Anurag is an experienced journalist and author who’s been covering tech for the past 5 years, with a focus on Windows, Android, and Apple. He’s written for sites like Android Police, Neowin, Dexerto, and MakeTechEasier. Anurag’s always pumped about tech and loves getting his hands on the latest gadgets. When he's not procrastinating, you’ll probably find him catching the newest movies in theaters or scrolling through Twitter from his bed.
Kodi is one of the oldest media players out there, but people often dismiss it as a piracy app. Shady sellers use its name to sell boxes promising free movies and TV. They make money, their unauthorized add-ons break, and Kodi gets blamed for the mess.
I’ve used Kodi since it was called XBMC, and I still prefer it for watching my NAS library on a TV. I use Plex and Jellyfin too, but Kodi gives me more control over the interface and playback without putting useful features behind a subscription. You can get the most out of Kodi without using any piracy-related add-ons. In fact, it’s one app I always keep installed on my TV box.
Kodi gets blamed for what other people install
The piracy pitch comes from elsewhere
Credit: Kodi
“Fully loaded” Kodi boxes became popular in the mid-2010s. These were TV boxes with Kodi and unauthorized add-ons preinstalled to access paid content for free. The promise was so tempting that many of us fell for it, thinking we were buying a legit product. Much of that appeal relied on the trust Kodi’s developers had built.
In a 2016 blog post, Kodi’s developers describe users arriving at their forums asking why the boxes they supposedly sold no longer work. The team never sold those devices. Some users didn’t even realize the movies they were watching came from unauthorized sources, because sellers presented the whole package as Kodi. The developers said the situation had become bad enough that some core contributors threatened to quit. People were making money off the project’s name, while the volunteers maintaining it were left to deal with the complaints.
However, by early 2017, legal action against sellers was underway, with prominent prosecutions and lawsuits that year over devices configured or promoted to access copyrighted content without permission. Kodi was dragged into the controversy because people thought these products came from its developers, who had nothing to do with them. Kodi is open-source software that anyone can install or preload on a TV box, and those sellers used that freedom to market products under its name.
A clean Kodi installation gives you a media player, library management, and an official add-on repository. You supply the files or connect it to a service. The team refuses support for installations containing add-ons that violate its piracy policy. Even Kodi’s forum rules prohibit requests for pirated content and discussions of add-ons that provide it. That doesn’t prevent someone from modifying an open-source application, but it makes the project’s position clear.
My collection gets a proper home on the TV
A media library built around your files
My main reason for keeping Kodi installed is my NAS library. Having a collection of movies and TV shows sitting on a drive is only half the job. I also want a comfortable way to browse it from the couch. Kodi turns those folders into a library with posters, descriptions, seasons, and episodes. It tracks what I’ve watched and where I stopped, which is exactly what I need from a TV app.
Kodi can read files directly from a NAS or a connected USB drive. You add the folders as sources, tell it whether they contain movies or TV shows, and let it scan the collection. Sensible file names help it identify titles correctly, and you can supply your own artwork and metadata if you want more control. You don’t need to install a separate media server just to get that library on your TV.
The interface is another reason I keep coming back. I use Arctic: Zephyr - Reloaded, which gives Kodi the clean, minimal look I prefer. Skins can change the home screen, navigation, and library views, so you have plenty of freedom to decide how your collection looks.
Once Kodi has downloaded the artwork and library information, it doesn’t need an internet connection for every viewing session. The files still need to be accessible, whether they’re on the NAS or a local drive, but an internet outage doesn’t stop me from browsing and playing my own collection.
Playback control keeps Kodi on my TV
Useful controls without another subscription
A good-looking library only gets you so far if the player struggles with your files. I’ve had high-bitrate remuxes with TrueHD audio stutter in Plex’s native app, then play smoothly through the Plex add-on for Kodi. That experience gives me a reason to keep Kodi installed even when I’m using another service to manage the collection.
Kodi also puts useful controls within reach during playback. You can switch audio tracks, choose subtitles, and adjust audio or subtitle timing without leaving the video. If a subtitle file is slightly out of sync, you can fix the offset from the playback menu and keep watching. These are ordinary media-player features, but they matter when you’re watching your own files with different audio tracks and subtitle formats.
One setting I particularly appreciate is Downmix: Center Mix Level. When I’m playing a movie with 5.1 audio through stereo speakers, it lets me increase the center channel's contribution, where dialogue usually sits. It works when Kodi is downmixing the audio, with passthrough disabled. I still use Jellyfin on my NAS, and Kodi can work alongside that setup. You don’t have to abandon your existing server to use it as your TV player.
