Win 10 - Ditch Kodi for something like Plex?

54and56

Hi all,

I've a Win 10 mini HTPC and love everything about it except for the fact Kodi refuses to exit and ends up requiring a restart of the PC. I've tried vanilla Kodi, TVMC and FreeTelly and none of them close. they all hand on closing and even if I use Ctrl + Alt + Del to close the app or Alt + F4 I can't then re-start the app without rebooting the PC.

I really only use Kodi for streaming content on my local network to the Win 10 PC (I've a ZyXel NSA310 NAS) and don't usually use any off the movie add on's so at this point I'd prefer to just have a simple network media player which can access the NAS and keep track of what episodes have been watched (like the little 'tick' in Kodi) but I can't find anything which doesn't require software to be installed on the NAS e.g Plex.

I'm a bit lost and would appreciate a steer on what options might be available to me.

Cheers.

Johnboy1951

Try running Openelec or LibreELEC from a USB stick on the mini HTPC and see if that shows any problems.

It just might be something wrong with the OS that is causing the problem.

54and56

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Try running Openelec or LibreELEC from a USB stick on the mini HTPC and see if that shows any problems.

It just might be something wrong with the OS that is causing the problem.

Thanks Johnboy, I didn't realise you could run Openelec on a Win 10 PC from a USB stick. I'll give it a go.

BTW, I don't think the issue with Kodi not closing is OS related. Having looked online it seems to be related to some add ons not closing correctly. https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/3fkqk1/kodi_not_exiting_cleanly_in_windows_10/

Johnboy1951

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Thanks Johnboy, I didn't realise you could run Openelec on a Win 10 PC from a USB stick. I'll give it a go.

BTW, I don't think the issue with Kodi not closing is OS related. Having looked online it seems to be related to some add ons not closing correctly. https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/3fkqk1/kodi_not_exiting_cleanly_in_windows_10/

Ah yes ..... I have had addons cause a huge delay in closing Kodi, I don't remember it not closing at all TBH.
I now run as near stock as I can and have no problems.

CantGetNoSleep

My Kodi on Windows 10 won't go fullscreen - any way around this?

Mickalus

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

...
I'd prefer to just have a simple network media player which can access the NAS and keep track of what episodes have been watched (like the little 'tick' in Kodi) but I can't find anything which doesn't require software to be installed on the NAS e.g Plex.
...
.

You should be OK to install Plex Media Server on the PC and then map to the NAS from the PC and point your Plex Library to that.

Some NAS devices can do the Plex Server function too but not all.

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

...

BTW, I don't think the issue with Kodi not closing is OS related. Having looked online it seems to be related to some add ons not closing correctly. https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/3fkqk1/kodi_not_exiting_cleanly_in_windows_10/

If you're just using the core features in Kodi have you tried disabling/removing add-ons to see if it makes a difference?


Edit: Also check out Emby and Media Portal - 2 alternatives that will do the same as Kodi / Plex.

Johnboy1951

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

My Kodi on Windows 10 won't go fullscreen - any way around this?

Dunno about Win 10 .... but here I can toggle Kodi Full Screen/Windowed mode using the

\

key. Should be something similar for Win 10.

54and56

Mickalus wrote: »

You should be OK to install Plex Media Server on the PC and then map to the NAS from the PC and point your Plex Library to that.

Was excited to see this option but when I installed the Plex server on the Win 10 PC the only locations it offered for library's were on the PC itself.

The NAS is Ethernet cabled to the router as is the PC but the Nas isn't ethernet cabled to the PC, if that makes sense. Would cabling the NAS to the PC solve this problem?

degsie

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Was excited to see this option but when I installed the Plex server on the Win 10 PC the only locations it offered for library's were on the PC itself.

The NAS is Ethernet cabled to the router as is the PC but the Nas isn't ethernet cabled to the PC, if that makes sense. Would cabling the NAS to the PC solve this problem?

You can manually add a folder to your library from the NAS in the form of '\\[NAS_IP]\Movies' etc.

Mickalus

Add Library > Select your type - "Movies" for example > Browse for Media Folder >
Where it lists "C:\Users\..." on that page, you should be able to enter in what degsie suggested above.

If that doesn't work out for you, you can map a drive to the NAS
Take a look **here**

The path will be the same '\\[NAS_IP]\Movies' etc, but then it will show up as a drive letter on your machine just like the C Drive and might make it easier on the plex library page.

54and56

Mickalus wrote: »

Add Library > Select your type - "Movies" for example > Browse for Media Folder >
Where it lists "C:\Users\..." on that page, you should be able to enter in what degsie suggested above.

If that doesn't work out for you, you can map a drive to the NAS
Take a look **here**

The path will be the same '\\[NAS_IP]\Movies' etc, but then it will show up as a drive letter on your machine just like the C Drive and might make it easier on the plex library page.

Hi,

Mapping the drive worked a treat. I'm up and running on Plex. Just need to figure it all out now. Seems intuitive enough.

Thanks.