Kodi 21 “Omega” Alpha 3 Release
The Kodi Team has now made the Kodi 21 “Omega” available, and they have announced the arrival of Alpha 3.
What has changed, exactly? Which enhancements are there? What new features are there?
Since this is a significant release from the Kodi team, you can expect a lot of features and advancements with Kodi 21 Omega.
However, because it is a major modification to FFmpeg 6.0, Kodi has previously stated that there is a high possibility of regressions. Indeed, much like with the transition to Kodi 20, you should be prepared for the possibility that some addons and builds will not function with the new version.
Nonetheless, you can submit glitches and debug logs to Github issues to resolve and correct problems that need to be addressed.
Without further ado, let’s learn more about the improvements made to Kodi 21 “Omega” Alpha 3.
Kodi 21 Omega – Updates and Fixes
Alpha 3 Release
Kodi Omega Alpha 3 has been released last Sept. 9, 2023. You may find the latest updates and fixes below:
Estuary
- The estuary has been updated to include “more…” in size-limited lists. Home screen widgets with more than 15 items will notice this impact.
- Several adjustments have been made to enable video data for TV seasons and movie sets.
FFmpeg
- Several improvements were made to their FFmpeg library usage. This has undergone several iterations and to varying degrees has impacted seeking and playback. Hopefully, this is the end of these regressions.
Filesystem
- To increase data performance, the chunk size of data requests for local media has been raised to 64 kb.
Games
- Enhancing Kodi’s game interface constantly. There have been updates to player management and assignments at https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/23548. Read that PR for more information and specifics.
General
- Issues with menu usage in the Kodi codebase were dealt with using a whack-a-mole strategy. Some of the most recent improvements include ones for music video information dialog issues, “Local art” missing from the art selection dialog, and other problems with art dialog selection.
- TV Shows, Seasons, Movie Sets, and Recording Folders now make their “in progress” status visible via LISTITEM_IS_RESUMABLE.
- The current season and episode that is being refreshed are now displayed in the refresh progress box, making it more informative for the user.
- A (remaining) PR that solves a memory leak in context menus was merged.
- There have been several adjustments and upgrades. Database and curl consumption are two areas that are impacted, therefore any performance improvements are valued.
- Has been analyzing how Kodi uses images (caching, allowing remote viewers to view photos that haven’t been displayed in Kodi, preloading of images, and general API streamlining), and has developed a few enhancements that have paved the way for more eagerly awaited updates in the future.
Platform Specifics
Android:
- A PR has been merged that allows for the conversion of various Dolby Vision media types to more common types for playing. For more information and any comments or support on the feature, go to this forum topic that has been around for testing: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=371557.
- Has dug into their Audio Engine once more to fix a problem for Amazon FireTV 4K users: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/23687.
- Has further updated a few Android dependencies and modernized/fixed some of their usage of the Android API.
Linux:
- There is now support for cpu_thermal hwmon. This makes it possible for gadgets like the Raspberry Pi to report CPU temperatures devoid of the need for additional scripts (as has traditionally been the case with initiatives like LibreELEC).
- A patch for VAAPI VP9 Profile 2 playback has been submitted.
macOS:
- Has fixed a crash that occurred when pressing the Caps-Lock key in the SDL versions of Kodi. Although they switched to the “native windowing” version of Kodi for the v21 nightlies, this should make utilizing that key easier if you are building for x86_64 Intel Macs.
- Continually improves Kodi for macOS. Attempts have been made to speed up and better portray network data, such as the DNS servers used.
- Due to their use of a library that does not support Apple Silicon devices, macOS temperature information is not yet available on such devices. So instead of reporting 0.0 for CPU/GPU temps, they now display N/A.
- macOS operating system now accepts media keys.
- The Kodi app window can now be moved from high-DPI screens with different refresh rates after a few upgrades.
- “Native windowing” system is now the default setting in new macOS versions.
webOS:
- The webOS port has continued to receive enhancements, most notably in the passthrough and video decoding areas.
Windows:
- The Windows platform frequently lost track of the audio output device, so a PR to address this problem has been merged. This should strengthen Windows audio outputs in scenarios where driver updates might cause name changes.
- Several fixes and enhancements targeted especially at Windows. Among these is a repair for refresh rate switching for graphics cards made by Intel and Nvidia that was unintentionally broken by a fix for AMD cards.
- The recently added Video Super Resolution implementation has undergone more upgrades.
PVR
- Has had a PR merged to expand the padding timer for PVR recordings to include a “2-minute” option.
- The Kodi PVR system is being continually improved. There have been a lot of changes, including fixes and cleanups from static analysis tools (cppcheck and clang-tidy).
- Fixed a long-standing issue where the subtitle choice was lost when the channel playback restarted.
Python
- Modifications to enable the building of Kodi using Python 3.12.
- Python invoker now delivers the sys.argv arguments to Python addons in a logical order.
Skinning
- Adds a patch to allow the loading of font sets defined in a skins/fonts folder: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/22993.
Subtitles
- There is now support for.ttc font collections.
Video
- TV show groups (seasons, movie sets, PVR recording folders) are now regarded as “in progress” if they have at least one started element (episodes, movies, recordings) but no completely watched ones. As a result, they now, for example, show up in the corresponding “In progress” GUI elements, such as widgets and video windows.
- The last played date and fixed play counts (watched status) for episodes and movies are not kept after internet updates.
- Fixed default video select action.
VideoPlayer
Has made it possible to switch from yadiff to bwdif deinterlacing using the FFmpeg software. According to reports, this performs far better than the previous interlacing technique.
