Posts by chewitt

Kodi accesses media from "sources" and sources can be configured with different scraper settings. So you can have a source for commercial movies that uses the established conventions for filenames and online scraping and works with the TMDB scraper, and a separate source that uses the "local" file scraper only; that can reference local .nfo files and artwork created for each movie.

If you want personal movies to appear in a library view, the movie must be scraped to the library and that means the local file scraper requires a local .nfo file to scrape content from. Kodi itself will not auto-generate .nfo files but LE being Linux and thus scriptable (and with cron if the script needs to run repeatedly) it's not hard to script and automate creation of a basic .nfo files with minimal content. If there is no matching artwork for the local movie Kodi will grab a frame and show it, though the results can be a bit random.

The alternative is to access personal movies from the "Videos" menu. If you are accessing a source that has also been scraped to the Library Kodi shows the Library content overlaid, but otherwise it's just a raw view of files in folders and Kodi shows the filenames and a frame that has been extracted from the media file. This seems to be what you're looking for?

I store media on a NAS box in the network. The NAS shares files over SMB and has an SQL database so that I can start any LE client device in the network and see the same DB content. It also runs a Plex server because I spend lots of time in Hotels and Plex nicely handles transcode of media to different resolutions or quality levels to suit the sometimes limited bandwidths available. Plex also allows kids to play media from the native Plex app on a moderately-smart TV in their bedroom. The Kodi and Plex DBs are separate (not sync'd) because that's not important to me, but it's possible to use LE/Kodi as a pure player device for Plex using the Plex client add-on. There is also an add-on that syncs the Plex DB to Kodi so you have a native Kodi database but referencing the Plex-stored media.

It's technically possible to convert an RPi board to be the NAS, but my advice would be "If you want a NAS, get a NAS" as at some point the effort involved and better performance and reliability of a proper NAS outweighs the savings of using an RPi board.

Direct updates are not supported. You need to follow a backup > clean install > partial restore process.

Take a backup of essential things: sources.xml, advancedsettings.xml, add-on settings and DB files from Kodi. Download the latest nightly from https://test.libreelec.tv/11.0/Amlogic/odroid-c2/ then create a new SD card or reimage the emmc module. Then boot, stop Kodi, move the essential things you backed-up to where they need to be. Restart Kodi and start reinstalling add-ons.

Quote from gkuc2

I'm worried that since it always says AM or PM it's going to burn the letters into my OLED if I leave it on the menu by accident ..

Kodi uses the "Dim" screensaver by default, but you can switch it to "Black" instead, which gives you a black screen - nothing to burn in

I'm not sure why it's failing when the system was booting from the same SSD before. If the APPEND line in syslinux.cfg (on the SSD) shows boot=LABEL=LIBREELEC or boot=GUID=<long-guid-string> perhaps edit it to use boot=/dev/sda1 disk=/dev/sda2 instead. You can also try booting from an Ubuntu USB and using that to write the LE installer image directly to the SSD, then boot and run from itself (prob. called run from USB or such - it's years since I booted/installed Generic so I forget).

There are two YouTube apps in the Kodi repo; YouTube and Tubed - nothing specific for KidsTube. Any further discussion on them is best done in their respective add-on support threads in the Kodi forums.

Updated Chrome add-on(s) for LE10/LE11 have been pushed in the last day or so, they might need a while to appear on the repo.

LE11 is the priority now that LE10.x is done. There's a few things to resolve but it shouldn't be long.

run "kodi-remote" from the SSH console and you can navigate the screen to install the add-on?

Nope

If you are installing onto the LE10 Amlogic image that we've been chatting about in #IRC .. it will not work because the add-on repo is for LE 9.2 installations (Python2) not LE10 installations (Python3). You might want to look at Docker solutions.

The AMLGX images in https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/ have experimental FFMpeg changes that improve seeking with HEVC media. It's not "fixed" but moves things from a 2/10 score to around 7/10 which is nice. I've also disabled the broken MPEG2 hardware decoder so content is software decoded. Linux 6.1.4 and almost final Kodi Nexus. NB: No change to G12A/B and SM1 support (still problematic).

cd /storage/.update
wget https://releases.libreelec.tv/LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-10.0.3.tar
cd /storage
systemctl stop kodi
mv /storage/.kodi /storage/.kodi-old
reboot

If the current install boots/runs fine check the size of the boot partition. If it is ~230MB it's too small for a direct update to LE10 and you will need to figure out the install issue; hint, if you see the installer it's not a BIOS/EFI issue as it booted the installer. If it is ~512MB size the boot folder is large enough for a direct update. The commands above ^ download the LE 10.0.03 update file to the right place in preparation for a direct update. Then you stop Kodi, move the existing install files out of the way, and reboot to start the update. Once the update completes you will have a clean Kodi instance. You can then stop Kodi, copy essential bits of the old install from /storage/.kodi-old to /storage/.kodi (sources.xml, specific add-on settings, etc.) then restart Kodi to continue with setup. Rinse/repeat until things are as you need them again.

NB: Instructions saying you need to clean install for LE10 are not quite true. The OS and Kodi update with zero issues, but add-ons can cause major issues due to the Python 2 > Python 3 change. The process above avoids that by moving the old (and potentially problem) Kodi data including add-ons out of the way.

The "Generic" image should auto-detect the correct GPU, but audio card names will change so you'll need to revisit settings in Kodi to ensure things are selected again. I would not recommend an nVidia card unless your requirements are quite basic. Our mid-term plan is still to kill off the X11 image to focus on GBM and that still means no nVidia support (and under X11 there is no HDR).

If you already have Kodi up and runing all you need to do is create the autoexec.py file.

The TVs in the video are old devices without HDMI connections. The config.txt file on the RPi is only being used to force NTSC vs. PAL output on the Composite video output. That kind of modification in config.txt is supported only on RPi boards and only in LE 9.2 and older. In LE10 and up (LE11 is coming soon) video modes are forced with "video=" kernel boot parameters (params).

On a Raspberry Pi these are set in cmdline.txt, and you would append one of the following:

video=Composite-1:720x576@50ie <= PAL

video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie <= NTSC

RPi4:~ # cat /flash/cmdline.txt 
boot=UUID=0602-0454 disk=UUID=a7ecf32f-d897-4f8e-b760-03d219e31c88 quiet video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie

On x86_64 hardware devices you append it to the APPEND line in the syslinux.cfg file in /flash:

NUC:~ # cat /flash/syslinux.cfg
DEFAULT linux
PROMPT 0

LABEL linux
 KERNEL /KERNEL
 APPEND boot=LABEL=System disk=LABEL=Storage quiet video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie

If you are creating something with an HDMI equipped device and you already have video output there is nothing to do - there is no need to force NTSC vs PAL (the concept doesn't exist with HDMI) and you only need to implement the autoexec.py part of the tutorial.

The terminal add-on in our repo allows you to access an SSH console from a browser. Or you can do things the normal way and use any SSH client from any OS. There is no terminal within the Kodi GUI at all, and no plan to ever add one. ChatGP is not infallable.