HotstickyBun

How To Watch The Masters Outside The U.S

Walks — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 19:59:06 +0000

The 2018 Masters tournament currently ongoing (April 5th – 8th) and the best golfers are looking to knock off Sergio Garcia and take his place. For thousands of avid golf fans in the U.S watching the Masters is as easy as visiting themasters.com. For those outside of the U.S though finding a source to watch Golf’s greatest tournament can be a little troublesome. Thankfully we’ve got an easy solution for all fans.

If you’ve got access to a computer or a media player with a browser you can easily watch the Masters everyday through Masters.com with a VPN. If you’re unfamiliar with what a VPN is, check out our guide on what it is and why you should be using it.

To get started watching simply purchase a low cost VPN, access a U.S address and visit Masters.com. Here are our favorite providers with a few discounts for you to save some money.

TIP: If you haven’t purchased or used a VPN before now is the time to do so. While this will allow streaming of the Masters it also keeps your internet browsing secure and helps prevent geoblocking for other sports and online streaming services.

ExpressVPN (Save 35%) – Fastest VPN
NordVPN(Save 72%) – NordVPN, secure, fast and the only VPN that bypasses Netflix
Private Internet Access(Save 58%) – Most Affordable VPN
ExpressVPN (Save 46%) – Most Popular VPN

How To Watch The Masters in Kodi

If you’ve got access to a Live TV subscription then look out for the following channels to open and run. These should provide around the clock Masters coverage as the event is on. If you lack an IPTV subscription there are still some older working plugins that may work but your best bet will be to just get a VPN and use the method above.

Plus 7 (Australia, Free)
CBS (USA)
ESPN (USA)
Sky Sports (UK)
BBC iPlayer (UK, Free)

How To Install Incursion in Kodi

Walks — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 01:38:19 +0000

As the ever revolving Kodi goes we’re seeing new addons from forks on a regular basis. Just as quickly as Convenant popped on the scene it disappeared just as quickly. Thankfully a lot of the great changes and updates made were available more many popular forks of the plugin which is what Incursion is based on.

Installing Incursion is a breeze if you’re using the Git Browser (we recommend installing this). If you’re familiar with the old Fusion addon think of the Git Browser as the same philosphy but not limited to just what TVAddons provides. Instead you can install any plugin on GitHub. Check out our tutorial to get up and running with the Git Browser and once installed follow our guide below to get up and running with Incursion.

Install Incursion in Kodi

Simply follow these steps to get one of the latest working plugins installed.

Click on the Add-ons Menu.
Choose Program Add-ons (or if you see Git Browser choose that and skip the next step).
Select Git Browser.
Dismiss the notice and select “Search by Github Username”.
Choose New Search.
Enter in nixgates.
Choose incursion.repository-0.0.2.zip.
Select install.
Once the addon has been installed simply hit Continue.
Finally we just need to install the incursion plugin, choose plugin.video.incursion-0.1.10.zip.
Now that you’ve installed both all you need to do is restart your Kodi software.

That’s it, from here on out you should know how to find and open the video addon but in case you don’t simply go to your addons menu in Kodi and you should see incursion on the right or simply enter the add-ons section and search for Incursion in the video addons section.

How To Install Git Browser in Kodi

Walks — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 05:45:54 +0000

Despite all the legal turmoil surrounding the TVAddons community they are back on the scene and recently launched a plugin that should help a lot of newcomers to the scene install addons…similar to their old Fusion/Indigo addon provided. This solution on the other hand is a means to perhaps bypass any legal ramifications as they no longer host any of the addons themselves.

Instead this will allow any user the ability to install an addon straight from GitHub. If you’re unfamiliar with Git there’s no need to get to concerned. Almost every plugin other author tends to use this for something called version control as well as the ability to fork and share plugin work. This is extremely useful and why you see so many forks of a lot of the popular addons within the community.

Similar to a lot of our older tutorials which relied on the Fusion Installer it’s important to install this for ease of use and quick updates.

Here’s how you do it.

Installing the Git Browser in Kodi 17+

Installing is easy, simply follow these steps to get started.

Start with adding the repository source.

First step is to add the TVAddons source, start by clicking the gear icon.
Select File manager and enter.
Add Source.
Enter in the same information below to add the Git Browser Repo.

Adding the Git Browser To Kodi

Now that we’ve added the source we need to add the repository and then the Git Browser.

Scroll down to Add-ons from the home screen and hit enter.
Click the box icon in the top left.
Select Install From Zip File.
Select Fusion that we setup earlier above.
Select kodi-repos and then english from the next menu.
Scroll down and select repository.xbmchub.x.x.x.zip (x.x.x being version number).
Once complete you’ll get a notification in the top right. Back on the addons screen this time choose “Install from repository”.
Find TVADDONS.CO Add-on Repository and hit enter.
Choose Services.
Select Git Browser.
Last but not least, simply hit Install.

That’s all there is to it. Using the Github Install is straight forward. Simply open it up and you’ll see a few options to install via username, repository title or Addon ID.

Install The Git Browser in Kodi Video Tutorial

We’ll have a video coming shortly to help.

The 3 Best Black Friday VPN Deals For Kodi

Walks — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 04:42:31 +0000

Greetings Kodi fans, the battle for net neutrality is upon us in the U.S and it’s causing serious concerns for the future of our privacy on the web. But if you’ve been using Kodi for sometime then you’re surely aware that by streaming through 3rd party addons you’re exposing yourself to potential risk right?

If not no worries! We’re here to help you take the next step in protecting your identity online and also showcase you some of the best deals for Black Friday 2017! Some of you might be looking for a free VPN but chances are the quality, speed and reliability of it won’t meet your requirements. Premium VPN’s are extremely cheap, less then a happy meal per month in most cases.

Listed below are some of the best deals on the web from some of our favorite VPN providers for this years Black Friday event. If you disagree then look below to let us know what we’re missing, the three below are listed for various reasons as it’s the preferred providers we’ve had the most up time, best speed and ultimately the best success with.

Best VPN Black Friday Deals For Your Kodi Setup

IP Vanish

If you’ve read any Kodi blog then you’ve undoubetly heard about IP Vanish. It’s for good reason, the company has become a favorite amongst users because of the many applicable devices it can be installed on. They’re one of the few companies capable of providing a VPN service on the Amazon Fire TV thanks to their app creation.

Oh and did we mention they are one of the cheapest options for a premium VPN?

IP Vanish Black Friday Deal (Save 76%, Just $2.87 a month!)

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Pure VPN

Almost the best deal on this list, PureVPN is another reliable option when choosing a VPN to protect your Kodi streaming. Pure VPN has hit it out of the ballpark with your Black Friday deal by providing a whooping 75% off. Similar to IP Vanish it also provides apps for streaming devices like Android TV’s (Mi Boxes) as well as the Amazon Fire TV, they’ve even built a Kodi app you can use right inside the software. Don’t miss out on this deal!

(Save 75%!!!, Just $2.45 per month)

Buy Now

Private Internet Access

Had it not been for IP Vanish’s Fire TV app we’d probably still be pushing Private Internet Access onto everyone using Kodi. While you can still install it onto the newer generation Fire TV’s it won’t work on the original Fire TV Stick. If you’re not using the Fire TV it still provides one of the most reliable and fastest VPN connections (we’ve tested) for streaming content through Kodi.

