The new version comes loaded with corrections, improvements and various new features
After almost two years since the last significant branch was published, the launch of the new version of the popular open media center Kodi 20.0, previously developed under the name XBMC.
middle centers provides an interface to watch live TV and manage a collection of photos, movies, and music, supports browsing through TV shows, works with an electronic TV guide, and organizes video recording on a schedule.
Main news of Kodi 20.0
Since the latest version, more than 4600 changes have been made in the base code and within the most important changes we can find that the ability to load multiple instances of binary additions. For example, you can download multiple instances of the TVHeadend plugin to connect to different servers, but using the same settings for the plugin itself, such as channel groups and hidden channels.
In addition to this, in this new version of Kodi 20 added support for hardware accelerated video decoding in AV1 format (on Linux via VA-API) developed by the Open Media Alliance (AOMedia), which includes companies such as Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Intel, ARM, NVIDIA, IBM, Cisco, Amazon, Netflix, AMD, VideoLAN, Apple, CCN and Realtek. AV1 support has also been added to the Inputstream API, allowing the plugin to use the inputream.adaptive interface to play AV1 streams in the plugin.
Another change that stands out from the new version is that added the ability to place fonts dynamically, change the background color and border of the subtitle area, as well as improved support for SAMI, ASS/SSA and TX3G formats and added support for the WebVTT subtitle format and the OTF (OpenType Font) font format.
For Windows, full support for extended dynamic range has been implemented.or (HDR, High Dynamic Range), while Linux provides the ability to customize HDR output using the GBM (Generic Buffer Management) API.
Also in Linux, it is highlighted that the reproduction of optical discs has been improved, as well as the addition of the default mounting of optical drives using udisks and the resumption of playback of ISO images of Blu-Ray and DVD discs has been implemented.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Added a separate setting to set the volume of sound effects in the interface.
- A new color selection dialog has been added.
- Added the ability to work through an HTTPS proxy.
- The ability to access external storage using the NFSv4 protocol has been implemented.
- Added support for the WS-Discovery protocol (SMB discovery) to discover services on the local network.
- Context menus in different windows have been brought to a single form, such functions as playing albums have been implemented directly from the widgets.
- A lot of work has been done to improve stability, performance and security. Extended API for plugins.
- Added support for the PipeWire media server.
- Integrated support for Steam Deck game controllers.
- Added support for Apple devices on the M1 ARM chip.
- The launcher for libretro-based games and console emulators implements the ability to save state to continue the game from an interrupted position, even if the game itself does not allow saving.
- The system of working with subtitles has been redesigned.
- The code for processing closed caption formats has been modernized to simplify development and maintenance.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it about this new release, you can check the details In the following link.
As for those interested in being able to install the new version, they should know that from the Official website Ready-to-use installation packages are available for Linux, FreeBSD, Raspberry Pi, Android, Windows, macOS, tvOS, and iOS. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2+ license.