Is Kodi the new Napster

**macca22** · 07-20-2015, 06:40 AM

Just throwing it out there for discussion on this great website for filesharers how possibly the advent of Kodi for most devices and the large media libraries available through addons will see a decline in p2p etc?

**megabyteme** · 07-20-2015, 07:24 AM

I would not say that it is anything like Napster, in particular. It is a substantial resource for playing movies, television, and (from what I seem to remember) podcasts. Files are not shared from personal 'share' folders, but uploaded by elves (I presume) to large servers.

I use it for one-time viewings of shows I do not find any need to keep. My daughter (5 y/o) has an easier time with Plex than she does finding reliable servers to play the desired files.

I would like to see a feature added to Kodi that would auto-locate the best, most reliable server for the playback so that the frustration is taken out of doing so manually.

**shaina** · 07-20-2015, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by megabyteme

I would not say that it is anything like Napster, in particular. It is a substantial resource for playing movies, television, and (from what I seem to remember) podcasts. Files are not shared from personal 'share' folders, but uploaded by elves (I presume) to large servers.
I use it for one-time viewings of shows I do not find any need to keep. My daughter (5 y/o) has an easier time with Plex than she does finding reliable servers to play the desired files.
I would like to see a feature added to Kodi that would auto-locate the best, most reliable server for the playback so that the frustration is taken out of doing so manually.

Meg isn't plex more a internal media player , where you have the physical files on your own server or hard drive??

Or can it be used like Kodi or XBMC where you are using outside internet streaming from other peoples PC or servers??

And to have a rating on those would be great but the person can shut down the connection anytime they want how can you rate that??
I have seen list after list of a movies and you have to click on 5 or more til you get one that stays on (I think that is what you meant)...
But when you save that in memory , the next time you try that connection again , it could be gone......
I now just download everything store on my own drives and run it throughout the house , the kids request something I find it and that is that....

But I don't use plex , even know it is recommended even on some of my TVs ... Does it work like XBMC ??

**megabyteme** · 07-20-2015, 06:28 PM

Sorry for the confusion, Shay. I was comparing the two as different ways of watching files. Plex uses files that are already downloaded; Kodi streams from outside servers. It is typically easier for my daughter to play local files through Plex.

**shaina** · 07-20-2015, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by megabyteme

Sorry for the confusion, Shay. I was comparing the two as different ways of watching files. Plex uses files that are already downloaded; Kodi streams from outside servers. It is typically easier for my daughter to play local files through Plex.

Thank you for confirming what I thought.... But I do think Kodi or XBMC Is the way the future is going but I am still trying to figure out how much bandwidth savings there is in streaming from the internet instead of downloading files...I do see Netflix and that really hoggs internet bandwidth speed (never metered the download count tho , plus I have unlimited anyways so there is no affect on me when it comes to that) , but internal streaming really does nothing to bandwidth speed for me.
And it is way easier for my whole household to do it with internal server (exactly what you said) , just more work for me LOL!!
And I Use still Universal Media Server , a offshoot of PS3 Media Server on Steroids ... Great file system and easy to use.