And it’s extremely easy to setup.

Private Internet Access Black Friday Deal (Save 52%, $3.33 Monthly)

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How To Protect Yourself Using IPTV

Walks — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 20:35:03 +0000

The popularity of Kodi has been heard. While Kodi itself has never aimed to produce a product to infringe on copyright it’s open source platform has made it a popular tool for users and developers to create plugins that enable options for users to cut the cable and resort to streaming online instead of paying hefty satellite and cable bills.

Access to the latest movies and TV shows has been the primary reason for someone to invest in a “Kodi Box” but the shift has started with users now looking to enhance their experience by purchasing and subscribing to an IPTV service.

What is IPTV?

In it’s simplest form:

Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content using signals based on the logical Internet protocol (IP), rather than through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.

A lot of television providers have already shifted to this philosophy where they offer a television service that streams from your internet connection. The problem, many continue to over price and prevent the flexibility of allowing the user to choose exactly what they want without associated fees or extra loop holes. Having the ability to subscribe to two or two hundred channels should ultimately be the option and it’s part of the reason why so many users are now looking at online options through Kodi to eliminate the need for a cable provider (yes you’ll still need internet).

But First, A Warning About IPTV

Not all IPTV services are illegal. Services like USTVNow and NTV.MX offer paid services that (from our understanding) are completely legal. On the other hand if you’re gaining access to a list of 200-500 channels with PPV for $10 a month there’s a good chance you’re accessing an illegal stream.

Still, we fall into a legal grey area with streaming IPTV online. Every countries laws differ from location to location so it’s advisable to do some research before purchasing (if you go the illegal route). In some circumstances because you’re not technically saving a copy or sharing it it isn’t deemed “illegal”.

That being said, the last year and a half we’ve begun to see multiple cases where Kodi box sellers and illegal IPTV stream providers are being prosecuted. Undoubtedly this trend is going to continue to get worse and become more frequent.

Whether you want to believe it or not cable cuttings are losing money from these devices and they don’t like it. Sooner or later, much like the music and movie industry did, you’ll first see them target the providers/streamers of these boxes before potentially looking towards the end user to send a message. We all remember the ridiculous stories of the six figure lawsuits from users who were sharing songs online don’t we? The law doesn’t necessarily care whether you’re watching for free or you bought an illegal stream, at the end of the day you’re still watching it.

So if we haven’t scared you off yet (and that’s not out intention) you might be wondering how to protect yourself online when using a paid IPTV (or streaming from Kodi) service? Follow some of (preferably all) of these steps to keep yourself safe when choosing to cancel cable and pickup Kodi with an IPTV service.

How To Protect Yourself Using IPTV on Kodi or an STB Box

If anything out of this the one thing you want to make sure of is to not pay with your contact information. Even though you’re probably not truly safe from this using the steps below will provide more protection then simply entering in your credit card or paypal account and paying. It’s not just lawsuits to be concerned about. Providing payment information to a reseller could result in unauthorized credit card transactions or worse. There is no lawsuits (we’re award of) that have targeted someone for using an IPTV service but that’s not to say it won’t happen in the future.

With that being said we don’t promote using an IPTV service or not, we’re here to write content and ensure our visitors remain educated on the subject. It’s your choice and at the end of the day which is exactly how it should be.

That being said it’s time to get started.

1. Use A VPN

We’ve been preaching the use of VPN’s for quite some time now and we urge everyone using Kodi or IPTV to invest in one (here are some of our favorites). Whether you stream 3rd party or not it’s nice to know that by using a VPN your privacy should be intact.

Not all IPTV providers will allow the use of a VPN on there service so look through the ones provided and choose one that does. A VPN will again help provide anonymity online with everything you do whether it’s using Kodi or searching cat videos.

The first thing you’ll want to do is sign up for a VPN service. Don’t use a free service either, the results will be terrible and you might suffer through DNS leakage (making your IP accessible). We highly recommend Private Internet Access or IP Vanish. Both offer competitive pricing along with some of the most reliable speeds for streaming content.

After you’ve signed up, download the apps for your VPN on all your devices (computer, phone, tablet etc) and ensure they are running. If you want to route all your internet traffic through a VPN you can invest in a router like the Netgear r7000.

Make sure everything is running and we’ll move onto the next step.

2. Purchase With Bitcoin

Bitcoin has a public ledger with every transaction traceable but going this route is a lot harder to trace then entering in your personal credit card. The biggest concern anyone should have is opening up your payment details to the provider which could result in really getting screwed over.

Pay monthly (or max 3 months) as well, this way if the provider disappears 3 months down the road (and it has happened) and you paid for 12 you won’t be out money.

If you can’t pay with Bitcoin
If Bitcoin is out of the question or your provider won’t take it then look into using a prepaid credit card. Look into a Vanilla Mastercard. If the IPTV provider wants personal details associated with the card then turn and run the other way.

Some people will use Paypal but again, once you use this you potentially open your Paypal account to the seller. If Paypal is the only way then again we recommend a prepaid Mastercard but to also use a dummy Paypal account with fake information which we can setup below.

For the ultimate Tin Hat, proceed below.

3. Create a Fake Email Address

We’ll need a fake email address to signup with our provider. In order to do so we recommend using Mailfence or Protonmail for this. Both email providers provide end to end encryption options meaning all emails cannot be decrypted by Protonmail thus limiting them from reading your emails, more importantly your encrypted emails cannot be shared with third parties.

You’ll need an email to consult with your IPTV provider.

Extra Foil Hat Methods

If you’re still not convinced or you’re being extra paranoid then you can take some extra steps to provide more caution.

Depending how you go about purchasing Bitcoin you can meet a local provider and pay cash for bitcoin.
Signup and use Localbitcoins.com to obtain bitcoins. Be sure to use your fake email address and something like TextMe if it requires phone verification.
Use a fake email, name, and register a fake paypal account and load a prepaid Mastercard when purchasing. Be sure to use a VPN when doing so.

*If there’s things we’re missing please feel free to add a comment and let us know.*

Wrapping Up

The steps above will help provide a safer experience when using IPTV but it doesn’t guarantee complete safety. In the end it’s the users choice on how they access or use IPTV whether it’s with a separate Mag Boxor with use through Kodi.

We don’t condone or promote using (or not using) Kodi or IPTV services, Hotstickybun is simply a provider of content. We hope you enjoyed this guide, if there is something we missed please leave a comment.

How To Install Soccer Streams in Kodi

Walks — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 02:29:10 +0000

Good news to all our soccer/football fans looking for live streams to games. The subreddit soccer streams has released an addon for Kodi to coincide with the release of their new website Soccer Streams.

While you can still use Pro Sport to watch the latest soccer streams this addon will help simplify the process for you.

What You Need To Install Soccer Streams in Kodi

You won’t need much.

