Recommendations for the best Kodi/XBMC addons

You can get showbox on kodi.

Allyall wrote: »

Yes and no. There is a showbox addon, but there are so many addons that you wouldn't even notice showbox missing.

Also, openelec is a thousand times more stable than kodi running inside Android.

Agreed. I wouldn't use Showbox at all (or Mobdro, which seems to be recommended a lot). I'd use Genesis and SALTS for tv shows while The Mutts Nutts, YIFY HD, Phoenix, IceFilms and Genesis are great for movies. Navi-X can be good as well, although slightly more difficult to navigate than the other add ons...

Redgirl82 wrote: »

Not sure if someone can answer, I have a Fire TV Stick, just bought. I have my own build of Kodi which I normally just put onto each system. I have side loaded Kodi onto the Fire but any idea how I can transfer my build? I just replace the org.xbmc.kodi folder. I think that is the folder.....

You could use USB SD Card Wizard addon to backup/restore. Or yeah, manually just grab that folder and overwrite where you are restoring to.


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Not just for Kodi, but works great with TV Headend etc. (Apparently).

Works with Openelec/OSX/Windows/Linux good reviews from a Russian forum about it.

I don't know if it works with Android. It probably does, but I haven't seen anywhere confirming it or otherwise.
Anyway, I'm in for two, I didn't check how much buying it through the app would've saved extra, but I think it's 10% or 15%.

1pc USB 2.0 Digital DVB-T SDR+DAB+FM HDTV TV Tuner Receiver Stick RTL2832U+R820T2

I wouldn't imagine the antenna is excellent, but it seems to get good reviews regardless, and is only €4.77 delivered.

batistuta9 wrote: »

can you fit the proper aerial into those?

Not as shown in the pic ...... but there are adapters available on line to convert from one size to the standard aerial.

I got a similar one of those recently (same chipset) and use it mainly for Radio with the supplied wee aerial.
I have tested it using an adapter for TV and it works well.
The supplied aerial is useless for TV here .... but I suppose if you are very near the transmitter it would work for TV too.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Not as shown in the pic ...... but there are adapters available on line to convert from one size to the standard aerial.

I got a similar one of those recently (same chipset) and use it mainly for Radio with the supplied wee aerial.
I have tested it using an adapter for TV and it works well.
The supplied aerial is useless for TV here .... but I suppose if you are very near the transmitter it would work for TV too.

do you use this on android?

Allyall wrote: »

Not just for Kodi, but works great with TV Headend etc. (Apparently).

Works with Openelec/OSX/Windows/Linux good reviews from a Russian forum about it.

I don't know if it works with Android. It probably does, but I haven't seen anywhere confirming it or otherwise.
Anyway, I'm in for two, I didn't check how much buying it through the app would've saved extra, but I think it's 10% or 15%.

1pc USB 2.0 Digital DVB-T SDR+DAB+FM HDTV TV Tuner Receiver Stick RTL2832U+R820T2

I wouldn't imagine the antenna is excellent, but it seems to get good reviews regardless, and is only €4.77 delivered.

what about the drivers? if it doesn't work you could stick it in another machine & access it via a pvr in kodi, just reading there & apparently that'll work.

something like this might be better/safer for android but i'm not sure if it works with all SoCs

As a test FYI I used mine this morning. I used an adapter and attached my external aerial.

When I plugged it into my Linux box dmesg showed this

[  818.231624] usb 5-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[  818.330724] usb 5-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=2838
[  818.330728] usb 5-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  818.330730] usb 5-1.1: Product: RTL2838UHIDIR
[  818.330732] usb 5-1.1: Manufacturer: Realtek
[  818.330734] usb 5-1.1: SerialNumber: 00000001
[  818.337851] usb 5-1.1: dvb_usb_v2: found a 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' in warm state
[  818.395205] usb 5-1.1: dvb_usb_v2: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer
[  818.395215] DVB: registering new adapter (Realtek RTL2832U reference design)
[  818.399322] i2c i2c-9: Added multiplexed i2c bus 10
[  818.399325] rtl2832 9-0010: Realtek RTL2832 successfully attached
[  818.399332] usb 5-1.1: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Realtek RTL2832 (DVB-T))...
[  818.399394] r820t 10-001a: creating new instance
[  818.411258] r820t 10-001a: Rafael Micro r820t successfully identified
[  818.426132] Registered IR keymap rc-empty
[  818.426210] input: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb5/5-1/5-1.1/rc/rc0/input20
[  818.426265] rc0: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb5/5-1/5-1.1/rc/rc0
[  818.426353] input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) as /devices/virtual/input/input21
[  818.426439] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) registered at minor = 0
[  818.426448] usb 5-1.1: dvb_usb_v2: schedule remote query interval to 200 msecs
[  818.434619] usb 5-1.1: dvb_usb_v2: 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' successfully initialized and connected

I then started tvheadend, and did its set up. It used the device and found the Irish channels.

Then I launched VLC (also has the HTSP plugin installed), opened the Playlist and under Local Network selected Tvheadend HTSP which displayed the available Saorview channels, including the radio channels such as Gold.

All good.

This is how the OS see the device

# lsusb -v -s 005:005

Bus 005 Device 005: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x2838 RTL2838 DVB-T
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1 Realtek
  iProduct                2 RTL2838UHIDIR
  iSerial                 3 00000001
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           34
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          4 USB2.0-Bulk&Iso
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower              500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              5 Bulk-In, Interface
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           0
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              5 Bulk-In, Interface
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      2
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)

michael999999 wrote: »

So in layman's terms, that will pick up the saorview channels?

As stated

which displayed the available Saorview channels, including the radio channels such as Gold.

It can also be used to play FM radio, and with some extra work can be used as a Software Defined Radio receiver.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/

threein99 wrote: »

I have the zero cache tweak applied too.

Don't apply the zero cache tweak to android boxes - it is highly recommended not to do this as it is very bad for these boxes.

Genesis has been going to sh*t for a while now, ever since they started doing all these updates. I mean, it's gone from 4.8 to 5.5 in less than a month!! There is an older version of it being recommended on some forums. I find it very hit and miss to be honest - especially with the HD streams (which is what I want). There is either no stream available or it can't play the streams with 5.1 sound or it buffers and comes up with cache full (even though I've just emptied all cache files/sources). If someone can recommend a better source for HD tv shows, I'd be happy to hear from them. I use The Mutts Nutts, YIFY HD and Phoenix for movies.

Also, is anyone having issues with the YIFY HD movies add on lately? It's a fantastic source but has been giving me problems over the past week or so....

Allyall wrote: »

Two great ones for movies i find are pulsar and kmedia torrent.

Are these add ons or apks? What repo are they in? Any good for HD and new releases?

dahat wrote: »

Could never get them going correctly on my M8 with OE on it. Kept dropping off after initial buffer period.

Was always wary of Torrent streaming though.

Did you try different sources? And limit them to as few as possible? I could remove everything else, and have only them...