Kodi 20 Home Theater Software has been released
Kodi 20.0, codename "Nexus", has been released. The final version of Kodi 20.0 includes major new features and improvements, smaller changes and fixes. Highlights include support for AV1 hardware encoding, support for multiple binary add-on instances, and more.
Kodi 20.0 downloads are provided on the official project website already. The multimedia application is available for the desktop operating systems Windows, Linux and Mac, for the mobile operating systems Android and iOS, and for Raspberry Pi devices. Support for Android allows Kodi to be installed on many TV streaming devices, including Amazon Fire TV.
All known blockers have been cleared in the release, so that all supported platforms will be updated.
Note: Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may display a warning screen when the Kodi installer is run. The installer is new and that is why the SmartScreen warning is displayed.
The last major Kodi release, Kodi 19.0, was released in February 2021. More than 4600 commits have found their way into the new version of Kodi according to the team.
Kodi 20.0 Highlights
- AV1 Video Support --- hardware decoding of AV1 media is now supported on several Kodi platforms. Addons may also play AV1 streams thanks to an update of the Inputstream API.
- Multiple binary addons instances -- Multiple instances of binary addons may now be loaded; this may be useful for certain addons that support different servers or connections.
- Subtitle system rework -- Kodi 20.0 features a massive rework of the subtitle system. Development and maintenance is improved as a consequence, and some features that could not be supported previously may now be supported. The development team lists dynamic positioning of fonts, subtitle positioning, improve multi-language support and color changes as new features.
- HDR support on Windows -- full HDR support for desktop Windows systems (not on Xbox). Improvements include "more accurate ACES Filmic" and HABLE tonemapping.
- NFSv4 support -- Network File System Version 4 support added. It is necessary to either select NSFv3 or NSFV4.
- Context Menu improvements -- right-click and long-press context menu handling improved.
- Game Savestate Support improvements -- gamers may save game states at any time now, and even if the games do not provide native savestate features.
The release features many under-the-hood changes that improve stability, performance and safety, according to the announcement on the official blog.
Closing Words
Preparations to start work on the next major Kodi release, Kodi 21.0, started already.
Now You: do you use Kodi? What is your impression of the new version?
Doesn’t recognize downloaded video files anymore
Notable change (after reading through commits) is the PVR no longer shows what’s recording unless you go to timers. This is a bummer because sometimes I need to know if the server is actively recording with a very quick launch of KODI. Now I get more clicks/button presses if remoted. :(
Also under Linux all visualizations are currently disabled (and something to do with a joystick which I never use). Literally a few months ago they got the visualizations fixed and now they are broken again. Grr.
I do like how Favorites have been improved to a window instead of a dialog… even in the classic Confluence skin it appears (have some supported folk that prefer the original skin).
Seems that I can resume playing my DLNA media without closing and relaunching the application but that may have been fixed in 19.5.
Usage over time will tell if it’s an improvement or not. Many, many, many pages of bugs fixed which should be good… we’ll see if it crashes less.
Some more diddy too…
Some of my settings got blown away:
1. Flipped me back to Basic which is weird… but fixable
2. Use channels in backend wasn’t working even though it was just before the update… but a toggle of it back and forth to enable worked with PVR. hts PVR working as expected so far.
Plex add on not working on Kodi 20 Nexus
can’t seem to find the v20 for shield pro, even trying troypoint rapid installer not working and playstore is 19.3 still
update:
using the kodi android installer addon on the 2 nvidia shield pro units (bought in 2022) allowed me to install actual V20 and not the V20 RC version on google play store. 2 units running fine.
no issues using the harmony hub with bluetooth on them.
presently both units show as Kodi 20 (20.0.0) and not 20 RC whatever as when installed from beta test of play store.
ok even though beta lists as 19.3 its installing 20
Yes, and it works great on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2017)
The only caveats is that some add-ons doesn’t work anymore. like Plex for Kodi (downloaded from the official , and also that some 3rd party repositories won’t work…