A Kodi box that should be updated to version 17 Krypton (all tutorials going forward will reference this version).
With P2P streaming available through this addon we recommend investing in a VPN to access these streams. Some of our favorites include Private Internet Access, IP Vanish and Pure VPN. A VPN provides anonymity for the end user and should be a part of your Kodi setup regardless of what you use to stream. If you’re unsure of what a VPN or are looking for more information be sure to check out our post on our favorite VPN’s to use within Kodi and things like the Amazon Fire TV.

How to install soccer streams in Kodi 17

How to Video for Kodi 17

Written guide to install Soccer Streams in Kodi 17

From the Kodi HOME screen scroll down and select Add-ons.
Choose the settings button (hint, it’s the gear icon in the top left).
Ensure “Unknown Sources is turned on (should be ticked to the right).
Go back to the home screen
On the home screen choose the settings button again (gear icon).
Select File Manager.
Select Add Source.
Enter in “http://echocode.com/repo” as your source in the top box and enter in “.echo” as the name in the bottom.
Return once again to the home screen.
Scroll down and choose Add-ons.
This time choose the Add-on Browser (hint it’s the box looking icon in the top left).
Select install from zip file.
Select “.echo” which we setup originally.
Select Video add-ons.
Choose Soccer Streams.
Select install and wait for the add an enabled notification.

Soccer streams is now installed on your device and can be accessed from the home screen of Kodi 17 from the add-ons sub menu.

How To Install Soccer Streams in Kodi 16

Written Guide How To Install Soccer Streams in Kodi 16 Jarvis

From the Kodi home screen scroll over to System and select the File Manager sub menu.
Choose Add Source.
Enter in “http://echocoder.com/repo” as the source and enter in “.echo” as the name.
Return to the Kodi home screen and scroll to System once again, this time choose Addons from the sub menu.
Choose Install From Zip file.
Choose “.echo” as your source.
Select repository.echo.x.xx.zip and wait for the notification that the repository has been enabled.
On the same screen, this time choose Install from repository.
Choose the ECHO repository.
Select Video Addons
Choose Soccer Streams.
Hit Install and wait for the notification that the add-on has been successfully installed.

You’re now set up to watch soccer streams in Kodi. To access it visit your Videos and Addons section from the Kodi home screen.

In order to better protect yourself online with streaming add-ons from Kodi we highly recommend everyone to invest in a VPN. For the cost of a lunch or two you can protect yourself online and remain anonymous for a year’s worth of streaming.

We Recommend:
Private Internet Access ($3.33 monthly)

Learn More

IP Vanish ($6.49 monthly)

Learn More

Pure VPN ($2.95 monthly)

Learn More

How To Watch Live Canadian TV in Kodi

Walks — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 01:22:52 +0000

If you’re a cable cutter north of the border then chances are you’ve been searching for some options to watch your favorite (or is it favourite) stations that you no longer have in Canada. With one of the worst and more expensive cable selections in the developed world it’s no wonder more and more consumers are ditching cable and choosing affordable Kodi boxes as a replacement. Still one of the hardest things to do is replace some of the channels you just “flip” on and watch.

The solution? The Made in Canada IPTV addon.

If you’re looking for Live Canadian TV in Kodi then look no further. Listed below is a simple how to tutorial on how you can get up and running with the Made In Canada plugin and what to expect with a free IPTV service like this.

How To Install Made in Canada IPTV Addon (Video)

Install Made In Canada IPTV (Written)

Unlike a lot of the other tutorials available with the Fusion addon we’ll need to add a different source in the file manager. Depending on the version of Kodi you’re using the instructions will slightly differ unless you’ve changed the new Kodi skin back to Confluence. If you have then following version 16 and below should be sufficient. You’ll also need to install the F4MTester addon in order to use this plugin. Install that first then follow one of the guides (depending on your version) below.

Install F4MTester in Kodi

Installing F4M tester in Kodi is easy with the Fusion Installer. If you haven’t installed fusion then follow this guide.

To install F4M do the following after installing Fusion in Kodi.

Open Kodi and browse to Programs.
Select the Addon Installer.
Select Video Add-ons.
Select F4MTester (you may have to browse to the 2nd or 3rd page).
Install F4MTester.
Press OK following notification the addon was installed properly.

The F4MTester addon should now be installed in your Kodi box.

Made in Canada for Kodi 17 and Above

From the Kodi homescreen, click the gear icon currently located under the Kodi logo.
Scroll down and select File Manager.
Move down, highlight and select and hit enter on the “Add Source” option.
A pop up box should appear, highlight where it says “” and hit enter, another fly in menu/pop up should appear with a keyboard. Enter in “http://repo.koditips.com” and hit OK.
Underneath where it says “Enter a name for this media source” type in a name you’ll remember. TIP: We name all of our sources with a period in front, so in this scenario “.MadeInCanada”, this is to ensure all our sources show above the other folders that come with Kodi. Makes it easier to find and install.
Hit OK and then press escape (or back) once or twice to return to the home screen (where we clicked the gear icon).
Scroll down to the Add-Ons menu option and hit Enter. You should be taken to the Add-Ons section and now see a box icon on the left (under the Kodi logo) and a gear icon on the right (under the Kodi logo). Underneath is options for Video Addons, Music Add-Ons, Program Add-on Etc. If you’re unfamiliar with Kodi 17 this will be where you can access all the addons you’ve installed. Highlight the Box Icon and hit enter
You should now see “Install From Zip File”, select it and hit enter.
Select the name you made for the Made In Canada source, in our case it was .MadeInCanada.
Highlight the file, repository.koditips.-1.0.0.zip and hit enter.
You should receive a notification in the top right saying the repository has been enabled.
This time select “Install From Repository” and hit enter.
Browse to Koditips.com repository > Video Add-ons > Made in Canada > Install and hit enter. Wait for the notification that addon is installed and you are done.

Made in Canada for Kodi 16 and Below

Open Kodi, from the homescreen browse to Settings, then select File Manager.
Choose Add Source.
Where it says ““, hit select/enter and enter in the source “http://repo.koditips.com”.
In the box provided to enter a name type one you’ll remember. TIP: We typically add our sources with a leading period so they show up first in the source list. In this example we’ll enter “.KodiTips”.
Return to the Kodi Home Screen
Go to System and hit enter.
Scroll down and select Add-ons.
Choose Install from zip file.
Choose the name you entered earlier, in our example select .KodiTips.
Select repository.koditips-x-x-x.zip (x is version number this will change.
Wait for the notification that the repository has been installed.
Now choose Install from repository.
Select Koditips.com Repository
Select Video Add-ons.
Select Made in Canada IPTV
Wait for notification that Made In Canada IPTV has been enabled

Once you receive notification that add-on was enabled you can access the plugin by visiting the Videos menu and selecting add-ons in the sub menu.

A Final Forewarning

This addon is a third party program and not associated with the Kodi development team. If you’re looking for support you can leave a comment here or leave a comment on your YouTube channel.

By using this addon you are opening yourself up to potential copyright infringements. We highly recommend you start using a VPN (virtual private network) to protect your identiy and encrypt what you’re doing online. If you’re looking for the best deals and the most reliable options we highly recommened the following options (in no particular order).

