Month: October 2019

How to Change Skins on Kodi

In this short guide we cover what a Kodi skin is, the only 2 ways to change skins on Kodi and our top picks for awesome skins on Kodi, or you can ready our in-depth Kodi skins guide here <LINK>

What is a Kodi Skin

When you first install Kodi, you’ll notice that the skin, or appearance is utilitarian, very simple and blue. On Kodi 17 the fault skin is Confluence, and on Kodi 18 its Estuary. Simple menu and icons and blue background.

Nothing to write home about. Luckily there are hundreds of skins out there, and you can easily install a skin to change the appearance of literally anything on Kodi.

From the background image and color, to the menu location and size, icons and how you navigate Kodi and addons. A new skin can make a huge difference to customizing Kodi just for you.

Don’t worry about getting stuck with one skin, in our simple install guide, you will see that changing skins couldn’t be easier. 

2 Ways to Change Skins on Kodi

To change skins on Kodi there are 2 simple methods.

Change Skins on Kodi Through Settings

This is by far the easiest way to change skins on Kodi. Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Start Kodi and go from the Home screen
2. Click on Settings which is a gear icon on the top left-hand corner of your screen
3. Click on Interface
4. On the left-hand side menu, you will see “Skins” at the top
5. On the right-hand side, a menu will come up, with the top category saying “Skin” and the current name of your Skin (If default it will say Estuary or Confluence depending on your Kodi version)
6. Click on Skin, a new pop up will appear, the list will only have a few items as this only shows your installed skins
7. Click “Get More” you should see a list of 20+ skins, starting with Aeon Nox
8. Choose the skin you want, double click, and it will be downloaded to your list of installed skins. You just click Cancel to return to the previous screen, click on the downloaded skin and it will change your Kodi skin
9. Once a Skin is downloaded you can further tweak the setting in the Skin section you got to on Step 5

Change Skin on Kodi through a ZIP file

Some skins may not be available in the “Get More” section, so you will need to find and download the ZIP file 

1. Using your Android device, download your chosen ZIP file and remember where you have stored it on your device
2. Make sure you have turned on “Unknown Source”, if you haven’t simply gone to: Settings > Addons > Turn on Unknown Sources
3. From the Home menu go to Settings and then Addons
4. Click the Open Box Icon on the top left-hand corner of the screen above Video Addons
5. Choose “Install from Zip File”
6. From the pop navigate to the file location where you saved your earlier ZIP file
7. Click on the ZIP and wait for it to install
8. Go back to the Home Screen and click Addons 
9. Then Click Addons from the left-hand vertical menu
10. Next click on Look and Feel
11. When you click on Skin your new skin should be there

Awesome Skins on Kodi

This is just a quick list of a few of the best skins on Kodi, to check out our review of 20+ awesome Kodi skins read our guide here <LINK>

Some skins we recommend you try:

• Aeon Nox
• Eminence
• Revolve
• Black Glass Nova
• Amber
• Chroma
• Grid
• Aeon Tajo

How to Clear Cache on Kodi?

In this quick guide, we cover a fundamental item of maintenance with Kodi. We talk briefly about what a cache is and why it’s important to clear it, and 3 great tools to clear cache on Kodi whatever device you use.

What is a Cache?

When you think of a cache, you think of a web browser. Just like the web, Kodi caches or saves snippets of media so that the second time you load a page, piece of content of cover art you don’t have to wait.

Caching is crucial to allow you have a smooth and seamless experience on all your addons.

Why is Clearing Cache Important?

These media snippets will build up over time, and each piece takes up memory. Some caches are bigger than others, as they take up storage space on your device. Your cache is going to be much bigger on a Nvidia Shield than an Amazon Firestick.

Clearing cache is important as less images stored means faster content, loading and speed for your device. Also left too long your Kodi device will start throwing off error messages, and in the worst case your addons may be slow, freeze or even stop working once your cache is full.

Often the most space in your cache will be taken up by images, old thumbnails and addons you no longer use.

