As you’ve probably heard by now, – and we’re sure that many of you have plenty of questions. What’s new in Kodi 18 Leia, and what’s changed? How to safely update your Kodi, and what to do if a problem arises? And finally, which addons and skins you can install for your brand-new Kodi?Well, you’ll find all your answers here.
We’ve been following the development of Kodi 18 for quite some time now, and we’re prepared to share our knowledge. So, let’s take a deep look at Kodi 18 Leia, its new features, ways to install/update, and plenty more. Why Did it Take So Long for Kodi v18 to be Released?One of the first articles on TechNadu about Kodi 18 Leia was published more than two years ago (December 2017), titled ‘’. As you can see, we’ve predicted that Kodi 18 would come out in the first half of 2018, after taking a look at the release dates of previous major versions. As it turned out, Kodi’s developers have taken their time to perfect the application, which is the reason why we had to wait for so long.We’ve started to see the back in March od 2018, while the appeared in August of that year.
Then, Kodi 18 received its. As you can see, we’re talking about many months of hard work, as illustrated in the table found below. Kodi VersionDate of ReleaseKodi 18.0 LeiaJanuary 30, 2019.Kodi 17.0 KryptonFebruary 5, 2017.Kodi 16.0 JarvisFebruary 20, 2016.Kodi 15.0 IsengardJuly 21, 2015.Kodi 14.0 HelixDecember 23, 2014.It’s evident that Kodi 18 Leia is one of the most comprehensive releases, at least judging by the time it took to develop and publish the final product.
So now, let’s take a closer look at Kodi 18 Leia and see what kinds of features it brings. 10 Features & Improvements of Kodi 18 That You’ll Want To Try Straight Away!With over 500,000 new lines of code (and 500,000 lines removed), you can tell that Kodi 18 went through numerous changes.
However, these are mostly under-the-hood changes that make the latest Kodi version more stable than before. So, let’s take a look at what’s new.
Retroplayer Gaming & New Input SupportAs reported by our team a while back,. More precisely, it makes use of numerous emulators that can run retro games.
And to make this whole experience enjoyable, Kodi 18.0 supports new input types, which includes gamepads, joysticks, and more.To get started with gaming and emulators on Kodi 18.0, you need to open the new ‘Games’ category found on the main menu. Then, you’ll be asked to install one of the supported emulators. There aren’t too many options right now, but just enough to get you started.
Kodi’s developers have announced that they’ll be working hard on this feature, so make sure to check for gaming-related information in the future.To learn more about this feature and to see how to improve your gaming experience on Kodi, we’ve prepared a dedicated article. So, go ahead and check out the. Improvements to Kodi’s UI & UXWhen you launch Kodi 18 Leia for the first time, you’ll see a very familiar interface. Aside from a few subtle changes, almost everything looks close to identical to the previous major Kodi release.You will also see another change when you enter the application’s Settings menu. There’s still a grid of different groups of settings that have been reorganized. At the top, you’ll find the most frequently used options that take you to Kodi’s File Manager, Add-ons Section, System Information, and Event Log. All the options that you already know are still here, they’ve just been moved around a bit.
Improved Support for Audio & Video PlaybackIn general, Kodi’s team focused on improving the playback of 4K and 8K videos, supporting technologies like HDR and more. And there’s now even broader support for various codecs. To make sure all of these features run fine, Kodi has been optimized to take full advantage of your CPU/GPU, which should bring improvements across different platforms and devices.In terms of Blu-Ray support, you should see improvements related to disc detection and metadata. Kodi is also now an incredibly capable 3D video playback platform by working with more codecs supporting this format. And when it comes to audio, Kodi 18 fully supports audio file types such as ALSA, OSS, PulseAudio, Pi Audio, DirectSound, WASAPI, Darwin, and SndlO. New Ways to Control & Use Your Music LibraryYou already know that you can.
Once you do that, you’ll see a completely different side of Kodi with prominent album artwork and playlist options. However, the problem was that Kodi’s music library was somewhat confusing and much less polished than its video library, which is something that’s changed in the latest major revision.Kodi 18 comes with a much cleaner music library that’s also easier to use. No matter what kind of device you use Kodi on, new controls are adapted to different types of inputs. This means that moving through your music library can now be (effortlessly) done via keyboards, mice, or remotes. Of course, you can also use if you want to stream music instead of storing it locally. Live TV Now Comes as a Separate (Binary) AddonFor a while now, Kodi has been offering a way to watch live TV (and we’re not talking about streaming live TV over the Web). By using a USB tuner, you could use Kodi to watch local and cable TV stations and therefore keep Kodi in the focus on your home entertainment.
However, this isn’t something that was hugely popular, and Kodi’s developers have decided to cut back.Kodi 18 Leia provides a way to watch live TV but this isn’t a built-in feature anymore. This means that PVR now doesn’t come built into Kodi, but is now a separate add-on that you can install from Kodi’s official library. In turn, this has significantly reduced the size of Kodi’s installation file. And finally, you should know that this affects Kodi for Windows, macOS, and Android. All-New Support for DRM Files Within KodiEver since it allowed third-party addons, Kodi has been. The application’s open-source nature certainly has its good sides, but it doesn’t come without.
That’s one of the reasons why Kodi 18 Leia was made to play nice with DRM-protected content.To invite legal content onto this platform, Kodi 18 can now. Now, it’s up to media streaming companies to take advantage of this offer.