How To Watch Live UFC in Kodi with UFC’s Finest

Walks — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 23:35:18 +0000

UFC 207 is upon us and it is shaping up to be a great event. If you find yourself looking for a quality stream or perhaps are just an avid fan looking to follow the UFC on your Kodi setup then follow the guide below and get started with the best streaming addon for UFC content.

How To Install UFC’s Finest (Video)

How To Install UFC’s Finest (Written)

With the looming release of Kodi 17 we’ve updated some of our guides to include ways on how you can install Kodi in version 16 and below and version 17 and above. Version 17 Krypton comes with a complete overhaul which includes a new default skin. You can resort back to using confluence should the new skin be to confusing.

Installing UFC’s Finest in Kodi 16 and below

Open Kodi and Browse to SYSTEM->FILE MANAGER
We want to select ADD SOURCE.
Where it says you’ll want to highlight that and hit enter.
Type in the source http://thecommunityrepo.netai.net/zip and hit enter or select enter.
In the input box where it asks for a name simply type in something you’ll remember for a later step. TIP: We usuially name all our sources with a leading period so they all stay organized and show above the default Kodi folders and shortcuts. In this example let’s name it .CommunityRepo.
Now back out/escape out to you Kodi homescreen. This time browse to SYSTEM and hit enter.
Scroll down to the ADD-ONS menu item and hit enter.
Choose Install From Zip File
A popup should appear allowing you to select the repo we named earlier, in our example it’s .CommunityRepo
Simply select repository.communityrepo.x.x.zip.
Wait for the notification the the Community Repository has been enabled
Now select Install from repository.
Select The Community Repository
Choose Video add-ons
Select UFC Finest
Choose Install
You should get notification that the add-on has been enabled, congratulations you now have the finest UFC addon working.

To test, go back to the home Kodi screen, browse to Videos and Select Add-Ons. Inside you should find UFC Finest and inside a handful of menu options. For the latest UFC events check simply use the UFC Live option.

Installing UFC’s Finest in Kodi 17 and above

As of this writing Kodi 17 is close to launch. Previous versions have remained the same in regards to installation of plugins and addons but with Kodi 17 comes a new default skin which will change a lot on where everything is to install. Below is how to install UFC Finest through the default skin of Kodi 17.

Open Kodi, underneath the Kodi logo in the top left will be a gear icon, select and hit enter
Scroll to File manager.
Scroll down to Add source and hit enter.
Where it says highlight and hit enter.
Enter the following, http://thecommunityrepo.netai.net/zip and select OK
Under Enter a name for this media source, type in a name and remember. TIP: We enter all our names with a leading period, for this example we chose .CommunityRepo
Return to the Kodi home screen
Move down to the Add-Ons menu item and hit enter.
In the top left you should see a box looking icon, select and hit enter
Choose Install from zip file.
If this is your first time using Kodi you may get an error message saying unknown sources are disabled (If not please continue to next step). Hit Settings and toggle the Unknown sources option to the right.
Click Yes on the pop up warning.
Go back and once again choose Install From zip file.
Choose the repository you just entered, in our case we chose .CommunityRepo
Select repository.communityrepo-x-x.zip and hit enter or select OK.
Wait for the notification the repository has been enabled.
Choose Install from repository.
Choose The Community Repository.
Choose Video add-ons
Choose UFC Finest
Choose Install
Wait for the add-on installation to provide you with a notification it’s been installed.
To use visit the Add-ons/Video Add-ons section and you should see UFC Finest, open and enjoy!

If you’re still having problems please view the video above, drop a comment below or leave a comment on our Youtube channel. We’ll do our best to help you out and solve the problem.

A Final Forewarning on how to protect yourself online watching these streams

With any illegal (free and not paid) streams it’s important to protect your identity online to prevent any possible repercussions, lawsuits or trouble in the future. If you’re a regular Kodi user streaming content from third part sources like the one above we urge everyone to invest a small amount of money into a VPN (Virtual Private Network). We’ve narrowed down our selection for 5 options for VPN usage but we highly recommend (in no order) the following.

Best Last Minute Kodi Gift Ideas For Christmas 2016

Walks — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 19:44:01 +0000

With the 2016 Christmas season quickly approaching there’s little time left for shopping ideas for you, your family members or significant others. I’ll be honest, Christmas time is a lot of fun but it can also be incredibly stressful and hard on the wallet. If you’re already an avid Kodi user one of the best gift ideas out there today is to share your love of Kodi with others.

One of the best things about Kodi, first and foremost is it’s free, secondly you can find hardware to run it in any price bracket. Listed below we’re going to show you some of your best options out there to find a reliable Kodi box but also ideas that can help enhance the Kodi experience without breaking the bank.

Best Kodi Boxes For Christmas Gifts Under $200

There’s literally hundreds of options on the market today to run Kodi. With more and more Android boxes flooding the market it’s becoming painstakingly simple to purchase something and be up and running within minutes. Still, there’s something to be said for good hardware but more importantly solid support. Here’s our top five Kodi boxes for Christmas 2016 that come equipped with reliable hardware but also proper sales and manufacturer support.

The Nvidia Shield

There is little doubt that the most recommended set top box for Kodi today is the Nvidia Shield(on sale). The Shield comes equipped with powerful hardware capable of playing anything you throw at it in Kodi, including 4K content. The best part about it though is it’s ability to be more then just a streaming media player.

If you’re looking for a gift idea for an avid gamer you’ll want to take along hard look at the Shield. With the ability to play PC games on your Shield (with a few extra hardware options), Emulators and games from places such as the Google Play Store not only will you be able to stream your favorite movies but you’ll also be able to have a fully functioning gaming system as well. It won’t compare to your Playstation or Xbox One but still packs a bunch and is one of the more future proof boxes on the market in regards to hardware and features.

This post is about not breaking the bank but if you have the extra cash to spend this holiday season we recommend the Nvidia Shield Pro. If you plan to use it for more then just streaming movies and TV shows the 500GB additional storage will provide more then enough space but at a price point of almost $500 dollars it’s a pretty significant investment for gift giving.

If you’re looking to avoid the high costs, look into the entry level model which comes in at under $200.

Learn More About the Nvidia Shield

The Amazon Fire TV

Under $100 for both the box (more powerful) and the Fire TV stick the Amazon Fire TV continues to be a very viable option for anyone looking to get started with Kodi. The only real drawback to this option is similar to what you’ll find with the Shield, you’ll need to manually sideload Kodi onto the Fire TV to get up and running. If you’re purchasing this for someone and have a savvy Kodi background this shouldn’t really be an issue but if you’re a little less tech savvy then investing in one of the boxes below might be a better alternative as Kodi comes pre-installed on some of them.

That being said there’s little surprise that the support and trust of the Fire TV is top notch given it’s built and sold by Amazon.

Like the Shield you’ve the ability to do more then just stream content on it but primarily that’s what most use it for thanks to it’s ease of use and ability to integrate 3rd party apps and software like Kodi. If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber you’ll also be able to unlock a plethora of other viewing options through Amazon but let’s face it…almost everything you’ll want to watch will be found with the proper Kodi setup.