Good maintenance every month will ensure Kodi works the best it can, all the time.

3 Tools to Clear Cache on Kodi

Unlike your web browser Kodi, doesn’t have an inbuilt function to clear cache, so here are three great addons you can install to get your Kodi back up to speed.

Indigo Addon

Indigo is the most popular maintenance addon on Kodi, so should be your first port of call.

1. 1. Install Indigo from this URL: http://fusion.tvaddons.co , if you don’t know how to install addons you can read our in-depth guide here <LINK>
   2. Once installed run Indigo
   3. Click on Maintenance Tools

 

• You are looking for “Clear Cache” which will list the size of the file within your cache and easily allow you to clear and permanently delete the files

 

1. If you need to free up space you can also delete thumbnails which tends to take up a huge amount of space, and even run “Auto Maintenance” to get the best out of your Kodi

Supreme Builds Wizard

Supreme is a great wizard which has several good builds as well as an in-depth maintenance section we love, because you also get the option to “Fresh Start” reinstall Kodi if nothing else is working.

1. Install Supreme Builds Wizard from: http://repo.supremebuilds.com/ 
2. When running through the Install ignore the Builds Menu
3. Click on Supreme Builds through the addons menu and navigate to the Maintenance section
4. There’s a tonne of great section here, we want cleaning tools, but you also have lots of miscellaneous fixes, and the ability to show all areas that need maintenance and turn on Auto Clean which will run whenever you start Kodi
5. In the Cleaning Tools section click “Clear Cache”, as well as “Clear Thumbnails”

Merlin Wizard

Merlin Auto Cleaner has been around a few years, and like Supreme Builds also offers an automatic cleaning function whenever you launch Kodi.

1. 1. Install Merlin Auto Cleaner from: http://srp.nu

 

• Run the addon and select from all the great sections, you also get a free data back up tool with Merlin, we find it to be the best highly specialised Kodi cleaning addon around. For people who like to tinker.

 

 

Best Kodi Skins

Since 2002, Kodi has been downloaded over 50 million times. This awesome piece of free and legal software helps to convert almost any device into a home entertainment centre.

Hook up your Kodi device to a Smart TV, and you can access thousands of legal and third party addons to watch as much content as you could ever need.

In this guide, we will tell you what a Kodi Skin is and why changing them can freshen up your Kodi experience. Step by step guide to change your Kodi Skin, factors to help you choose the best skin and our round up of the best Kodi Skins.

What is a Kodi Skin?

If you are already familiar with Kodi you will recognise the standard business blue Kodi skin uses as a default called Estuary. It’s easy to navigate but not very exciting.

A Kodi skin simply changes the way that Kodi looks and how you interact with. This could be the background image, cover art for media, information displayed for titles, menu and a host of other settings in each of your addons.

How to Change Your Kodi Skin

There are 3 ways to change your Kodi Skin

1. Install a Kodi addon with a custom skin
2. Install a Kodi Build with a choice of custom skins
3. Keep your addons and Builds and install your own skin

Option 1 and 2 are self-explanatory, and if you want guides on our favourite addons and builds you can find them here. <LINK>

But Option 3 is for the user who already has all the addons that they need and just fancies a fresh new look for Kodi.

Here are step by step instructions to change your Kodi Skin only:

1. Open up Kodi and from the Home Screen go to Settings
2. Click on Interface
3. From the left-hand menu bar click Skin, then click Skin again on the right. If you are still using the default Kodi Skin, it will be set to Estuary
4. A pop-up window will appear, if you have no other skins you will just see Estuary for touchscreen and Estuary skin by phil65 (The default Kodi skin)
5. Click “Get More”
6. You’ll see a list of 45+ skins to choose from, our favourite we’ll cover in the Best Kodi Skins list

How to Pick the Best Kodi Skin For you?

If you’ve never chosen a Kodi skin and feel overwhelmed by the choice, then our guide is here to help. We cover all kinds of skins, and before you worry about picking the wrong skin, it couldn’t be easier to replace skins.

