Kodi and Jellyfin: Media Center under TUXEDO OS - TUXEDO Computers

To play a video or piece of music, a simple media player such as the one integrated in KDE Plasma or a general-purpose player such as VLC is usually sufficient. Both applications are pre-installed with a basic installation of TUXEDO OS. However, if you prefer to watch your films comfortably on the couch in front of the TV with a portion of popcorn in your hand, you need a media centre software. In the style of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Co., these programmes offer an overview of one’s own media collection and provide a wealth of information on series and films. With Kodi and Jellyfin, we present two media centres that are similar in their functions but also work in fundamentally different ways.

For use as a media centre or media server, we recommend a power-saving and compact computer such as the TUXEDO Nano Pro. The Nano Pro offers more than sufficient computing power for simultaneous streaming to several clients and on-demand transcoding. It can therefore convert video files from one codec to another in real time, so that different client devices can be used, no matter what format the content is in.

The Kodi Media Center

The open source media centre Kodi is installed, like most other applications, via the Discover software administration. After the first start, the programme speaks to you in English. Via the cogwheel menu and the options Interface » Regional » Language you can change the interface to any language you like. In the same menu you can also adjust the virtual keyboard layout and the standard formats for your region.Die Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft EVG hält an ihrem geplanten 50-Stunden-Warnstreik auf der Schiene ab Sonntagabend fest. Das teilte die Gewerkschaft am Freitag mit. Damit sind die Beschäftigten weiterhin aufgerufen, von Sonntagabend um 22 Uhr, bis Dienstagabend um 24 Uhr die Arbeit niederzulegen. Die DB hatte bereits am Donnerstag angekündigt, dass im Streikfall für diesen Zeitraum der komplette Fernverkehr eingestellt werde, auch die Regionalzüge werden voraussichtlich fast alle ausfallen.

In contrast to a simple media player, the Kodi Media Center organises the displayed content in a database and does not simply load it directly via a file manager. In the media overview, you not only see the name of the film file, but also metadata such as the year of release, data on the actors or the rating on film portals such as Imdb or Metacritic, as well as information on whether you have already seen the film. If necessary, you can search and filter your media collection according to this data.

You tell Kodi the location of your media collection via the settings under Media » Library and Videos …, Music … and Pictures …. Kodi loads the contents of the specified directories directly from the internal hard disk, from an external hard drive, an usb flash drive, or also via Samba or NFS from the network shares of a NAS or a file server. The imported video and music files can then be found in the overview of the programme under the respective category.

Click on one of the titles read in to start playback; control is via the usual operating elements at the bottom of the screen. If necessary, Kodi automatically loads suitable subtitles from the network. To do this, activate in the settings under Add-ons » Download » Subtitles the extensions OpenSubtitles.org or OpenSubtitles.com. You can then open the subtitle functions in the player to the left of the cogwheel symbol and download suitable texts directly from the playback.

The Jellyfin media server

The open-source media server Jellyfin takes a different approach: Here, the database (plus server) and the clients are separated from each other. Client programmes are available for Linux, MacOS X and Windows as well as Android, Android TV and iOS and various smart TV platforms. In addition, the content can be called up and streamed in the browser. In this way, several users on different devices can watch content at the same time and independently track which films or series they have already seen. They can also start a film on one device and then continue it at the same point on another.

You install the server component in TUXEDO OS via the Discover software management in form of a flat package. For installation via a classic Debian package you would have to include a additional package source, which we do not recommend. After the installation, start the Jellyfin Server by clicking the Start button in the upper right corner of Discover or via the application menu of the desktop environment. The start automatically opens a browser window with the web frontend of the service. Optionally, load the website manually into the web browser via the URL http://localhost:8096.

TIP: To have the Jellyfin Server start automatically after logging into the desktop in the future, add the service to the autostart programmes. To do this, open Settings » System Settings and enter the programme under Startup and Shutdown » Autostart » Add… » Add application….

For configuration, you then select the language, create a user (who works independently of the accounts created in the system) and include your media collection. Installed via Flatpak, however, the Jellyfin server does not directly get full access to the file system. In the default configuration, the system allows the service access only to /run/media, /media or /mnt (all read-only) as well as ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinServer with read and write permissions (including the respective subfolders).

Use the following commands to create the corresponding folder structure in your home directory below ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinServer and open it in the file manager of the desktop environment. If you want to use other directories, change the permissions with Flatseal (to be installed via Discover), for example.

mkdir -p ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinServer/media/{Movies,Music,Shows,Books,Photos}

xdg-open ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinServer/media

Please note that Jellyfin itself does not offer the possibility to load the data from a network drive (Samba or NFS). If necessary, you must therefore manually mount the share into the file system beforehand.

Clients for PC, smartphone or smart TV

You can install the official Jellyfin client for PCs under TUXEDO OS from the Discover software administration in flatpak format. After starting the application and entering the server URL (do not forget the port number 8096), the already familiar interface opens. The difference between the web frontend and the Jellyfin client is the support of different media codecs. As of May 2023, only the Jellyfin client can handle all common codecs. In the case of the browsers, video files encoded with HEVC/H.265 in particular require transcoding of the content, which overtaxes particularly less powerful hardware on the Jellyfin server like a Raspberry Pi.

For users of smartphones and tablets, Jellyfin develops its own apps for Android (Google Play, F-Droid, Github) and iOS (Jellyfin Mobile or Swiftfin). There are also a number of unofficial apps from ambitious developers, such as Findroid (for movies and series) or Finamp (for music).

For this class of device, it is very interesting that Jellyfin offers the possibility of downloading content so that it can be watched offline later, for example, while sitting on a plane without a network. To do this, tap the menu icon with the three vertical dots in the detailed view of a film or piece of music and select Download. Unlike other streaming solutions such as Netflix, however, Jellyfin loads the content into the regular memory of the device and does not display it as “Offline” within the front ends.

Kodi as a client for your Jellyfin server

Optionally, integrate the content of your Jellyfin server into the Kodi Media Center. The project offers two options with Jellyfin for Kodi and Jellycon: Jellyfin for Kodi hooks directly into the Kodi database so that the movies, series and music stored on the server appear directly in the media centre’s libraries. However, the Jellyfin developers point out that this way is only recommended if Kodi does not integrate any other content, but only serves as a client for Jellyfin.

Jellycon, on the other hand, inserts itself into Kodi as a video add-on, similar to what Kodi does with the media libraries of public television channels like ARD and ZDF from Germany, or with streaming services. After installing the extension, Jellycon appears under Add-ons in the sidebar. From there you can access the content stored on the Jellyfin server. The Jellycon addon reacts a little slower than Jellyfin for Kodi, but its own database and Jellyfin do not get in each other’s way.