The second generation of the Fire TV’s has provided more pop to the device but also integrated the ability for 4K playback. With Kodi addons, 4K content is out there but not as plentiful as you may find browsing paid services like Netflix and Prime.

Still over the course of multiple tests and numerous other boxes the Fire TV remains and a favorite and one of the most reliable on the market. With a price tag of $89.99 for the Fire TV box and $39.99 for the Fire TV stick (we recommend the Fire TV box as it provides more power, integrated Ethernet and the ability to properly run our favorite VPN’s) it’s a can’t miss option.

Learn More About The Amazon Fire TV

Matricom G-Box Q²

It’s been a staple in the industry for Android TV boxes, the Matricom G-Box Q2 is a widely popular option for those that want something under $100 that works. Packed with the powerful Mali-450 Octo Core 3D GPU Graphics Processor it provides reliable and smooth playback on everything you throw at it (yes tests will vary from user to user but it does work if properly configured).

With more and more Chinese boxes flooding the market the Q2 continues to have a step above them thanks to the continued development but also the exceptional service provided from Matricom. As a streaming set top box it may not seem terribly important but the extra 2GB ram provided from the G-Box is a bonus and helps provide reliable playback.

Any hardware solution can come with problems, thankfully the one issue we had with the G-Box Q2 was resolved quickly by the reliable support from Matricom.

With prices as low as $80.00 the G-Box Q2 is another viable option for any Kodi enthusiast.

Learn More About The G-Box Q2

Minix Neo U1

Large friendly debate occurred with the the Minix NEO U1 and the Matricom G-Box Q2 abotu which box was better but in all honesty you could’t go wrong with either selection. The only real difference would be the price point between the two.

The Minix NEO is a little more expensive but comes packed with a feature set you can be completely happy. More importantly if you’re looking at buying this as a gift for someone who’s a little less tech savvy you’ll be able to know it comes installed with Minix’s own version of Kodi on it for easy setup and use.

If you really want to go that extra mile, uninstall and update Kodi to the latest version for improved performance.

Learn More About The Minix Neo U1

AKASO M8S

A serious contender for gift of the year, the M8S is a powerful box packed at an incredibly friendly price ($51.99.

The only concern with any pre-built Kodi box is the availability and complexity of updating the system. Both the Minix and Matricom have done a good job of auto-updating certain apps and the M8s certainly is no different but as an option for Kodi playback you’ll want to eventually (or you’ll be required to) update Kodi to the latest version in order to flawless playback on 4K, HD1080, and more.

You’ll likely want to look at improving the remote control (see below) to provide a better experience.

If you’re looking for options for more then a streaming Android TV box with Kodi you’ll likely want to look elsewhere but if you’re looking at enabling on demand content with all the latest apps whether it’s Kodi, Netflix, Hulu or more the M8S is as capable as any other in this list.

The M8S is no slouch and at a price point of approximately $50 it opens the door to save some money or purchase multiple units for more gifts.

Learn More About the M8S

Up next some of our favorite options for some ideas to spruce up and make using Kodi even easier.

The Best Kodi Peripherals and Addons

Out of the box running Kodi is simplistic in nature but the more you use it the more you may fall in love with it. Since using Kodi as a media player I’ve gotten a lot more creative trying to wow my movie watchers, listed below are some of the options that will enhance the experience but also help safeguard you for future use.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network)

There’s nothing illegal about Kodi. The problem arises when users and box sellers install and use third party addons to stream content from illegal sources. The developers at the Kodi team don’t condone using them but these third party addons are perhaps the biggest reason for Kodi’s soaring popularity lately.

Similarly to the crackdown on torrents and other forms of sharing media it seems only a matter of time before the popular Android boxes and streaming services become the full blunt of take-downs. While no cases have yet to come to light (that we’ve seen) cracking down on single Kodi users the same can’t be said for box sellers.

It’s important to enjoy your Kodi experience but if you’re one of the thousands using it to stream third party content it’s important to take the time and learn about protecting yourself with things like a VPN. While most people typically associate a VPN with anonymity online it can also help provide a possible workaround for geo blocking content from places like Netflix and sports packages like NHL.TV, MLB.TV and more.

A VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and it’s extremely easy to setup and install one. You’ll have to do a little bit of research but we’ve narrowed down our top 5 VPN’s to use with Kodi through some testing ourselves but also feedback from communities like Reddit, TV Addons and the Kodi forums.

Take some time or feel free to leave a comment below for recommendations on what to use with your device. We’ve been using Private Internet Access with our Kodi setup for sometime and it has worked flawlessly since we started. PIA will install on almost every device we’ve had our hands on, the only issue we’ve seen is with the Amazon Fire TV Stick where a lot of VPN’s aren’t working due to it’s hardware.

Learn More About Private Internet Access

Phillips Hue Lights For Kodi

One of the first (and funnest) addons we played with was integrating the Phillips Hue bulbs with our home theater setup. If you’re unfamiliar with Hue it’s essentially smart lights that can turn on/off and change colors with the simple use of an app or integration with something like the Amazon Echo.

Plugin development has been slow but you can incorporate ambilight or theater lighting after some simple setup in Kodi and your home network. If you’re familiar with Phillips Hue and Kodi this should be the next thing you do to add to your experience. The only thing you’ll need is a Kodi set top box, a Phillips Hue Hub and some Lights or LED Strips. The LED strips will provide a better option if you’re planning on mounting it to the back of your TV like in the video above.

Purchase Phillips Hue

Rii I8 Mini 2.4Ghz Wireless Touchpad Keyboard

Chances are you’ve had a Kodi box similar to the Fire TV, M8S or any Android box and suffered through the frustration of having to manually type in your search term by moving your remote one click at a time to each letter. It’s not the end of the world but when you search something and quickly realize you made a spelling error or missed a key you have to go back and do it all over again.

The Rii Mini Remote is a low cost option for those who are looking for a mouse and keypad option to help speed up the transition of adding sources or searching for content within Kodi. At $17.99 it might end up being the best investment you make for your Kodi setup.

If you don’t want to spend the dough you can look towards installing apps onto your smart phone or tablet.

Learn About the Rii I8 Remote

Amazon Echo

If you’re really looking to take your Kodi Theater setup to the next level and shock and awe your friends then integrating it with voice playback through the Amazon Echo may be just what the doctor ordered.

With the launch of the Echo it was only a matter of time before developers started working with the Amazon Echo to voice integrate into their smart homes. It already comes pretty well equipped to handle a lot of smart home tasks but it still hadn’t had a lot of support to control playback (without extra peripherals). Thankfully numerous developers have a couple different guides to help you get up and running. The one we’ve worked with required less setup but appears to no longer be developed. The reason we preferred the second skill was with the fallback options it came equipped with.

Learn About the Amazon Echo

A NAS Server

If you’ve been using Kodi for any extended period of time you’ve probably come across playback issues if you’re using third party addons. On the other hand if you rip and serve your own movies and TV shows locally you’ll most likely always enjoy flawless playback, no stuttering and essentially no problems.

The problem arises though when you convert everything you own into playable format. You’ll eventually need some sort of NAS (or Networked Attached Storage) to save all your content. There’s hundreds of options and builds you can use but for the beginner at heart you may want to look into something like a Synology NAS. The NAS helps save and serve your content to all your Kodi devices scattered throughout your local network. If you want to have the capability to stream it on the go you can do that as well (with the help of something like the Plex addon for Kodi).