Just a few things to bear in mind:

• Visuals or no Visuals: Most skins separate between strong visuals and big icon menus. Go for a skin which suits your visual style and functions for a user’s
• TV our touchscreen: You need very different skins if you are using Kodi on a touch screen, we cover 3 on our list but most are for use on a TV
• 4K/HD or SD: Some skins like Chroma are specially designed for 4K, while most are HD, think about the quality you are looking for
• Low CPU or High CPU Kodi device: If you are running Kodi on a Low CPU device like a Firestick, you may want to go for a minimal skin, which isn’t so heavy on images. Otherwise high def skins can make your Firestick laggy
• Mouse or Point and Click: Many skins do not work well with a mouse. So, go for a skin which can be navigated using a point and click remote like on a Firestick

The Best Kodi Skins

Just like addons with so many skins to choose from, here are our favourites, allowing you to shorten the list of top choices. Be aware some skins may only work with Kodi 18 (Leia) while others will work with both Kodi 17 and 18.

We start off with skins that work on both Kodi 17 and 18, some skins may have slight style changes in their versions between the two versions of Kodi.

Aeon Nox

By far the most popular skin on Kodi. Perhaps because it sits at the top of the list, who knows. This skin follows the minimalist design of Estuary, but just not quite as boring.

Featuring a bold black menu strip which is popular in many Kodi addons, there are no other icons to clutter up the screen, and you get a lovely striking visual background. You also get time and date along the menu bar.

The background can be altered from several set images loaded with the theme, or you can upload your own images.

Importantly Aeon Nox has stayed popular because it has multiple levels of customisation as well as being lightweight. Meaning it will work great on a Firestick.

Bello

Bello is about as minimalist as you can get, with simple white outlined menu on a black background. Don’t expect a lot of customisation, but for users who like the minimum of fuss then this is the skin for you.

One important note is Bellow does not interact well with a mouse. It’s a great choice though for point and click remotes like the Firestick. Choose Bello if you want minimum design and fuss.

Box

Box like Bellow is another design without a background image, just solid colour. Its got some lovely iconography, so each menu item is represented as a clean looking block. The menu can be added to or taken away which we found handy, because many times default menus gives us a lot of categories we may never use.

Box offers a good level of customisation for the home screen, while keeping the design minimal.

Confluence

You might recognise Confluence from several top Kodi addons. Its been around for several years and provides a great middle of the road solution, depending on how flashy or simple you want the design to be.

Starting with Confluence you get a black screen, black strip menu running horizontally across the centre of the screen, and blue menu writing with drop down categories.

Nice and simple, but unlike Box and Bellow you can add a background image. You can add or take away buttons on the menu and change the background graphic to display the cover art of the title that is now playing.

A good skin, that works on all kinds of devices whether its point and click or with a mouse.

Eminence

Eminence is one of the newer skins on our list and gives a crisp design which is reminiscent of MacOS and those.

The slanted bottom icons have been ripped directly from the LG TV operating system, but the designers have kept the same fluidity and ease of use.

The menu items appear on a bottom tab, and the block icons can be added to or taken away. You can set your own background image, as well as Home icons to appear on the rest of the screen.

The whole design is slick and crisp, and you have a massive amount of control for customisation, with almost every setting up for grabs.

Pellucid

Pellucid is a lot like Box. Also, this is our top skin if you are running Kodi on an old or slow Android device, as its one of the few skins that you can set to “Low CPU Power Mode”

It lacks when it comes to customisation and you get 4 basic categories to start off with. Doesn’t really offer the same versatility and slick design we see with other designs. But it gives you the bare minimum.

Unlike Bellow you do get a random background image.

Revolve

Revolve is a lovely theme, which brings a unique spin to your Kodi. The menu is displayed as a revolving disc. The menu items, colour and background images can all be modified at will.

You can also set images to fade and emphasise certain menu items in an innovative way. Revolve is a beautiful Kodi skin with a unique take on the Kodi experience.

