As reported earlier, the popular open source software media player XBMC has changed its name to Kodi Entertainment Center, making Kodi 14 Helix the successor to XBMC 13 Gotham. It’s roughly been a week since the official announcement and the team has already rolled out the first iteration in the form of Kodi 14 Helix alpha 2.
Helix’s description states that Kodi 14 is more of a stability and performance update and is not directed to bring new features or an interface overhaul. Yet, a few noteworthy changes do find its way to Helix.
They include better codec support, especially h.265 and VP9, library improvements (like faster media scan and better UPnP communications), support for more Android chipsets, better AirPlay on the iOS app, backward compatible add-ons and a couple of new skins.
Besides, the clients on Windows, OS X and Linus will receive huge improvements.
The changelog for Kodi 14 is 12 pages long and contains 333 changes so far. Needless to say, they can’t all be summarized here, but a few additional items worth noting include:
- Update PVR add-ons
- Start of redesigning the PVR windows
- Various improvements to the Audio Engine, with the OSX platform as great beneficiary.
- Improvements to the GUI skinning engine
- Extended JSON-RPC interface
- Countless smaller and larger bug-fixes throughout the program and vast improvements in every area. This should improve memory usage, stability, speed and user friendliness.
- Add-ons are still compatible up to the Frodo versions.
- Skins are partially still compatible, however to fully function they will need to be updated to latest changes. Expect breakage here.”
Read the complete changelog here.
The release includes Helix for Apple TV 2 too. You’ll find the links for the download and detailed instructions on setting up Helix here.
However, please beware that this is one of the earliest builds of the software you can get your hands on. This version might have some serious bugs and stability issues. So only users who know what they’re doing should attempt the installation and that too, after making sure that you’ve backed up all your contents – “ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR USERDATA FOLDER WHEN USING DEVELOPMENT BUILDS!” Others are recommended to wait for the public release of Kodi 14.
Also read:Â
- XBMC changes name to Kodi
- How to install XBMC 13.0 Gotham on Apple TV 2
- How to get XBMC on your HDTV via Apple TV 3 (or non-jailbreakable Apple TV 2)
- Top 10 best XBMC addons for Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2
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