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Why streaming? I can understand when one needs some media to play on different devices at the same time, also remotely, but for individual use I found a kodi bo

Why streaming? I can understand when one needs some media to play on different devices at the same time, also remotely, but for individual use I found a kodi box near my TV and configured to navigate NFS/SMB directories and filenames on my NAS, to be so immediate that I can't imagine doing things differently. Also, by streaming from box A (NAS) to box B (PC) it would probably need a lot more computing power from the usually smaller and less powerful hardware, and it would also move a lot more data on the home network because the video is transcoded by the weaker hardware and before being transmitted. ...Unless streaming in this context means a completely different thing and therefore I'm wrong.

Mashimo 2y ago
> probably need a lot more computing power from the usually smaller and less powerful hardware Streaming does not mean it forces a transcode. I mean it can, but if you watch from a decent client it often just sends the raw media file. And you can change from PC to phone, to tv and it remembers what you watched. I actually use kodi as a client for jellyfin.
hencoappel 2y ago
I mainly use Plex, but the key benefits are that it remembers what you've watched, allows for multiple accounts, allows for easily continuation of a film or series without having to remember what time/episode you were on. Also allows for easy remote viewing.
- squarefoot 2y ago
  Kodi does all of this, except remote viewing that possibly could be done through external addons, but I'm not sure about that. Some features like remembering what you were watching requires it not to be turned off. Sleep is fine however, and on my mini PC it goes to sleep when it detects I turned off the TV via HDMI/CEC connection. When you wake it up you'll be in the same place and it remembers also the time watched, while if you turned it off you have to navigate back to the place you were watching, but it still keeps the time of that file and any other one, prompting you to continue from when you left or start over. Watched files and time are saved as part of the backup that can be scheduled to run automatically in the background, so one can upgrade it, then restore the backup to get back every change to the interface, addons, configuration, etc. It also runs on phones, and I installed it also on my Pixel with GrapheneOS along with some addons, but the interface is really hard to operate there.
  - scheeseman486 2y ago
    I am sure about Kodi not being able to perform remote viewing with the same compatibility and convenience as any of the popular dedicated media streaming platforms. I get that you like Kodi, but listen to yourself. Kodi does all of this! Except you might need a plugin that doesn't exist for the one big feature that spurred the existence and popularity of Plex, except that some features work but not reliably, except that you need to actively manage the backend, except that the phone UI sucks. So, there's your answer?
    - squarefoot 2y ago
      I'm not a kodi fanboy, and I would certainly change a few things about it if I could, but I needed a client because having a NAS where everything is stored in their appropriately named own directory makes things a lot faster; all it needs is a player on something that can mount remote directories. Also, my NAS runs XigmaNAS which I doubt could stream videos, but more importantly I don't need the stream functionality because usually I'm watching something while my SO watches something different. They're just different solutions for different needs.
      - scheeseman486 2y ago
        You were overselling it a bit, going so far as to assume a plugin existed for it when it didn't. It gave a bit of a fanboy aura to the comment. I like Kodi too, I've been using it since the XBMP days on modded Xboxes and still do for certain things, but eventually I needed something more flexible and something that worked over the internet. Being able to share my movies with my grandma or my next door neighbors wasn't really achievable with Kodi.
scheeseman486 2y ago
Software like Jellyfin and Plex allow for streaming to more than just Kodi boxes (your phone, tablet, set top box smart TV apps, web browser) and transcoding allows the flexibility to adapt the bitrate to reliably push video over the internet and to work around compatibility issues with clients that might not support certain codecs (keeping in mind transcoding only happens when it needs to).

Mashimo 2y ago

> probably need a lot more computing power from the usually smaller and less powerful hardware Streaming does not mean it forces a transcode. I mean it can, but if you watch from a decent client it often just sends the raw media file. And you can change from PC to phone, to tv and it remembers what you watched. I actually use kodi as a client for jellyfin.

hencoappel 2y ago

I mainly use Plex, but the key benefits are that it remembers what you've watched, allows for multiple accounts, allows for easily continuation of a film or series without having to remember what time/episode you were on. Also allows for easy remote viewing.

squarefoot 2y ago
Kodi does all of this, except remote viewing that possibly could be done through external addons, but I'm not sure about that. Some features like remembering what you were watching requires it not to be turned off. Sleep is fine however, and on my mini PC it goes to sleep when it detects I turned off the TV via HDMI/CEC connection. When you wake it up you'll be in the same place and it remembers also the time watched, while if you turned it off you have to navigate back to the place you were watching, but it still keeps the time of that file and any other one, prompting you to continue from when you left or start over. Watched files and time are saved as part of the backup that can be scheduled to run automatically in the background, so one can upgrade it, then restore the backup to get back every change to the interface, addons, configuration, etc. It also runs on phones, and I installed it also on my Pixel with GrapheneOS along with some addons, but the interface is really hard to operate there.
- scheeseman486 2y ago
  I am sure about Kodi not being able to perform remote viewing with the same compatibility and convenience as any of the popular dedicated media streaming platforms. I get that you like Kodi, but listen to yourself. Kodi does all of this! Except you might need a plugin that doesn't exist for the one big feature that spurred the existence and popularity of Plex, except that some features work but not reliably, except that you need to actively manage the backend, except that the phone UI sucks. So, there's your answer?
  - squarefoot 2y ago
    I'm not a kodi fanboy, and I would certainly change a few things about it if I could, but I needed a client because having a NAS where everything is stored in their appropriately named own directory makes things a lot faster; all it needs is a player on something that can mount remote directories. Also, my NAS runs XigmaNAS which I doubt could stream videos, but more importantly I don't need the stream functionality because usually I'm watching something while my SO watches something different. They're just different solutions for different needs.
    - scheeseman486 2y ago
      You were overselling it a bit, going so far as to assume a plugin existed for it when it didn't. It gave a bit of a fanboy aura to the comment. I like Kodi too, I've been using it since the XBMP days on modded Xboxes and still do for certain things, but eventually I needed something more flexible and something that worked over the internet. Being able to share my movies with my grandma or my next door neighbors wasn't really achievable with Kodi.

scheeseman486 2y ago

Software like Jellyfin and Plex allow for streaming to more than just Kodi boxes (your phone, tablet, set top box smart TV apps, web browser) and transcoding allows the flexibility to adapt the bitrate to reliably push video over the internet and to work around compatibility issues with clients that might not support certain codecs (keeping in mind transcoding only happens when it needs to).