Your NAS can be as big or as small as you like but the general idea is to pick something that isn’t necessarily future proof. One thing to also keep in mind, with the increasing popularity of 4K TV’s and content file size will continue to get bigger.

Learn More About a Synology NAS>Learn About Synology NAS

Wrapping It Up (Christmas Pun)

If you’re scrambling to come up with last minute gift ideas look no further then above. Whether they’re a tech nerd or someone who just likes movies Kodi can help find something for just about everyone.

Share your gift ideas with us below!

How To Install VPN Private Internet Access on FireTV for Kodi

Walks — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 23:19:57 +0000

It’s been a long and tedious journey to figure this out but an important one none the less. Over the course of the past few months there have been reports of Kodi users who use third party streaming services for illegal content being given copyright notices. Legality wise a lot depends on where you live, what you’re using and more. Some countries won’t technically go after someone streaming content as you don’t share or physically download a copy while others might. Regardless as Kodi becomes more and more popular for streaming illegal content it’s important for every user, legit or not to protect themselves online.

Which is precisely what a VPN (virtual private network) is for. Finding out what the top VPN for Kodi is can be a challenge, but rest assured Private Internet Access is an extremely popular choice and one of the cheapest (but most reliable) options on the VPN market. The problem facing a lot of users is the VPN’s lack of ability to be installed on set top boxes like the Amazon Fire TV (lowest price) due to how their android app has been created.

Despite the lack of ability to install Private Internet Access straight from the Amazon App Store we’re still able to get it up and running thanks to the devices ability to install 3rd party addons. Without wasting to much time I’ll show you two ways you can install PIA and then how to use it within your Amazon Fire TV.

This method will require you to have a little bit of patience and tech understanding…or at the very least a strong ability to follow the instructions laid out below.

UPDATED for 2018!

After reviewing Private Internet Access for Kodi again, we recently revamped this popular tutorial to make it even easier then the method we had before. There are a handful of different methods to get this installed but by far the easiest is using the app “Downloader” from the Amazon marketplace. We’ve left our other methods here just in case but be sure to use Downloader first and foremost.

What we need to install PIA on the Fire TV

You’ll need to make an investment in Private Internet Access (just $2.91 a month on two year plans) of course (I assume that’s why you’re here!). PIA is one of the most popular VPN’s on the planet and with good reason. It’s easy to work with and the speeds are reliable when streaming content in your Kodi box.
A Fire TV. This tutorial is to show how you can install on a Fire TV box. Please note, this will only work on Fire TV Sticks of generation 2 and above.
Mouse Toggle For FireTV. This app is another small investment that will cost some money (only $3.97) but will enable your FireTV remote to function as a mouse in the PIA APK. If you have a mouse that will work to, but this tutorial will show you how to use this app instead. Simply plug in your mouse in the usb port during the section of installing this app.
Mouse Toggle for Fire TV (iOS) (for Mac users).Alternatively if you have an iPhone or iOS device use this.
The Private Internet Access APK. The link to the left will take you to the PIA APK download page. As of this writing the latest version of the app is 1.3, to download that directly click here. Be sure to visit the actual page in order to keep up with the latest version.

Installing PIA on Your Fire Stick With Downloader (easiest)

Before beginning we need to take care of some things to ensure the install goes smoothly. We’ll need to allow the ability to install third party apps and then we’ll install the awesome app Downloader from the Amazon app store. Ready to go?

First, make sure you have the ability to install apps from unknown sources.

Once your FireTV is powered on make sure the ability to install Unknown sources is enabled. To do that simply scroll over to settings.
Choose Device.
Go to Developer Options.
Select Apps from Unknown Sources and make sure it’s ON along with ADB Debugging.

Now we need to download and install the Downloader App From Amazon

Now we need to install the App Downloader. The easiest way to do this is to search for it from the FireTV menu.
Search for Downloader and choose Get to install it.

Lastly we need to install Private Internet Access on the Fire TV from an APK

Open up the app we just installed, Downloader.
Enter in “https://hotstickybun.com/apk/pia-latest.apk” and hit GO.
Select YES when it asks if you want to install the new APK file.

Congratulations you now have PIA installed. To learn how to use it on your device click here.

Installing the Private Internet Access VPN APK on your Fire TV (harder way)

Using Apps2Fire

If you’ve managed to install Apps2Fire on your phone or Android Simulator this should be a very straight forward process. We’ll need to get a little bit of information regarding our FireTV first and make sure a couple of other options are checked off in order for us to install 3rd party apps on the device.

With the Fire TV turned on, browse to the SETTINGS menu, scroll right until you find SYSTEM. From here you want to scroll down until you see “Developer Options”.
Click the select button on your Fire TV remote and you should see the following screen. You’ll see three options here, ADB Debugging, USB Debugging, and Apps from Unknown Sources. Turn ADB and Apps from Unknown Sources On.
Simply return back to the SYSTEM menu (in settings) and this time we want to scroll up to the “About” option. Hit select.
In the about screen we want to scroll down to where it says “Network” and from here simply take note of the IP address, we will use this to connect apps2fire to our Fire TV.
We’re done with the FireTV for now. Before we get started make sure you’ve installed the Private Internet Access APK on your device. The easiest way to do this is visit the Google Play Store, search for Private Internet Access and click install.
With PIA installed we now just simply push it to the FireTV with Apps2Fire. Open it up and scroll the menu to the right until you see “Setup” and single click it. Now just take the IP address we wrote down from our Fire TV and enter it in the box just above the Save button. Once you’ve completed, hit save and move onto the next step.
On the menu scroll back to “Local Apps”. Scroll down in this list until you find PIA VPN (if it isn’t there make sure you’ve installed it properly).
When you click the PIA VPN option you’ll be prompted with an option to INSTALL, click it and let the magic happen. If you’re sitting by your FireTV you should see a notification on it saying the app has been installed. You can click the menu button on your remote to open the app and proceed to step 3 in this tutorial.

Using a USB Thumbdrive

If you don’t want to use Apps2Fire we can install any APK, especially the PIA APK via USB thumbdrive with our Fire TV. To do this we are only going to need the following. A USB Drive (duh!), ES File Explorer and the PIA APK. Download the APK here and save it somewhere you’ll remember. Once you’ve got it downloaded copy it onto your USB Thumbdrive.
Now let’s go back to the Fire TV and install ES File Explorer. This is very straight forward, to do so simply scroll up to SEARCH on your main menu on the Fire TV. Search for “ES File Explorer” and you should see an app with the icon similar in the image. Install it (the image in the picture has the app already installed, where open says simply hit install). Once you’re done with this open up ES File Explorer.
Plug in your USB Thumbdrive into the back of your Fire TV. Inside of ES File Explorer under the “Local” menu option on the left you should see an option labelled “usbdisk”. If you don’t make sure the USB drive is formatted as FAT32 (you should get a notification from this from the Fire TV).
Click the option in the menu “usbdisk” and you’ll get a prompt asking to open or unmount. Select OPEN.
You should now have access to the USB Drive where you copied the PIA APK to it. If you’ve properly followed the steps you should see a file with the PIA icon (like in the image below). All we need to do now is highlight this icon and hit the select button on the Fire TV remote.
Again you’ll be prompted with some options, simply highlight and select “Install” to continue.
The Fire TV will now ask you if you want to install this application. You should see something similar in the image below, simply click INSTALL to begin.
If all went to plan you should finally be greeted with an App Installed message. Before we can begin using the PIA App on the FireTV we need to setup the Mouse Toggle App for either our Android or IOS device.

