Create your own media center (with movies, BBC and ITV) in under 15 minutes

Kodi (formerly XMBC) is a free, cross platform media player that supports remote control over HDMI, HTTP (so any device your network) and has plug-ins for the BBC and ITV.
I had everything up and running in less than 15 minutes. I am able to watch movies, BBC and ITV all from one single interface.

Additionally I can control the movies using the TV remote and I can use my phone to control the
content for movies or UK TV.  And best of all, I don't need to use iTunes anymore and I'm not flooding the network streaming movies to the Apple TV.

Here are the steps:

Preparation

1. Old Mac (or PC or Raspberry Pi) with an active Ethernet/WIFI network connection (must have internet access)
2. HDMI out (you could use a VGA or DVI adapter if you're Mac is really old - but you will need to use your Audio Out cable). Make sure your audio is set to play on HDMI and not the Mac's internal speaker. (To do this go to System Preferences->Sound->Output on your Mac and select HDMI).
3. Ensure all your movies are in one easy to find location on the Mac hard drive or an external USB drive (or networked location).

Install and set up Kodi

Install the Mac OS X build of Kodi from here: https://kodi.tv/download/ . While this post is focussed on the Mac, you should find a build for your OS (including Raspberry Pi, iOs and Android).

Once installed and running, Kodi will ask you to set up your movies (or music). If you were not asked for this information or you choose to do this at another time ...

just click the System Icon 

then select Media Settings

then Library, then Videos

then click Browse in the Add video source section

and finally the location of your movie files.

Kodi will scan the folder and import all your movie files. It will also reconcile the movie information with IMDB to provide movie artwork, genre and synopsis information.

Remote control set up

We need to configure Kodi to accept remote control commands over the network and from a TV remote.

Go to System then Service Settings.

Go to Control

Click 'Allow remote control via HTTP' to enable it.  You should change the username and password.

Click 'Allow remote control from applications on other systems' to enable it

Go to UPnP/DLNA

Click to enable 'Share my libraries'

Click to enable 'Allow remote control via UPnP'

Use a TV Remote control

If you have a newish TV, it is likely to support HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (HDMI CEC). One feature of HDMI CEC is the ability to control Kodi using a TV remote control. The TV manufacturers choose to call HDMI CEC something different on their TV's but you can find your TV HDMI CEC brand here: http://bit.ly/2i319Fr.
Once you find the name, look in your TV's system settings to Enable HDMI CEC. For example on my Samsung it's called AnyNet+ and is enabled by default in the System menu.

With HDMI CEC Enabled, bring up your regular TV menu with the remote control and select the Input source menu. You should see Kodi listed. Select Kodi with your remote control. Now you will see a series of folders (music, movies) that you can navigate to. Once you get to the actual content you will see all your movies. You can play, pause, stop, fast forward,your movies from your remote. It's not bad but doesn't look as cool as your Android TV or Apple TV interface. Let's fix that ...

Use your Android phone

Install the free Yatse app from the Google Play store - located here: http://bit.ly/2htAy3n
Once you run the application it will search for Kodi. As long as your mobile device is running on the same network, the app should find Kodi and you will be able to control your media from your mobile phone.

Use your iPhone

There's quite a few Kodi remote apps on the Apple Store. I tried the "Official Kodi Remote" app located here: http://apple.co/2hcljya. Just as the Android app, the app will find the Kodi server instance if you are on the same network as the Kodi server.

Add BBC support

Adding support for the BBC is rally simple. Note: you must be in the UK to view BBC TV content (or at least set your Mac up to work on a UK proxy).

In the menu panel scroll down to Add-ons and then select Search

In the search box enter 'iPlayer WWW'

Select and Install the BBC iPlayer Add on.

Once installed, you can access the BBC content by selecting 'Add Ons' then the iPlayer Add on

The rest is pretty straight forward ..

If you look on your mobile device, you can access the same BBC Content using the Add-ons menu.

Add ITV support

Adding ITV support is a little more involved. I used MJD's blog post to do it - but I'm posting the steps here as well. If you want the concise version, just read this: http://bit.ly/2hVNVKE. (Warning: The steps have changed just a little due to the updated user interface - so my instructions are for the latest build of Kodi).

The first thing we need to do is enable installation of Add-ons from Unknown sources. To do this go to System then System Settings and select Add-ons and enable Unknown Sources

Once enabled, we need to add a new zipfile that will provide the new repository details.
Go to System then open File Manager  and select Add source

Select <None> and then Browse

Enter the following EXACTLY http://xunitytalk.me/xfinity and select OK

Type xfinity in the box underneath"Enter a name for this media Source". Select OK

Go back to the Home Screen. Select System-> Add-Ons->Install from Repository

Select the '..' option (ignore the other two items listed) and then select 'Install from zip file'

Select xfinity

Select XunityTalk_Repository

Wait for Add-on enabled notification

Now select Install from repository

Select .XunityTalk Repository

Select Video add-ons from the list. Then select ITV.

