyone knew a source for pirated analog satellite decoders and if it stopped working you went back to the guy you bought it from. Isn't this just the modern version of that?
croon 10y ago
Having used Kodi for close to 15 years (from XBMP through XBMC), it's definitely taken some tinkering, and you still run into edge cases and occasional crashes. However the Kodi team has made an amazing job simplifying installation on numerous platforms, to the point where the most advanced thing you need to know is how to use a USB stick and 7-zip. If these people (box sellers) ship it with a remote control, and a self-contained Kodi distro (Ubuntu), I have no problem seeing anyone using it intuitively as plug & play. Maintaining is mostly an issue with your own library in my experience. If that part is outsourced to third party plugins there's not much to maintain. Though if that plugin breaks/is forked/whatever then you're boned. I really feel for the Kodi team though, getting blame for piracy, numerous support requests stemming from unaffiliated third party plugins, and all for an amazing open source product they've made for free.
problems 10y ago
There are vendors for these things in malls in Canada even. There are Kodi addons that make it super simple, just push a button and stream movies off file lockers kind of thing. It's pretty much dead simple and "just works" - with the exception of what happens when the services they use dies. Then you're in trouble. The quality is also often abysmal. That's why I'd rather use the Usenet setup (Sonarr/CouchPotato/Sabnzbd/Plex/Emby) and pay $10/mo to a sketchy IPTV service, I know they at least try to maintain their streams and if you hunt around you can find decent quality.
jdietrich 10y ago
It's a working class thing. There's a little shop near me that sells Kodi boxes. They used to build PCs when that was a thing, now they do laptop and phone repairs. £69 for the box including installation, £20 for updates. That's a bargain compared to £70/month for Sky. Most people have a geeky nephew who'll sort it out for a bit of pocket money.

dec0dedab0de 10y ago

the interface is very easy to use, from what I understand these "fully loaded" ones alreaddy have the apps installed and configured, so it would probably be easier than a roku for most people. Then they just dont do any maintenance

slantyyz 10y ago
>> the interface is very easy to use If they're selling Android Kodi boxes from China (which I suspect they are, since they're widely available, preconfigured and cheap), then I would disagree. These boxes have incredibly flaky UIs. As for Kodi itself, it's fairly usable, but I would say the process of adding non-public repos for shady add-ons might be a little overcomplicated for a non-enthusiast who just wants to watch a soccer stream.
rconti 10y ago
The interface is one of the worst I've ever seen. I still don't understand how and when and why "Videos" or "Movies" get indexed. You have to have the patience of a monk to attempt to add a media source with a remote control. "Let's see, does it want smb:// ? Should I include my username as part of the string?" My Kodi install on my smart TV has one purpose: To play things out of a directory on my NAS. Yet I have it added roughly 7 different ways, and have no idea how or why things get cataloged. All I know is I'm too afraid to remove any of the sources because I'm not sure which one's being used. And I'm not sure I know how to remove a source, either. I struggled with Kodi on my jailbroken AppleTV2 and it never worked right. At least it does the basic job of playing media from my NAS, so I'm happy. No waiting for Plex to decide to index my content, no fuss, no muss. Open Kodi, play files from NAS.

mathgeek 10y ago

If it's anything like the bandit cable box market of the 90's, buying one means you go back to the source if it needs to be repaired/updated.

muse900 10y ago

You'll be surprised... My uncle and auntie are using it now... they are into their 70's and don't know how to use any tech apart from a remote control. A cousin of mine, who's a dentist in his mid 40's and hmm lets say he lacks behind on technology, found a way to set it up and gave it to them. They use it and they don't even understand that its using the internet to stream pirated data... I told them that and they were like "no, he bought it for us from amazon, why they sell illegal stuff there, its free". So yes I have valid proof of 2 people that don't know how to Google - Google fully using it.

blowski 10y ago

A very non-technical friend of mine bought one on eBay and said it was very easy to use. Just plugged it into the TV over HDMI and it worked great. It gave access to just about every cable channel and every film and TV show. It cost £50 - his theory was that if he had to buy a new one every month, it was still cheaper and easier to use than the alternatives.