Rapier

Rapier is a great minimal skin which unlike others out there is completely customisable. You start with a simple minimal bottom menu and no background. But everything can be tweaked and changed.

Add or take away menu items as well as subcategories, giving you a great range of freedom, to make the menu serve you.

FTV

FTV was designed with the Firestick in mind. The style and font of the menu items will remind you of the Firestick menu. Its incredibly minimalist and you won’t even get time and date.

Best not used on a small screen, as some items can be illegible. When you highlight a menu items, others will fade out of focus.

Great for being lightweight, but not a lot of customisation. What you see is what you get.

Xperience 1080

Another unique designed Kodi skin. Xpreience 1080 uses a Panel menu design, like Windows 10. So, unlike a strip menu or a revolver, you can to add and remove blocks from the menu.

You also get a high level of customisation, so while being lightweight it also delivers almost every setting to be changed. Due to the panel nature of the menu there is no central image.

Rapier

A great looking clean and simple skin. Start off with a large font bottom menu and simple background image. You get a good level of customisation and though the look is strongly classical you get some modern features like click and hover which shows you what is in certain menu items and categories.

A big plus for many users is that this skin gets regular updates and new features added.

Transparency!

This is a great skin for users who don’t want to mess around with customisation and settings. Sometimes you just want a skin where the hard work is done by other fans.

The skin starts with a big font left hand vertical menu and strong background image without transparency. You can then alter the addon simply using settings and images uploaded by other users.

A great addon for strongly visual users who love fan art and minimum fuss.

Adonic

This is one of the best Kodi skins for movie lovers. You get a simple pictographic bottom menu and top image.

What sets it apart from other skins, is that with Adonic, when you click on movies the cover art pops up in a menu above the main menu and you easily see all the key information about the movie you want to watch, like year, cast, rating and more.

Lovely looking emblems and a fresh design for those who want a minimal but arty design with easy drill down to subcategories and item details.

Black Glass Nova

A beautiful looking skin for users who want High Definition images and menu icons. The menu is a simple bottom, but you also get awesome HD images in the background as well as large icons for content art to give a great user experience.

Worth noting that due to the nature of the content quality this skin might be a bit laggy on lower CPU devices like the Firestick.

Estouchy

The best Kodi skin for those using Kodi on a touch screen device. Most users will use Kodi on a TV screen through a device, but some of you might watch Kodi through your phone, tablet or touchscreen computer.

Estouchy has been specifically designed for touch screen users. With giant easy to click menu buttons, clear cover art and large icons for navigation.

If you are using a touch screen use Estouchy. No other skin comes close for feel and user interface.

Mimic

You’d be fooled into thinking this was just a slight adaptation of Kodi’s default skin Estuary, but Mimic has a lot more to offer.

First off there is a greater level of customisation, with a large font bottom menu in blue, you can easily view a sliding carousel of titles in categories, which display the details at the top of your screen.

A great lightweight skin that works well on Firestick.

Amber

A stunning addon with a large slide out menu on the left-hand side, and a simple middle section to see titles of content in menu sections. Overlaid on a HD background image.

In the black and yellow its visually striking on a large screen, great for those who want fan or cover art to take centre stage on their Kodi skin.

Chroma

The best Kodi skin out there for users who want a skin specifically designed for an Ultra HD or 4K Tv. Chroma has been set for HD images and fonts, with clear and crisp lines.

The skin itself is simple with clear lines, simple menu and category sections and a strong faded in background image.

Not a skin for Firestick users, as these images and fonts are going to be CPU heavy.

Fuse (neue)

A great looking skin for a first time Kodi user. The big differences from other skins is you will find the menu at the top. With most of the space taken up by titles and cover art.

You also tend to get more space for the highlighted title cover art, content details and blurb, which is often missed on other addons.

Pretty like Netflix in some respect, giving you all the information, you need to decide if you want to watch a title, without having to click into the cover art and then go back to the category screen.