Alpha 2 Release
The following are the release notes made available on Kodi’s Alpha 2 Release last June 18, 2023.
Build/Dependencies
- All current Apple platforms are developed utilizing a more recent version of Xcode (14.2) and the appropriate SDKs. They have been able to decommission their old Intel Mac minis that have been in use for a long time thanks to a combination of a new M1 Mac mini hardware donation from longtime project sponsor MacMiniVault.com and the Kodi foundation buying a second M1 Mac mini.
- Instead of the (outdated) supplied “wget” executable, Building on Windows now uses the system “curl” executable.
- To strengthen the downloading/hash checking, improvements to dependency building have been made.
Estuary
- The seek window timeouts have been improved to more accurately disappear after the ideal timeouts.
- In PVRTimers, the ‘next recording’ label visibility was also fixed.
FFmpeg
- They improved their use of the FFmpeg API, did some cleanups, and solved some crashes in their FFmpeg side data usage.
General
- Movement keys (such as PageUp, PageDown, Home, and End) are handled in some lists, like Settings, and have been improved.
- Improvement on how GUI objects handle picture caches.
- When upgrading, advancedsettings.xml configurations for Kodi 18 will no longer be transferred to the new GUI settings.
- Instead of resetting the selection to the top of the list after playback finished or changing an item’s watched status, the navigation history was extended to track the line number of the selected item so that it could be recovered after the item disappeared from the list.
- Pictures in portrait orientation no longer produce incorrect thumbnails.
JSON-RPC
- The parameters “studio” and “genre” have been introduced to VideoLibrary.GetEpisodeDetails in https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/23112.
Platform Specifics
Android
- Continued with additional code base cleanups and enhancements for Android.
- Been able to enhance AudioTrack further to accommodate hardware that contains sinks that can become “stuck”.
Linux
- Added the possibility for users to choose the audio backend when launching Kodi via a command line switch. Likewise, this makes it possible to inspect the audio backends Kodi was built using.
macOS
- Mojave (10.14) is now the minimum possible OS requirement for Kodi on macOS. This was done to enable the project to continue leveraging more recent C++ 17 capabilities. Moreover, the hardware supported by macOS Mojave may be seen on Apple.com.
- Improved “Native windowing” within the macOS codebase in a way that will eventually result in a formal Apple Silicon version.
- Window resizing, menus, window blanking, multiple monitor support, and other improvements.
- Kodi can now be run from Xcode more quickly and without requiring any changes to schemes, which is good news for developers.
- The correct addition of Speech Recognition entitlements for Apple platforms (including iOS and tvOS) resolves a crash that occurred when the microphone was activated.
- The native windowing version now supports HiDPI resolutions, such as those labeled as Retina displays. Because of this improvement, Kodi’s graphical user interface (GUI) can display greater pixel densities, giving it a professional appearance on current Macs.
webOS
- They added more enhancements to the webOS platform.
- Updates to codec hardware support, audio sink enhancements, and screensaver support have all been made.
Windows
- The minimum supported version of Windows has been increased to Windows 8.1.
- They have added tone mapping and hardware DXVA support for several combinations of those media types to the Windows HDR/SDR/HLG display.
- “Video Super Resolution” support has been implemented for hardware that is compatible with Nvidia (RTX) and Intel (ARC).
- An upgrade to libdav1d version 1.20 should enhance Windows platforms’ support for AV1 playback.
Python
- To correct a regression, addon paths are now in front of system paths. As a result, this resolves the issue by using system modules with the same names as prospective customized Kodi modules. Linux-based systems are mainly affected by this.
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Currently, your IP 74.7.35.113 is visible to everyone and your Browser is being tracked by Advertisers & ISP Provider.
Here are the main reasons why you must use a VPN:
- Your activities are hidden from your ISP, the government, and from the apps you are using.
- You can access additional movies and TV streams.
- ISP attempts to throttle are thrwarted thus reducing buffering issues.
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A VPN works be replacing your ISP-assigned IP address and creating an encrypted tunnel. We recommend the no log service offered by IPVanish. It works well on a Firestick and offers the fastest possible speeds.
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FAQs
What is Kodi 21 Omega?
The most recent Kodi release, Kodi 21 Omega, came after Kodi 20 Nexus. What’s more, it has all of the most recent fixes and updates on Kodi.
Is Kodi 21 Omega Safe?
Yes, Kodi 21 Omega is certainly safe to install on your device just like any other Kodi version. However, to ensure that your device is always protected from internet hazards, it is nevertheless recommended that you install an antivirus program on it. TotalAV is a great recommendation for this.
Is Kodi 21 Omega available for download?
Yes, Kodi 21 Omega is certainly already downloadable. Further, it is accessible through the “Prerelease” section of the Kodi official website.
Is it advisable to download Kodi 21 Omega right now?
Since it is currently in its Alpha Release, we cannot state that it is already advisable because you can anticipate specific bugs and glitches while using it. Additionally, it’s possible that some Builds and Add-ons won’t function with it.
However, feel free to test out Kodi 21 Omega if you’re a true Kodi devotee and want to aid them in identifying problems.
Wrapping Up
Soon after the introduction of Kodi 20 Nexus, Kodi once more published a new version. But, of course, they always intend well when they upgrade to correct earlier issues on their previous versions.
Moreover, we genuinely hope Kodi 21 Omega becomes stable as soon as possible so we may have the best streaming experience possible, especially with the additional features and corrections that come with this new version. We also hope we were able to provide you with the recent update on the Kodi 21 Omega Alpha Release.
