Kodi Team Releases Official Alpha Build of Version 18
The team behind the open source media player software Kodi has announced the release of the first official alpha build. It’s not yet clear when the final version should be released, though the team says it should at least happen “sometime this year.”
Martijn Kaijser of the Kodi team announces that the development of version 17 of Kodi, also known as Krypton, was sidetracked in November of last year and that version 18, which bears the name Leia, started. The new version is a ‘healthy balance between cleanup, new features and regression resolving’. Those who are already running the alpha build should have a fairly stable experience aside from occasional issues, Kaijser said in the announcement. However, a backup is still recommended.
The full release notes of this version can be consulted, although Kaijser takes the opportunity to mention a number of highlights of version 18. He mentions that the video player has undergone one of the biggest changes and that it has been split into its own component. The player now takes top priority over other actions such as menu navigation when it comes to gpu and cpu power. That was not possible in the past, says Kaijser. Further optimizations ensure that CPU load is reduced.
In terms of DRM, from version 18 it is possible to ‘play DRM protected content the way it is intended’, depending on the hardware and licenses present. There are now several add-ons that already use this functionality. The Kodi team announced a little over a year ago that it was considering building drm support into the software. Kodi taps into the drm that is already present on systems, such as the Content Decryption Module for Widevine and ReadyPlay in Android and Chrome. In combination with add-ons, this makes it possible to play Netflix and HBO Go, for example.
Other changes have been made to the music and video library, which should be ‘cleaner’ as a result. The live television component, according to the announcement, should be more stable and usable. Kodi for Android has support for Google Assistant and much of the code for this version has been rewritten. The Linux version has also been overhauled and now uses Wayland.
The alpha builds can be found on the download page under ‘development builds’. There are also download add-ons for Android and Windows.