A media server is application software that stores digital media content like Audio, Videos, and Photos and makes the content available over the network. They can stream on computers, TVs, and mobile devices. They mainly make the media content available without downtime.

Examples include; Plex, Kodi, PlayOn, Stremio, Jellyfin, Emby, OSMC, and Universal Media Server. 

Kodi Media Server

Kodi is an open-source, free, local media streaming player that runs on your computer, TV, Mobile, or any streaming device. It can be installed on Windows, Linux, macOS, tvOS, iOS, and Android. It does not contain media on its own and rather allows the user to add media content or connect to third-party online services.

Kodi is highly customizable since it has a lot of contributing developers thus personalization gets better each day. This allows you to do the customization on your own to your liking as opposed to other media servers like Plex.

Kodi Media server also boasts of a wide selection of add-ons including music add-ons, video add-ons, program add-ons, and service add-ons. You can also play games on Kodi and import your photos where you can sort them using a remote. Kodi also allows you to record live TV using backend technologies like PVR.

In this guide, I will show you how to install Kodi Media Server on KDE Neon|Kubuntu.

Installation of Kodi Media Server on KDE Neon / Kubuntu

Update the system using the following commands.

### KDE NEON ###
sudo apt update && sudo pkcon update

### Kubuntu ###
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

To install, add the official Kodi PPA repository using the following commands.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

Update the system then install Kodi using the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install kodi

To check the version use the following command.

$ kodi --version
19.4 (19.4.0) Git:20220304-e12e66e019 Media Center Kodi
Copyright (C) 2005-2021 Team Kodi - http://kodi.tv

Launch Kodi on KDE Neon / Kubuntu

To launch Kodi, use the following command or via the application launcher

$ kodi

Then the Program opens as below.

Allow installations of addons from Unknown Sources to Kodi

To add media sources, we should enable the installation of add ons from unknown sources. To do this, Go to Settings>>System>>Addons then toggle the button to enable installation from unknown sources. Click on Yes to allow.

Installing Add-ons on Kodi Media Server

Go back by pressing Backspace or clicking the directory title at the top left corner.

To install add-ons, go to add-ons on the menu and click the corresponding one you want. I chose the video add-ons.

Then choose from the list (there are many) the one you want then click on it to open. I chose Vimeo then click Install.

Add Media Source to Kodi on KDE Neon / Kubuntu

You should ensure that your media sources are set up correctly so as not to mix up. What do I mean by that you wonder. If you have a movies folder ensure it only contains the movies and the same applies to TV Shows and music videos as they are different entities. You can use the flat order method to arrange your videos.

You can add different types of Media Sources to Kodi but I will use the video source as an example for this guide.

So go to Videos>>files>>add source. The following window opens, then click on Browse.

Select the directory you want to add the source from and click OK.

Once done you should see something like this.

Set Content on Kodi

Then click OK and a window will prompt you to set the content of the videos which can be Movies, TV Shows, and Music videos. Click on This directory contains and select the one you want.

Once you select the content the directory contains, you should see something like this.

Click OK and another prompt window opens to show to refresh to save the changes, click Yes.

After the source will be added to the list as shown below.

Then the source will be added and you can view the content as shown below.

You have successfully added a video source to Kodi. The other media sources pretty much follow the same process.

Customize Kodi on KDE Neon / Kubuntu

The good thing with Kodi is that it is highly customizable to fit your identity. If you want to change the theme, you can do so in a snap.

Go to Settings>>interface

Then in the interface, you can change the theme under the ‘Skin‘ menu.

You can also change the language under the ‘Region‘ menu.

Conclusion

In this guide, we have learned how to install Kodi Media Server on KDE Neon|Kubuntu. We have launched the program and learned how to add media sources using the video source as an example. We have also learned how to customize and change the theme of the media server to one’s liking. Kodi is fast and that can be seen while navigating through it and easy to get acquainted with even for the first time.

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