Kodi

Kodi is a free and open source media center that plays video, music, podcasts and photos from local storage, the home network and the internet. It began in 2002 as the Xbox Media Player for the first Xbox console, became Xbox Media Center (XBMC) in 2003 and was renamed Kodi in July 2014. The software is licensed under the GPL and developed by a worldwide community of volunteers. The legal entity behind it, the XBMC Foundation, is a registered non-profit organisation in the USA, so Kodi is listed here as an open source project without a company headquarters.

Features

• Living-room interface designed for television screens and remote controls.
• Video and music libraries with automatic metadata and artwork.
• Live TV and recording through PVR add-ons that connect to TV tuners and servers.
• Skins and add-ons written in Python to change the look and add features.
• Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, tvOS and other systems.

Model and limits

Kodi is free. The official add-on repository contains legal add-ons, while unofficial add-ons from third parties can give access to illegal streams, which the Kodi team warns against. Setup is more involved than with a ready-made streaming app.