Installing the Mouse Toggle App For Use on Fire TV

This stage of the tutorial might be the most confusing or difficult as it requires you to do a couple steps in order to connect and install the app on the Fire TV. I’ll be doing this via an Android phone so I unfortunately can’t guarantee the results with an iOS device. The app layout is the same for both so if you have had success using this with an iPhone please drop a comment and below and let other users know.

You’ll need to purchase the app one way or another, for under $5 dollars it’s well worth the cost as you can use it for more then just Private Internet Access.

PLEASE NOTE! If you’ve got a USB mouse (or USB wireless mouse dongle) you can plug it into the Fire TV instead of using the app. If you’re going this route please skip to the next section.

Open up the Mouse Toggle for Fire TV app and you should be greeted with a screen like below. We need to setup access to our Fire TV so hit the hamburger menu icon in the top right.
On the popout menu click, “Select Fire TV”.
You should see your Fire TV listed here with the IP address we’ve been using throughout this tutorial. Select it by clicking on it. You should get a notification at the bottom of the screen saying it’s been saved and the popout menu will appear once more.
From the popup menu this time select “Install Fire TV App”.
You should see a screen like below. The first step is to hit the send button. You may be greeted with a notice (following picture) asking you to turn off then on your ADB Debugging.
If the app asks you to turn your ADB Debugging off then on you need to go back to your Fire TV’s SYSTEM menu, then into SETTINGS, then once more into Developer options. Simply turn off ADB Debugging, wait twenty seconds and turn it back on.
Back in the Mouse Toggle for Fire TV app simply hit SEND once more and this time you should notice a progress bar at the bottom, wait until it reaches 100.
Once successful you should see some instructions on how to activate and use the app to enable mouse mode on the Fire TV. Take note of them or use the image below as a reminder.
You should also notice on the Fire TV the screen below. Keep these options as they are so we can use them in our next step of connecting our Private Internet Access account and password. If everything is as it should be, hit the home button on your Fire TV remote to return to the main screen and let’s move onto our final step of using and setting up PIA.

Congratulations for making it this far, we’ve got one last step and that’s to configure Private Internet Access in the Fire TV.

Using Private Internet Access App Within The Fire TV

If you’re using a mouse that you’ve plugged into a Fire TV this should be fairly straight forward, I’ll be using the App mentioned above to connect everything as I find it easier and this way I can continue to use my USB port for other things like external storage.

From our Fire TV home screen, move into “Your Apps Library” to find the PIA icon, a green dude like in the image below.
You should now be greeted with the Private Internet Access login screen. You can use your Fire TV remote here to enter in the username and password that you purchased from PIA earlier. Enter in the information and Log In.
Whether you chose to use the Mouse App (or a mouse) on the previous screen you’ll need one in order to get Private Internet Access working from here on out. In the image below you’ll Not be Connected. You should also see the original IP and Current IP, both which should match (for now) until you connect to the VPN. These are your home IP addresses give to you from your internet provider. I’ve blurred mine out for security purposes. What we want to do is enable the mouse app by double pressing the play button on our Fire TV remote. You should now see a circle with a blue tinge on your screen that you can control by pressing up, down, left and right on the Fire TV remote.
Drag the mouse pointer to the right arrow in the bottom right of the screen.
This should allow you to choose the location of your choice. Again whether you’re using the PIA VPN for use with Kodi or Netflix you should be able to change your location (there’s no guarantee with paid services like Netflix as they are getting smarter with blocking VPN’s). Again use the mouse pointer to select the location of your choosing. If you want to scroll down press ‘Fast FWD” on the Fire TV remote, to scroll up press “Menu”. I’ll choose CA Toronto in this case.
Once you select a location of your choice it should automatically connect you and take you back to the home screen and say “Connected”.
(Optional) You may want to adjust some settings with Private Internet Access, to do so simply use the mouse app to highlight and select settings in the top right.
(Optional) one such option is enabling the “Internet Kill Switch” option in your settings. This will prevent the internet from working should the Private Internet Access VPN disconnect. NOTE: I’ve heard reports that the kill switch fails to work properly with the Fire TV so it’s best to test this out for yourself.
(Optional) Finally, if you want to confirm it’s working (and I’m sure there’s multiple ways to do this) you can install the Google Chrome APK to install a browser on your Fire TV. Simply follow the same steps we used to install the Private Internet Access APK and use the Mouse Toggling App to browse to the Private Internet Access homepage. If successfully connected you should see a notification saying so at the top of their website.

Wrapping Up

We hope this tutorial helped solve some problems for people looking to use PIA in there Fire TV and Kodi setup. While this isn’t the only way to use a VPN (recommended to use it at the Router level) it might be the only way based on your hardware.

A VPN like Private Internet Access can help provide a work around from GEO locks so you can watch content from anywhere in the world but the biggest benefit is it helps protect your anonymity on the web. Whether you’re using it to avoid blackouts from your local sports teams, watch US Netflix or to watch third party addons inside of Kodi we highly recommend using a VPN at all times to protect yourself from any potential issues in the future.

As mentioned our choice for a VPN has been Private Internet Access, we haven’t had downtime, speeds have been consistent and it’s the cheapest option we’ve come across with the best service.

Get started with Private Internet Access today!

HELP US What can we do to make this guide better? Please feel free to leave us a comment on how we can improve this guide or what we missed!

Hockeystreams on Kodi with NHL.TV

Walks — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 18:05:32 +0000

The NHL season is quickly approaching and with it comes thousands of users looking for options to watch hockeystreams from some of their favorite teams. Today we’re going to show you how you can install and use the official NHL.TV (or Rogers GameCentre if you’re in Canada) premium subscription to get up and running with the best option for hockey streaming in Kodi.

Updated in 2017, we’ve added support for Kodi 17 as well as provided a much simpler solution with the addition of NHL.TV being added to the official repository of Kodi.

First things first. As Kodi nears completion of release of version 17 we’ve decided to update all of our tutorials to use the latest version. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but version 17 will bring an overhaul and change to the default theme once installed so if you’re still using version 16, we will do our best to guide you through both options but if you have the ability to update to version 17 when it’s released we highly urge you to do so as it will make following our tutorials that much easier.

