How To Install Kodi On Surface Tablet

Update June 2022: Updated the section on using Kodi with Chromecast.

Kodi is a powerful open source media center, which is bachelor beyond a multitude of operating systems, only its continued rise to prominence has come in large part due to its Android version thanks to "Kodi boxes" — essentially inexpensive Android TV boxes sold with the Kodi app pre-installed. This has garnered Kodi a lot of printing and attention lately, considering its open source add-on feature can be used for media piracy purposes.

Only it's an unfair state of affairs because the piracy add-ons are unofficial, unsupported, and the Kodi box manufacture is unwelcome, according to the Kodi developers. The base of operations app is perfectly legal, and what y'all do get is one of the best experiences for organizing and streaming media onto any device — fifty-fifty your phone. Bring your own content like you would with Plex — or even link to your Plex server inside Kodi if you've already got 1 set upwardly.

Information technology's entirely customizable, so allow's walk y'all through the basic setup.

Run into more on streaming Tv set at CordCutters.com!

Kodi is optimized for Android

Previously, when you lot downloaded Kodi on your Android device, you would be required to go into the Advent setting and swap over to a more touchscreen-friendly skin. With the latest update for Android, the developers have swapped over to a much more user-friendly peel by default, so y'all'll be able to simply load it upwards and go.

Download Kodi from the Google Play Shop

One time you lot've loaded Kodi up, you'll find the navigation menu on the lefthand side with categories for Movies, Boob tube Shows, Music, Pictures, Add-ons, and more.

With Kodi, you can go along all your media organized and accessible in one place — from pictures and music to videos, sorted by movies and TV shows. It'southward quick and like shooting fish in a barrel to import your media into Kodi and simply a thing of setting a source for the media from your phone'south internal storage or a microSD card if your phone supports expandable storage.

Tap the blazon of media you wish to add together. Nosotros'll apply Pictures for this instance.
Tap Add together pictures….

Tap Browse.
Find the folder containing the media you wish to add together and then tap OK.

Now when you lot tap the category from the main screen, you'll find your source available with all your photos, music, or videos organized. If you've ripped your favorite TV box sets onto your figurer and transferred them to a microSD card, they will be organized by season within Kodi.

Diving into Add together-ons

Across your own media, y'all can also install a variety of handy add-ons from the congenital-in add together-on browser or by adding them from remote improver repositories. For now, we'll expect at what'southward available from right within Kodi.

When you tap the Add together-ons card from the chief menu of Kodi, you may find that all your Android apps have been automatically linked and displayed within Kodi. While information technology's somewhat convenient to be able to spring right into another app from within Kodi, I've found information technology to exist somewhat buggy and it'south caused Kodi to crash on more than 1 occasion.

Yous want to get to the add-on card with all the unlike add-on types listed along the left side of the screen. In that location y'all'll be able to tap the push button to browse through the available add together-ons.

Y'all can find video add together-ons for over 100 unlike Goggle box channels' online streaming catalogs and media sharing websites such every bit YouTube and Reddit, along with many international options. To install an improver and see what it has to offer, simply select information technology and tap Install.

Best legal add-ons for Kodi

Forth with the add-ons found inside the included Add together-ons browser, you can become into the add together-on settings and install from an online repository. Since those are ofttimes hosting add-ons that promote piracy, you're on your own if you choose to go that route.

Using Kodi with Chromecast

Watching Kodi on a tablet or phone when y'all're on the get is alright, merely the best part is the way you tin switch over to your Chromecast-enabled TV when you get home. While Kodi doesn't support Chromecast direct, simply y'all tin cast your phone'due south screen to the Goggle box, you're able to use your telephone'south screencasting ability for a quick workaround or use LocalCast.

LocalCast is a great app for streaming content from your phone to a Chromecast, but it takes a few actress steps to go things working smoothly with Kodi. All yous need to do is download and move an XML file into a Kodi folder on your device, and the side by side time y'all load a video in Kodi, LocalCast should launch giving you casting options to bachelor Chromecasts.

Of course, there's nothing stopping y'all from adding Kodi to a NVIDIA Shield or downloading Kodi for your PC or Mac and streaming your content that style from dwelling. Simply put, Kodi gives you all the customization tools for Android to get in fit into TV setups around your home.