The first maintenance release of Kodi 15 “Isengard” has been released. Official PPA’s ready for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04 and derivatives, e.g. Linux Mint 17.x, and Elementary OS Freya.

Following issues has been fixed in Kodi 15.1, remaining issues will be fixed in next point release in the 15.x range.

• Flush renderbuffers when flushing video player
• Fix broken network.bandwidth setting
• Fix stuttering in PVR windows
• Fix holding lock while querying PVR backend
• Unsigned apps are not working on jailbroken iOS 5.1 devices
• Add installed languages to the list of possible stream languages
• Ensure that file descriptor for logfile is NULL’ed
• Fixes a crash when trying do delete a file in filemanager
• Reimplement Cocoa_GetVolumeNameFromMountPoint for OSX
• Update label color for sliderex controls
• CProgressJob: fix crash in DoModal
• Fix missing return in CGUIWindowPVRBase::OnBack
• FFmpeg: Bump to 2.6.4
• Handle startup splash as regular window
• Fix linkage for VTB framework for iOS
• Fix broken native keyboard on iOS 5.1.1 devices
• Fix wrong navigation in SmartPlaylistEditor.xml
• Make some virtual filesystems available when no network is available yet
• Fix formatting on mysql queries that could cause crash on update
• Only set mouse wheel control spin and slider controls when they are actually focusses
• Respect view mode changes of EPG when controlling number of EPG updates
• Handle startup splash as regular window which prevent problems if PVR or masterlock is used as startup window
• Fix watched flag not displaying if item is also resume-able
• Remove some logging on exiting that could crash on exit in some cases
• Fix overlapping subtitles in some cases

Install / Upgrade Kodi 15.1 in Ubuntu:

1. Add the official PPA.

Open terminal from the Dash, App launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

2. Install/Upgrade Kodi

After adding the PPA, you can directly upgrade Kodi by launching Software Updater / Update Manager after checking for updates.

Or you can run below commands one by one in terminal to install it for the first time:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kodi

You may also install the encoder and addons via command:

sudo apt-get install kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

Once installed, log out and select log in with Kodi session. Or launch the media center from the Dash (may need restart).

The 15.0 release of Kodi media center, formerly known as XBMC, was released yesterday with quite a lot of new features. Codename is Isengard

According to the official release note, Kodi 15.0 features:

• A new chapter selector window allows you to visually browse and select chapters from mkvs and other containers that support chapters.
• Adaptive seeking (aka Skip Steps). The more times you press a button to seek in a period of time, the larger the jump forward or backward will be.
• Audio and Subtitle Lists. For content that includes multiple audio and subtitle choices, you can select from a full list of choices, rather than manually searching through a spinner.
• Language Add-ons and Expanded International Preferences. Now language translations get regularly updated to all users as the add-ons themselves update.
• Improved Add-on Manager to make finding the add-ons you are looking for easier.

The new release also brings other improvements include: ffmpeg 2.6.3 update, improved Closed Captioning support in Live TV, fixed music video queuing, allow scanning of new sources and marking as watched, and Windows DXVA HEVC hardware decoding support.

Install / Upgrade Kodi 15.0 in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu 12.04 support has been dropped in Kodi PPA. Packages for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17 and Elementary OS Freya will be made into PPA very soon.

1. To add PPA, open terminal from the Dash, Launcher, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

2. After adding PPA, you can install or upgrade Kodi as well as the encoder, addons via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

Or using Synaptic Package Manager to install/upgrade the software:

XBMC Team finally announced the Kodi 14.1 (formerly known as XBMC), the first small bugfix release in the Kodi 14 Helix range.

For Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and derivatives users, the new release has been made into its official PPA two days before the announcement.

According to the Kodi 14.1 announcement, this release fixes:

• incorrect video screensize on Android AML devices
• potential segfault when silencing audio
• do not skip streaminfo if format is not know.
• DXVA flickering on AMD
• prevent possible over-flow in ALSA
• possible sorting problems in library
• possible problem in library navigation
• don’t scroll text when it’s set to not do it
• scroll text if it’s too long on spinner controls
• don’t overlap PVR search labels
• bug in DLNA client string on iOS
• updated several PVR add-ons
• remember played state of video when started from recently added
• correct vsync on OSX
• broken keyboard input
• prevent crash on circular dependencies of add-ons
• large file support on Android
• random exiting on Android x86 builds (Nexus Player for example)

How to install/upgrade Kodi 14.1 in Ubuntu:

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add Kodi/XBMC PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

After added the PPA, you can upgrade Kodi Media Center via Software Updater, or by running below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

Finally, log out and log in back with Kodi session, or start Kodi from the Dash.

The first stable release of Kodi Media Center, formerly known as XBMC, has been released the day before Christmas Eve. The code name of Kodi 14.0 is ‘Helix Unwinds’.

Besides changing names, Kodi 14.0 uses FFmpeg 2.4.4 which means it’s now able to play back h.265 and VP9 video codecs. Also there are improvements on Kodi Library and audio playback, crashes on Linux and audio-related bug-fixes, more user controls.

More details, see the Kodi release page.

Install Kodi 14 via PPA in Ubuntu:

Kodi 14 available in its official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivatives.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

1. First install the required packages to manage repository:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties pkg-config software-properties-common

2. Then add the Kodi PPA by running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

3. Reload the system package lists:

sudo apt-get update

4. Finally install Kodi as well as the encode, addon:

sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

When done, run kodi in terminal to start the media center. For me, I need a restart to make the Kodi icon available in the Dash.