Kodi media center has reached to version 18.0 codename "Leia". It is an award-winning free and open-source cross-platform media player, it's an ideal solution for home theater and so on.
Kodi supports wide variety of popular audio and video formats. It allows you to do network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. You can play CDs and DVDs from the disc or image file, also supports almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives.
It can scan all media and automatically create a personalized library complete with covers, descriptions, and art. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations.
More than 50 software developers have contributed to Kodi, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages. It uses a 10-foot user interface designed to be a media player for the living-room, using a remote control as the primary input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons.
It includes many third-party libraries which use compatible licenses. Due to the inclusion of some GPLv3.0 libraries the entire application becomes GPLv3.0 as binary.


Changelog of 18.0:

  • Added player process info dialog to Kodi's default skin
  • Added support for addons to use banner and ClearLogo
  • Added support for skins/gui to allow implicit container referencing for non-media windows
  • Added support for addons to add "Enable/Disable" to context menu
  • Added support for remember last used keyboard layout in GUI
  • Added support for a generic DRM/KMS implementation using GBM to create surfaces and V4L2 for video acceleration
  • Added support for Mir windowing system (Mir 1.0) for Kodi[153] and added support for VAAPI on Mir using DRM
  • Added support for the middle mouse button on embedded platforms
  • Added support more yuv420p bitwidths for direct rendering on Linux
  • Added support for using VAAPI hardware video decoding with OpenGL ES
  • Added support for build Kodi with imx support using CMake
  • Moved the CMake build system to the top of the code tree (moved to root)
  • Improved support for UltraHD decoding / 4K resolution output when hardware supports it
  • Improved ARM processor architecture (using Raspberry Pi as reference device)
  • Improved OpenGL ES and EGL support (using Raspberry Pi as reference device)
  • Improved VAAPI (Video Acceleration API) support (requires VAAPI compatible hardware and drivers)
  • Improved VDPAU (NVIDIA) Hardware Video Acceleration (requires VDPAU compatible hardware and drivers)
  • Improved XvBA (AMD/ATI) Hardware Video Acceleration (requires XvBA compatible hardware and drivers)
  • Improved dedicated AMLCodec hardware accelerated video decoding support for Linux on Amlogic devices
  • Removed the unused and unmaintained OpenMAX video decoder from Kodi's VideoPlayer
  • Removed support for autotools based build system for Kodi and binary addons (in favour of CMake)
  • Added support for "InputStream" (input stream) addons to pass CryptoSession flags field
  • Added support for BD-J / Blu-ray Disc Java menu support (requires system Java runtime enviroment)
  • Added support for Blu-ray Disc detection and use provided meta data for Blu-ray Disc names
  • And many more fixes & changes.

How to Install Kodi 18 Leia in Ubuntu/Linux Mint/derivatives:

Kodi 18.0 Available for Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic/18.04 Bionic/16.04 Xenial/Linux Mint 19/18/other related Ubuntu derivatives, Kodi 17 is available for Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty/Linux Mint 17
To install Kodi 18.0 in Ubuntu/Linux Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

Addons (such as PVR) available for Kodi, use package name with sudo apt-get install command to install addon.
PVR Package Name Description
kodi-pvr-dev Kodi Media Center (PVR Add-on Dev package)
kodi-pvr-argustv Kodi PVR Addon Argustv
kodi-pvr-demo Kodi PVR Demo Addon
kodi-pvr-dvbviewer Kodi PVR Addon Dvbviewer
kodi-pvr-iptvsimple Kodi PVR Iptv Addon
kodi-pvr-mediaportal-tvserver Kodi PVR Addon Mediaportal Tvserver
kodi-pvr-mythtv Kodi PVR Addon MythTv - Cmyth
kodi-pvr-nextpvr Kodi PVR Addon NextPvr
kodi-pvr-njoy Kodi PVR Addon Njoy
kodi-pvr-tvheadend-hts Kodi PVR Addon TvHeadend Hts
kodi-pvr-vdr-vnsi Kodi PVR Addon VDR Vnsi
kodi-pvr-vuplus Kodi PVR Addon Vuplus
kodi-pvr-dvblink DVBLink PVR
kodi-pvr-filmon FilmOn PVR
kodi-pvr-hts TVHeadEnd PVR
kodi-pvr-pctv PCTV PVR
kodi-pvr-stalker Stalker PVR
kodi-pvr-vbox VBox Home TV Gateway PVR client
kodi-pvr-wmc WMC PVR
shairplay Free portable AirPlay server implementation

Kodi is also available for Android.
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