SPMC (Semper Media Center) - Android Kodi fork

[Arthur]

If you use the Android version of Kodi you might want to think about switching to SPMC based on recent events.

 

Website / Download (Google Play Store) / Source Code & APKs

 

Kodi is a popular name in media streaming circles, not least because it can run on pretty much anything. Last year, an Android app was released, which has gone to achieve over five million downloads. However, that's where it may stay, at least for the time being. In the last few days, the sole developer of the app, Chris Browet, a.k.a. Koying, has quit working on Kodi and resumed development on his forked version, Semper Media Center, or SPMC for short.

 

The reason he quit isn't entirely clear, but it seems to have resulted from creative and philosophical coding differences with the main Kodi developers. Supposedly, Koying was stopped from adding platform-specific code to the app, as some team members thought them to be too 'hacky' for inclusion in the codebase, which started internal fighting among Koying and the other team members. In addition, those developers won't believe that an Android box, such as a Nvidia Shield TV, might be better than a Linux one. With SPMC, Koying can work on the app without any interference, which is what he did before Kodi came calling. He's just released a new version, 16.1.1, which in turn is based on Kodi 16.1. This version of SPMC adds a whole host of improvements, including Blu-Ray 3D ISO playback and HD Audio pass-through on select devices. As you can see, SPMC's still got some things to sort out; the Kodi logo is visible in the top left corner, for instance.

 

[...]

 

In order for work to continue on Kodi's Android app, a new maintainer needs to be found before the v17 release; otherwise, progress will grind to a halt. It should be said that the project still has many issues, including audio and video sync, according to posts on the official Kodi forum. SPMC also has these issues currently, but with Koying more willing to implement the code that some deem as hacks, maybe there's hope that they could be resolved.

 

Source: www.androidpolice.com/2016/03/18/developer-kodis-android-app-quit-will-work-fork-instead

[Zoom7000]

This is gonna be an interesting turn of events, especially with the Android version of Kodi being rather big in the Amazon Fire TV Stick community (for reasons we won't go in to!)

 

I really wish they would release a version for the Samsung Tizen platform! Would love to control Kodi with my TV remote as opposed to the iPhone app connecting to the installation on my PC.

[Arthur]

This is gonna be an interesting turn of events, especially with the Android version of Kodi being rather big in the Amazon Fire TV Stick community (for reasons we won't go into!)

I wouldn't be surprised if Kodi decided the Android version wasn't worth bothering with.

 

The Piracy Box Sellers and Youtube Promoters Are Killing Kodi

[Zoom7000]

I wouldn't be surprised if Kodi decided the Android version wasn't worth bothering with.

 

The Piracy Box Sellers and Youtube Promoters Are Killing Kodi

 

It's a plausible explaination, but it would be very poor of them to just tarnish every single Android user with the same brush. I would suspect there are more Windows pirates than Android. It's just the Fire Stick scheme has made more money out of the simplicity. The hardware specific optimisations of SPMC would definitely help the Fire Stick pirate community, but there must be millions out there who use Android and don't pirate a thing, with or without Kodi.

 

If it was really such a big problem, it's interesting to see why Amazon haven't done anything to stop it, other than the fact it boosts an awful lot of sales of Fire Sticks for them! Sure, they removed Kodi from the Amazon App Store, but they aren't oblivious to the sideloading fuctionality.

[caffrey]

Seems to be quite a bit going on behind the scenes at the moment