snowwolf 10y ago

I think that's one of the big problems the Kodi team has with these 'fully loaded' boxes [1]. People buy them and they work for a week, and then the streams break, etc. and these people have no idea how to update them so they come on the various Kodi support forums blaming Kodi for all the problems. Meanwhile the sellers have disappeared and are selling the boxes under a new name. [1] https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/ https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters...

thirdsun 10y ago
And it leaves a rather bad reputation. Similar to Bittorrent. Recently an absolutely non-tech-savvy friend of mine explained to a bunch of friends how he was streaming pirated movies, TV etc. via Kodi. I was blown away that he even knew about XBMC / Kodi, the classic media center I've been using for more than a decade (though never with subpar, crappy streams). Needless to say he only knew about it since it was advertised as enabling piracy. He most certainly didn't download it from official sources and will run into problems in no time. I just wanted to say that I was very surprised to see Kodi reach mainstream awareness and it's a little sad that this was enabled via the infamous piracy spotlight.
- dublinben 10y ago
  Don't kid yourself. The users of Kodi have always been using it to watch their own pirated media collections. They just weren't using streaming services, so there was a higher barrier to entry. Now that it truly is a one stop shop for pirated media access, it's reached the primetime.
  - thirdsun 10y ago
    > Don't kid yourself. The users of Kodi have always been using it to watch their own pirated media collections. Yes, me included. I think that's an entirely different discussion, but let me just point out that I love to buy content that I own. I do it with music all the time. Buying about 5-10 lossless digital albums is a weekly habit for me. I can't do that with movies since content creators / publishers don't allow me to buy that kind of content in a digital, DRM-free format I truly own. - It has to be DRM-free as I want to play it with my media player of choice and possibly long after the service I bought it from may or may not be around any longer. - While I don't care for the physical medium and would prefer to play the movie in Kodi, it could be Bluray if it wasn't for the long delays between theatrical release, US Bluray release and the release in my country. I don't care for localization. I require the original audio track / language. I'm not content with the delay between US Bluray and local Bluray release while the movie is already available on torrent sites. Bottom line: I'd gladly pay for movies if it was as easy and consumer friendly as buying music.

kalleboo 10y ago

Back in the 90's everyone knew a source for pirated analog satellite decoders and if it stopped working you went back to the guy you bought it from. Isn't this just the modern version of that?

croon 10y ago

Having used Kodi for close to 15 years (from XBMP through XBMC), it's definitely taken some tinkering, and you still run into edge cases and occasional crashes. However the Kodi team has made an amazing job simplifying installation on numerous platforms, to the point where the most advanced thing you need to know is how to use a USB stick and 7-zip. If these people (box sellers) ship it with a remote control, and a self-contained Kodi distro (Ubuntu), I have no problem seeing anyone using it intuitively as plug & play. Maintaining is mostly an issue with your own library in my experience. If that part is outsourced to third party plugins there's not much to maintain. Though if that plugin breaks/is forked/whatever then you're boned. I really feel for the Kodi team though, getting blame for piracy, numerous support requests stemming from unaffiliated third party plugins, and all for an amazing open source product they've made for free.

problems 10y ago

There are vendors for these things in malls in Canada even. There are Kodi addons that make it super simple, just push a button and stream movies off file lockers kind of thing. It's pretty much dead simple and "just works" - with the exception of what happens when the services they use dies. Then you're in trouble. The quality is also often abysmal. That's why I'd rather use the Usenet setup (Sonarr/CouchPotato/Sabnzbd/Plex/Emby) and pay $10/mo to a sketchy IPTV service, I know they at least try to maintain their streams and if you hunt around you can find decent quality.

jdietrich 10y ago

It's a working class thing. There's a little shop near me that sells Kodi boxes. They used to build PCs when that was a thing, now they do laptop and phone repairs. £69 for the box including installation, £20 for updates. That's a bargain compared to £70/month for Sky. Most people have a geeky nephew who'll sort it out for a bit of pocket money.