Kodi - Watching Movies and TV Shows

"Kodi is a free and open source media player application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating-systems and hardware platforms, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet." From Kodi Website.

Nothing beats watching a good movie at the end of a work day. And it is costly if we subscribe to paid Video On Demand (VOD) video service. Is there a way you can watch a good movie and not pay a single cent? Yes, there is. You might consider "Kodi" on your computer/media boxes. While there are many applications that allows streaming of movies, Kodi is one of the application that is available for all Operating Systems (IOS, Android, Window, Linux, RasPi or MacOS), and it is highly configurable and customisable.

Unfortunately, Kodi is not easy to configure. Let me share a simple and quick guide on the installation. For my guide, I will be installing Kodi into my MacOS, the installing step for any other OS should be quite similar.

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INSTALLING KODI

Step 1 - Download Kodi

Step 2 - Once Installed. Open the file. For MacOS, need to drag into the applications folder. Skip this step if you are not installing on MacOS.

Step 3 - Open the Kodi application and see if it is working.

Step 4 and beyond - Installing Addons and change settings

There are many video Add-On in Kodi, but I would recommend you to install "Exodus" add-on to watch English movies/tv shows. And due to potential legality issues, I will not be showing these steps. If you are really keen, do follow the step by step guide from this TVADDON). And yes, you might also be interested in installing SuperRepo too.

Last but not least, you might want to install Subtitle and Maintenance Tool for English subtitle and the ability to clear Kodi's cache when it is full.
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Internet Tip : Configuring the DNS to Speed Up the Internet

DNS stands for Domain Name Server. It is an internet equivalent of our phone book. It maintains a directory of Domain Names and translates them into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The Internet only recognises IP address and is dependent on the DNS to convert Domain Names into IP Addresses.

By default, the chosen DNS will be the Internet Service Provider (ISP)'s phonebook. Some experts claim that this phonebook is not powerful enough and needs slightly longer to translate Domain Names to IP Addresses. Hence slowing down the internet speed for the average user.

This is extremely crucial for me as I am on a 100 MB data plan with the "green pipe". Any small loss would mean a much slower surfing experience for me and my family.

In order to convince that changing DNS will improve overall speed, I tested it using the "Namebench" application. The test took quite some time and it eventually stated that the Google and OpenDns are the free, fastest and nearest in Singapore.

After configuring my router's DNS to Google and OpenDNS, it seems like the internet browsing speed has improved. Unfortunately, I do not possess the know-how to quantify this speed gain. If you are interested to see if it actually speed up your internet speed,  you can read (link) to see how can you perform a test on the speed of the DNS. The free and responsive DNS are as listed:

• Google DNS (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4)
• OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220)

Interestingly, I also chanced across free DNS that offers "family shielding". Once configured, it will block out almost all "adult-contents" websites. This might be a good way for parents to restrict children from surfing such websites.

• Open DNS Family Shield (208.67.222.123 or 208.67.220.123)

BTW, you can either specify the DNS either in the router or the computers, I recommend the former. I will NOT be showing the step-by-step guide to set up the DNS, and you will need to refer to the guides publish in other blogs/websites.

Welcome to ManCave SG!

In my mancave*, I am sharing some of the logical implementations and interesting trial/experiments that I have done or are "work-in-progress" for my home mancave. Hopefully, this would stimulate your thinking processes and aid you in implementation to your own mancave!

Rest assured that I would speak in simplified "caveman" languages - i.e. minimum technical, scientific, and profound languages would be used.

Do feel free to drop comments for exchange of ideas or clarifications.

"Mancave (Noun) - A sanctuary that is specially design for the male for his activities."