Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) eIt is a free and open source software centero (GPL) award-winning to play videos, music, pictures, games and more.
Allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet, including TV shows, PVR and live TV.
This multimedia center has the customizable layout and the clean playback options. It also has plugins, skins, UPnP support, web interfaces, remote control support, and much more.
The Kodi project is managed by the non-profit XBMC Foundation and developed by volunteers located around the world.
Kodi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, with a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remotes.
What's new in Kodi 18 RC1
After several months of development and hard work, the Kodi developers released this first RC version with which we are closer to receiving what will be the stable version of the application.
The first Kodi 18 RC arrives with extreme punctuality and it brings with it all the work done by the developers in the last two years.
The changes compared to the previous beta 5 are minimal: once again, the attention of the developers has been reserved for optimizing and fixing the latest problems encountered.
But within the most remarkable we can find.
Music library
The music section got a lot of improvements for those who care a lot about having a clean music library.
By analyzing the code and scan options, a better understanding of past intentions was gained and redone in a more structured way.
The same accounts in a smaller part for the video library, although that was in a better maintained state.
What's new is that just like music we can now also use embedded tags instead of filenames to populate the library.
Python 2 and 3 compatibility.
Currently, Kodi includes the Python 2.7 interpreter to run plugins written in the Python programming language.
The Kodi developers have announced their plan to fully implement Python 3 within the next year.
This means that when Kodi 19 is released, Kodi will only work with add-ons that support this programming language.
This is not the easiest process as Python 3 is not backward compatible, requiring additional effort on the part of developers to implement. We can only hope that Kodi 19 has no add-on issues when it is released.
retro player
Kodi has always had the option of using various add-ons and emulators, but with the Kodi 18 Leia RC 1, many systems are now directly supported.
The built-in emulators are based on the multi-core Libretro system, known by many as RetroArch.
The first emulators are already usable and no longer need to be installed externally. Many systems from Atari, Sega, Sony, Nintendo and others can be selected and installed directly with the corresponding profiles.
After installation these plugins will not appear in the games section. Instead you go through the file manager and then you just have to select a ROM there.
The emulator is recognized and started. Of course, not all types of ROM are included, as emulators are not illegal, but ROMs and BIOS files are generally included.
Retroplayer along with input manager makes controlling Kodi with various remotes or controllers much better and plug and play experience.
Improved settings panel
Kodi 18 Leia will not bring any drastic changes to its user interface. However, there is a major but subtle change in the Kodi settings menu.
In this new RC you'll find new granular controls and a simplified interface. And you will also see a small extended description at the bottom of the interface, which explains what each option does.
From now on, all users are invited to test the Release Candidate version, to find the remaining bugs and to test everything as well as possible, before the stable version arrives.