Set up and configuration

The hardest part of the process is organising and configuring your media libraries – here’s what you need to do.

Once Kodi is installed – either on its own or as part of OpenELEC or XBMCbuntu – the first thing you’ll need to do is get your media organised. You can physically store your media on any drive accessible to your server, but we recommend locally connected drives, if possible, as streaming content stored on a NAS drive could be problematic, particularly when accessing HD video.

Wherever you choose to store your media, your first task is to organise your media accordingly. That means setting up a logical folder structure into which all your media is stored, and naming your media files correctly (see below). The advantage of doing this is that it enables Kodi to scan and identify files, pulling in metadata and artwork from the internet to deliver a media library that’s packed with useful – and identifiable – information that makes it easy to browse from other devices.

You’ll find detailed instructions for organising your files at the Kodi wiki ( http:// bit.ly/XMBCNamingFiles). For instance, to enable proper scanning, movie film file names should only include the title and the year (optional) followed by the file extension. Thankfully, renaming your files doesn’t have to be a chore thanks to FileBot (see p37) which can also add in useful additional information, such as the episode titles to each individual show to make the files more recognisable. The step-by-step guide ( p37) reveals how to use it to rename your TV media, but it can also be used for movies and music.

Once your media is correctly named and stored in the right location, it’s time to set up Kodi itself. Launch it if necessary to find yourself at the main screen. If any add-ons are flagged as broken at this point, click Yes to remove them. Next, navigate to the System section and choose Settings to set up your server’s core functionality. Start by selecting Services > UPnP and click Share video and music libraries through UPnP to turn Kodi into a bona fide media server. Then work your way through the rest of the section enabling what features you think you might need – switch on

Type

Music

Movies

TV shows

Music videos

Folder Structure

Music\Artist\Album

Movies\Genre\Movie Title

TV\Genre\Show Title\Season

Music Videos\Artist the Webserver settings for example, and you’ll be able to administer remotely from another computer by typing its IP address into your browser using the following format: 192.168.x.y:8080. Make sure you passwordprotect this feature.

Also consider changing the skin if you don’t like Kodi’s look. Switch to the Appearance > Skin section under Settings and choose something like PM3.HD, if you’d rather menus were displayed vertically rather than horizontally, for example. Most other settings affect Kodi as a media centre rather than a media server (see p38 for details).

Put your library together

The moment of truth is here: Kodi is set up and ready to go, and so are your media. Now is the time to link them up. This involves creating libraries for different media types – you could simply have basic libraries like Movies and TV Shows, but if you have a large collection you may prefer to split them into genres – Movies (Sci-fi) and TV (US comedies) etc – to make them easier to browse from any device.

However you’ve carved up your media, the procedure for adding each library is the same: return to the home screen and select Videos > Files and you’ll see a solitary option awaits you: Add Videos. Click this to add your first library – or ‘source’ as Kodi calls it. Each library points to one or more folders. Assuming you’ve organised your libraries accordingly, you’ll only need to direct it to one folder – click Browse to do so. Next, give your library a suitably descriptive name (TV – Comedy, for example) and then you’ll be prompted to Set content, which tells Kodi what kind of media to expect. First choose its type (Movies, TV, Music Videos or Music), pick a scraper (the content database you want Kodi to use for artwork and media information) and then tweak your preferences.

Once complete, select Yes when prompted to refresh the library and wait while Kodi scans the folder and matches up its content with the selected scraper. Once you’ve set up your first library, you can move on to the next one – navigate back to the top of the Videos > Files >

Syntax

artist – track name

title (year)

tvshow – s01e01

artist – track name Add Videos to set up your new source. We’ll cover how to add music to your library in more detail later (see p38), and reveal workarounds that enable you to share photos too.

Extending Kodi

Kodi’s is a perfectly adequate media server if your content is readable on all devices and you only want to access it over your local network. If you want remote access over the internet to your media, or you have devices like Chromecast that refuse to recognise some or all of your media due to the video format, you’ll need some extra help. Because Kodi can’t transcode media like alternatives, such as Plex or MediaBrowser, you need to enlist some further help from BubbleUPnPServer ( http:// bit.ly/BubbleUPnPServer).

BubbleUPnP is designed to sit alongside an existing server and provide missing functionality. It offers the ability to transcode media and provide access to it from outside your network, via your Android tablet or phone, which can then pipe it to other devices. The Android app is free to install, but costs £3.04 to unlock certain limitations, so try before you buy. BubbleUPnP is reasonably simple to set up – full instructions can be found at the website. Once done, open your server’s browser and type localhost:5050 to configure it. So long as Kodi is running in the background you should see it immediately under the Media Servers tab.

If you’ve got access to a USB TV tuner device, why not get your server to perform as a video recorder in addition to its media server duties? This will enable you to record your favourite programmes and then watch them on any device you choose at a later date. Kodi works in conjunction with a number of TV back-ends, including TVheadend, VDR, MythTV and DVBLink. The best known of these is – of course – the open source MythTV PVR project, which can be found in most repositories, and promises to work with any tuner that’s supported in Linux. (We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at how to add PVR capabilities to your Linux PC in a future issue.)

Example

Music\The Beatles\Past Masters Volume 2\the beatles – paperback writer.mp3

Movies\Sci-Fi\Star Trek\star trek (2009).mkv

TV\US Comedy\Community\Season 3\community - s03e04.mkv

Music Videos\A-ha\a-ha – did anyone approach you.mkv