Grid

A cool looking skin which brings a fresh look to your home screen. The background image really takes centre stage here, and the menu on the left-hand side has no differentiating lines with the image, so merges into it.

Big and easy to navigate, with easy to navigate horizontal title tiles when you punch up each category. Also, highly customisable with a strong development team behind it. So, Grid is getting regular updates and new functions.

Unity

Only available on Kodi 17, this was one of our favourite skins. Reason being its one of the only skin which uses Google’s Material Design. Some years ago, Google introduced a method of web design which created clear and easy to use elements and sections.

Unity is beautiful clean and highly customisable. A clear middle horizontal menu on top of a striking background image, with an unlimited number of icons and sections that you can add to the home screen for fast navigation.

Each section is card based, and easy to scroll through.

Nebula

This is the ideal skin, for users who want a soft interface and the concentration to really be on the menu and sections.

Nebula has a soft grey overlay on an image, with clear card icons which can be navigated surrounded by vertical menu and section lines.

This skin is also customised for touch screen and is great for simple navigation using large icons. Scales well on touch screen.

Offers good customisation as well as great compatibility with HD TV’s, but this is still lightweight enough to work well on the Firestick.

Metropolis

This is the ideal skin for a data junkie, who wants to know exactly how much content they must hand.

For many the home screen may be overcrowded with a clear central image, and on the right-hand side you get a summary of the numbers of movies, TV Shows, artists, albums and much more that you have on hand in your library.

The menu sits on the left-hand side, with an updated news section, showing you your latest episodes that have been added.

Great addon for an information junkie, probably a bit overwhelming for everyone else. But you can easily customise the home screen and make it simpler or denser.

Arctic: Zephyr 2

A great addon for users who just want to view all their titles in easy to navigate card format showing cover art and nothing else. Artic has delivered an incredibly polished and beautiful skin, with a simple menu and silver background.

The emphasis is on the cards of titles available in each section and is reminiscent of Amazon Prime Video or Netflix.

You can also switch between an image and a text-based list. Also great for Live TV. Arctic delivers a beautiful TV guide.

A well thought out skin which has been going for a while and reached maturity in its execution.

Aeon MQ5

Another great skin from the Aeon family, this skin offers a minimalist design with a translucent bottom menu based over a strong HD image. Easy to navigate sections and categories give you a simplified cut down skin for those who want to concentrate on strong visuals.

Highly customisable and from a great pedigree, MQ5 used to be the most popular skin on Kodi until being replaced by its newer cousin Aeon Nox.

ReFocus

Think of ReFocus as the touch screen version of the default Estuary skin. This skin was specifically developed a while ago, to give Kodi users a best experience with touch screen devices.

But it offer the same simple and some would say boring interface as Estuary. Good for functionality, poor for looks.

Ace

The only skin to make the list which was specially designed with iOS in mind. Namely operating Kodi through your iPhone or iPad, so not a skin for everyone.

Easy to navigate side menu, semi-transparent on top of a clear background image. Easy to navigate via touch screen. One big draw back is this skin has no facility for live streaming.

Best Kodi Skins for Kodi 18 (Leia)

The following skins will only work on Kodi 18.

Aura

Think of Aura like the improved Estuary. Slick tile-based design which you will find on a lot of Kodi addons. Menu appears horizontally on the left-hand side, and you can add and remove widgets, categories and sub-categories.

Good performance and lightweight, so ideal for any device

Aeon Tajo

The latest offering from the Aeon team, we really love this fresh and minimal design. One of the only skins we have come across which comes with its own background theme music. You get a giant-sized bottom menu and high spec images. You also get a great level of customisation to really change it to look however you want.

A great modern looking skin for Kodi 18.

Quartz

Quartz is a funny looking skin, because when you use it to begin with all you have is a few white menu buttons on a black screen.

The beauty of Quartz is they have given you a blank canvas so that you can design the skin however you like. You get the basic structure and can add menu items, categories and sub-categories as well as widgets.

There are some limitations with the number of existing categories so not quite as open ended as we would have liked but still exciting.