Get to grips with security

5 DEFINE CONTENT

Once you’ve set the video folder, the Set Content window appears. Click on the word ‘none’ besides ‘This directory contains’. You can now specify that this folder contains Movies. By default, information about films is taken from The Movie Database. Under ‘Content Scanning Options’, you can specify whether the movies are in individual folders or not. Finally, click OK.

6 ADD TV SHOWS

Kodi will now ask if you want to refresh information for your items. Click ‘Yes’, then press [Esc] to go back to the main screen. Hover your mouse over TV Shows, then click Enter Files. Browse and select the folder containing your TV shows in exactly the same way as you did for Movies. In the Set Content window, click ‘none’ and specify that the content contains TV Shows.

7 ADD MUSIC

Kodi supports music playback. Press the [Win] key to show your Taskbar or exit Kodi and navigate to your music. Name tracks using the ‘Track number-Artist-Song name’ format – 04-Toybox-Tarzan and Jane, for example. Relaunch Kodi and choose Music, then Enter Files. Enter the path to your music folder in the same way as before. Under ‘Set Content’ choose Music.

8 INSTALL THE YOUTUBE ADD-ON

Kodi supports extra features, including the official YouTube add-on, which can both search for and play videos. Return to the main menu and choose ‘Add-ons’ > ‘Enter add-on browser’. Select ‘Video add-ons’, then scroll down to YouTube. Double-click and select Install. You can now access YouTube from the Add-ons menu. Click Search > New Search to look for videos.

3 CHANGE SKIN

In Kodi, your chosen skin governs the look of the graphical user interface you use to manage and play your content. This includes the layout of menus, the background and, in some cases, extra icons and features. By default Kodi uses the rather austere Estuary skin. But you can change this to something more visually appealing. To do that, head to ‘Add-ons’ > ‘Look and Feel’ > Skin.

4 CONFIGURE SETTINGS

Click the Settings icon at the top left to change Kodi’s settings. The menus are categorised so this should be fairly self explanatory. For instance, to optimise Kodi for use with touchscreens go to Skin Settings > General > Touch Mode. You can also fine-tune your playback settings. Click the button at the bottom-left to switch between Basic and Advanced settings.

POWER BUTTON Click here to show the power menu. You can use this to exit Kodi, as well as reboot, hibernate or shutdown your PC. SETTINGS Click to configure settings, such as your chosen skin, and whether to autoplay music, videos and more. MEDIA MENU Hover over these to display different media types. If you haven’t added any content yet, you can do so from here. ADD-ONS Click to access the Add-ons browser. Add-ons enhance Kodi’s features with new skins and extra media content.

CATEGORIES These are useful if you have a lot of videos. You can sort content by genre, alphabetically and much more. LISTINGS Shows content you have recently added and watched, as well as a small progress bar under videos you’ve started.