Select Install and wait for the Add-on enabled notification and return to the main menu.

To watch ITV content, just select Add-ons from the main menu and then ITV.

That's it - you're all sorted. Enjoy !!

Watch the BBC iPlayer and ITV Player when outside of the UK on Ubuntu

This is a follow up to my post of a year ago. The instructions are simpler than last year's post. If you want instructions for the Mac go here.

I re-imaged an old laptop last year with Ubuntu (12.04 LTS).  If you've never tried Ubuntu before, head over to http://www.ubuntu.com/download  to try the latest version. The installation is straightforward and you can install it without affecting your Windows image (if that's what you're running). Not only is this fast (boots in seconds) it also has better support for a wider range of devices - specifically Wifi.

To run the BBC iPlayer on Ubuntu, do the following...

Step 1: Download tor from this site : https://www.torproject.org/.  The download button should detect your operating system. For Linux the direct link is here. Alternatively you can use the command line and enter sudo apt-get install tor.

Step 2: Unpack the tor tar.gz file. Open the folder that was extracted. On my machine it's called 'tor-browser_en_US'.  Double click the file called 'start-tor-browser'.

Press 'Run' when challenged.

 This will launch the Vidalia control panel. If all goes well, the control panel should connect to the Tor network and you should see the following status:

Once you are connected, the web browser bundled with Tor will appear and carry out a check to ensure you are online anonymously.

The bundled Tor browser is a cut down Firefox image that does not have Flash player installed - which is required for the iPlayer.  To use another browser, with Flash installed, we need to get the SOCKS host setting from the bundled Tor browser.

Step 3:  From the bundled Tor web browser menu select Edit->Preferences->Advanced. Then press the Network tab. Click the 'Settings' button.   Make a note of the SOCKS host port (9050 on my setup).  If for some reason this is blank - then Check 'Manual Proxy configuration' and then enter 127.0.0.1 for the SOCKS Host and 9050 for the port.

Step 4: Set up tor to use servers in the UK. On the Vidalia control panel click "View the Network". The Tor network map will open.

This shows you a list of the servers that are available all around the world.  Sort the list of countries by clicking the column header for the flags. Once the list is sorted by flag - scroll down until you see the Union Jack (British Flag).  Make a note of several relays by typing their names in a text editor (several incase one is offline or has poor performance).

Once you have made a note of the relays - Close the tor network map.


Step 5: Setup the Tor servers in the Tor configuration file.

In the Vidalia control panel, press the 'Settings' button. Then press the Advanced tab.

In the Tor configuration file section, click 'Edit current torrc'.
The torrc configuration file will open.

At the bottom of the list of settings add the following two lines. Replace #R1, #R2, #R3 with the names of the relays that you picked out earlier.

ExitNodes  #R1, #R2, #R3, #R4
StrictExitNodes 1

For example:

ExitNodes  TorLand1, StickItToTheMan, obelix
StrictExitNodes 1

(StrictExitNodes forces Tor use the list of Relays that you provide).

Also add the SOCKS Host and port number (if it is not present) ensuring the values match your settings.

SocksListenAddress 127.0.0.1
SocksPort 9050

Now press OK to confirm the changes and close the window. Press OK to close the Settings Window.

Step 6. Restart tor by pressing the Stop Tor button.  Once Tor has stopped - press Start Tor. When Tor has started successfully - then get excited - you're almost there !


Step 7a: Set up a Firefox to use Tor.  Open Firefox. Select Edit->Preferences->Advanced. Then press the Network tab.



Click the 'Settings' button.
Select 'Manual Proxy configuration'.  Enter 127.0.0.1 for the SOCKS Host and 9050 for the port.



Press OK then Close to exit the preferences.

Step 7b: Set up Chrome to use Tor. Open Google Chrome.
Click the wrench on the toolbar, then click "Settings" from the menu options.

At the foot of the page - click "Show Advanced settings".

In the section marked "Network", click the "Change Proxy Settings" button.



Click "Network proxy" from the list on the left.

Select "Manual" from the Method pick list.
In the SOCKS Host field enter 127.0.0.1
In the field marked ":" enter the port number 9050 (or whatever your setting was). 
Press Apply and close the Network settings dialog.
Now Google Chrome is set up to talk to Tor running locally on your machine


Step 8:  View !!  You made it ! You can now head to the BBC iPlayer page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer .

You can also watch ITV at http://www.itv.com

Final notes

You are not limited to the UK. You can access online content any part of the planet. Just remember to change the relay for the host country.