Kodi 20 Nexus is the latest version of Kodi. It was released on January 15, 2023, replacing the previous Kodi 19 Matrix. In this article, we will review all the major changes in this release, so you will know what to expect and how to get the most out of this new exciting release.
It was a huge effort, with 4,735 commits of code from Kodi 19 to Kodi 20. You can find here all those commits.
Here you can find what’s new in Kodi 20:
Here are the key features and enhancements for Kodi 20 sorted by categories.
Video
- AV1 hardware decoding for Android
- AV1 hardware decoding for Linux via VAAPI
- Inputstream support for AV1 codec
- Upgraded to FFMPEG 4.4
- Continue watching TV shows, seasons, movie sets and PVR recordings folders
Add-ons
- Added color picker dialog
- Added color button setting
- Added video HDR type info to the video list item
- Function for removing orphaned dependencies recursively
- New id3 tag metadata stream support for PVR Radio add-ons
- Added skin timers
- Added skip border infill
- Added speed for movement and resizing controls
- Added diffuse fading animation effect
Scrappers
- TheSportsDB, TMDB TV Shows, TV Maze and TVDB v4 scrapers have been updated
GUI
- Independent volume setting for GUI sounds
- Password reveal button in keyboard dialog
Input
- Added Steam Deck built-in controller support
Subtitles
- Added new font style settings such as border size/color, background type/color/opacity, shadow color/opacity, and blur
- Added support to display subtitles with dynamic positions which make use of position tags
- Added underlined and strikethrough text style support
- Added a new wide color palette in color settings
- Added a new setting to change text alignment for closed caption subtitles for a better reading
- Added a new setting to override subtitles metadata like style and position
- Improved font size matches the point/pixel proportion
- When Kodi is in windowed mode subtitles are always displayed correctly
- Improved VPlayer for better reading of multiline text
- Improved SAMI format to better support multiple languages
- Improved TX3G format to support multiple styles, colors and alpha channel
- ASS/SSA subtitles are displayed without flickering
- Improved image-based subtitle rendering to keep a better aspect ratio
- Added support to the WebVTT subtitle format type
- Improved font list setting – the actual names of the fonts are listed
- Added support to OpenType font type
- Improved calibration window, so it’s possible to also reset the calibration settings
- Subtitle settings can be changed while in playback without side effects
PVR
- Channels and Recordings can be sorted by provider
- Read-only recordings supported
- EPG Search: added Saved Searches, including a new Estuary PVR Home Screen widget
- Channel Manager: added an option to refresh all channel logos
- Settings: added an option to specify which data to delete when resetting the PVR database
- Automatic cleanup of cached PVR images
- Performance improvements, especially for a large number of channels
- Added option to browse available PVR client add-ons from PVR settings
Skinning
- Added a new Color Picker window dialog to allow displaying a color list
- Improved image control to support reading dynamic $INFO data to “colordiffuse” tag
- Improved Player Process Info window – new information has been added and grouped by context
- New media flags for HDR videos: detect, store and process the type of HDR in a video file
- Skinners can define modal dialogs if their visibility depends on Boolean condition evaluation
- Deprecation of old infolabels with the introduction of new generic ones
Estuary/Estouchy
- Estuary PVR Home Screen: new widget for timers
- Estuary PVR Home Screen: added percentage played progress bars to Recent Channels and Recent Recordings widgets
- Estuary PVR Home Screen: change the default click action to open the Guide window
- Estuary PVR Home Screen: new widget for saved searches
- Estuary Music Home Screen: extend context menu functionality
- Estuary Music Home Screen: added ability to play albums directly from home screen
- Estuary Video Home Screen: extend context menu functionality
- Improve display of EDL markers on the default skin
- Show titles when “Flatten Hierarchy” setting enabled
- Added play button to start playback of many different items shown on the home screen
Games
- Savestate manager for Retroplayer with captions describing the state of the game
- In-game Port Setup dialog to change between game controllers
Platform Specifics
- UNIX Family Platforms:
- Implement WS-Discovery (SMB discovery) for *ix platforms (Android/Linux/Apple)
- iOS/TVOS:
- Improved Siri Remote handling
- Improved “Now Playing” info
- macOS:
- Initial support for M1 native including native windowing/input handling
- Extend GameController support to OSX
- Add speech to text service implementation
- Linux:
- Added ACES/Hable Tonemapping for GLES
- More BiCubic Shaders for GLES
- Pipewire support
- Linux GBM: ability to set HDR Output
- Windows:
- New setting to use 10-bit swapchain for SDR videos
- Improved DXVA2 (HW video decoding) performance
- A new setting to set the peak luminance for a display
Here is how to download Kodi 20 Nexus:
- Go to the official Kodi download page
- Click on the platform of your device
- Download the version suitable for your device
Some of your add-ons working on Kodi 19 may not work on Kodi 20. In this case, you may want to revert to Kodi 19. Keep following our list of the best add-ons for Kodi to stay updated.
If you want to return to the previous version of Kodi, do the following:
- Uninstall Kodi 20
- Install Kodi 19.5 from here
- If you have an Android device, make sure to disable automatic updates. Otherwise, your device will be updated automatically to Kodi 20
Now it is your time to try this release and enjoy the new features and improvements.