What you’ll need to watch NHL.TV in Kodi

A subscription. As this is a premium option you’ll need to spend some money on it. There is little doubt it’s the most reliable option on the market as it’s provided by the NHL. Similar to our MLB.TV tutorial this follows the same principle and there a few things you should be aware of before purchasing. First, if you live in your favorite teams market (for example a Blackhawks fan living in Chicago) there’s a good chance games will be blacked out in favor of you supporting the local TV market. Currently the only way around this is to purchase a VPN, like Private Internet Access, and give the appearance that you’re outside of the local region. Sure, it’s an inconvenience but it’s recommended to use a VPN with everything you do online.
~~Eracknaphobia’s Repository.~~ Access to the Kodi Repository.
Kodi box with Kodi 17 (or 16) installed. Self explanatory and if you’re visiting this page you should already have this up and running.

How to install NHL.TV in Kodi (version 17)

Now that we’ve gone over the requirements let’s get moving on installing the add-on. Simply follow these steps or watch the video above. If you’re looking for instructions for Kodi 16 or below, watch the video above as we show how to install NHL.TV on both Kodi 16 and 17.

Install NHL.TV With Our Video Guide

Our video guide is the easiest and most update method to install NHL.TV into Kodi.

To get started simply navigate to the addons section on your home screen and scroll over and up to visit “Install From Repository”.
Find the Kodi Add-on repository and hit enter.
Highlight and select “Video Add-Ons”.
Scroll down until you see NHL.TV
Hit enter, choose Install and then once complete choose Configure and enter in your username and password. There are other options here you can play around with like favorite team, whether or not you want the score displayed etc.
Once you select configure ou should be greeted with a similar screen below. All you have to do is browse the options and enter in your information. If you’re outside of Canada you won’t need to worry about the “Rogers Subscriber” option but if you are in Canada you’ll need to select and move the toggle to the right.

Congratulations, you should now have a fully capable Kodi box that can play the latest hockeystreams from the NHL in Kodi. The NHL.TV add-on comes equipped with some extra features you can play around with, like disabling the score if you watch the game late and don’t want to ruin the result.

Have problems?

If you’re suffering from local blackouts don’t forget to check into a VPN like Private Internet Access so it can spoof your location to make it appear that you’re out of market. If you’re unfamiliar with VPN’s altogether be sure to check out our post surrounding the best VPN’s for Kodi as it will give you a brief run down as to what they are and how they benefit you.

Of course if you have any problems installing or don’t fully understand everything don’t hesitate to drop us a comment below and we’ll answer your question as soon as possible.

Best Budget and Cheapest Kodi Boxes for Under $100

Walks — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 02:58:31 +0000

The past few years have seen an explosive amount of growth for the Kodi development team. The popularity of the program has grown tremendously and in turn caused a massive increase in the amount of hardware solutions available to consumers. Perhaps the biggest advancement was the launch of the Kodi being made available on the Android operating system. Thanks to it’s “open source” nature we’ve seen Android boxes flood the market with new companies entering the rat race every day. All the options have paved way to more powerful boxes at more affordable prices, listed below are the boxes we’ve used that have made a significant impression on us at a very reasonable price point.

Months back we wrote what we felt were the best Android boxes available. The NVIDA Shield (on sale), while being a more expensive option, continues to top the list in 2016 in terms of reliability, speed, playback and extra features.

The great thing about the Shield is the extras, but if you’re looking for just a Kodi box under $100 that handles everything you need for your favorite shows and movies there are a lot of great options on the market.

I’ve based this list on personal experience but also from feedback from other users and I’ve found it may have a lot of options other people just aren’t aware of. A lot of these boxes pack a punch, have 4k playback, storage, extras (like HDMI cables, remotes etc) and have Kodi pre-installed so you don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to install. Some of the other options have been around for quite some time and will require you to use your tech know how to get Kodi up and running, thankfully you’ve come to right place for Kodi Tutorials.

Let’s start with our first option.

M8S Android TV Box

Technical Specs

Price: $47.99 (Currently 20% Off)
Operating System: Android 4.4
CPU:Comes loaded with a Amlogic S812 Quad core Cortex 2.0 GHz.
GPU: Octa-core Mali-450MP GPU running at 600MHz
RAM: 2GB of DDR3
Internal Storage:Flash 8GB
Ethernet:100Mbps Lan
WIFI: Dual Band 802.11a/b/g/n at 2.4 and 5 Ghz (have been complaints from people claiming this box won’t connect to a 5Ghz network).
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Expandable Memory: SD Card support up to 32GB but fully capable of adding additional storage via USB or External Hard Drive with the two USB ports.

Video Playback

Like a lot of the newer boxes on the market today the M8S comes equipped with the capability to play 4K content. While 4K hasn’t quite hit that many homes it’s only a matter of time before it becomes more and more common. Kodi already has some add-ons that are capable of finding the latest 4K movies so if you’ve got everything you need to play 4K then you should be most certainly be searching for a box that is capable of handling it.

Playback has been flawless on this device for HD content. 4K, SD and HD content (max 1920 x 1080) is driven through a single HDML cable (1.4b) up to Ultra High Definition (4k x 2k)

Like most of the boxes we’ve picked out on this list, it’s capable of handling pretty much every video Kodi can throw at it.

Pros

Built on the Android Platform. Lost in a lot of the hype surrounding Kodi Android boxes is the fact that some of these can be a complete home entertainment system. The AKASO M8S provides the capability for you to install pretty much any application from the Google Play Store. 3D games, YouTube, Browsers, Emulators etc. make this box more then just a Kodi media player.
Kodi Pre-Loaded. If you’re not a very tech savvy individual it’s nice that some of the boxes come pre-loaded with apps like Kodi, Netflix, Hulu, etc already. That being said it’s recommend to uninstall Kodi (if not the latest version) and install the latest build that’s currently released.
The Price. It’s a little hypocritical to say in this list but at $47.99 it is the best bang for your buck. A lot of our products mentioned will feature close pricing but the reliability, hardware, and customer support makes it one of the cheapest and most reliable boxes on the market.
2GB Ram. Some of the older market boxes out there come equipped with 1GB of ram. While it’s sufficient having an extra GB of ram can make a much needed improvement in simple things like menu navigation, buffering, etc.

Cons

The Remote. I’ll undoubedtly put the remote as a con for virtually every box on this list as many of these box makers provide a cheap solution that comes included. If you’re an avid Kodi user you should consider purchasing an upgrade for your remote, one that has a mouse and keyboard built into it. AKASO has a wireless solution that works very well and is under $20.
Lack of ability to update Android. It may not mean much to most but not being able to keep your OS up to date can be a disadvantage. It’s possible that certain apps (like Kodi) may require you to be updated to the latest version of Android in the future. I expect the M8S at some point to be updated but for now it’s stuck on 4.4 (with Android currently at version 6).

The Verdict

The M8S is one of the most popular budget boxes for Kodi on the market today. It’s shortcomings of not being able to update Android to the latest version shouldn’t be looked at to negatively as this little box packs a powerful punch. Having used it ourselves and hearing feedback from dozens of users there’s a reason we recommened this as one of our top choices for Kodi players under $100.

Despite complaints and warnings from the Kodi development team surrounding box sellers and pre-configured options on the market these boxes will continue to be a top seller as more and more people cut the cord and watch the content they want ad free. Whether you use Kodi with 3rd party addons or not the M8S won’t disappoint you with it’s performance and capability to play anything and everything you want.

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Mini M8S II

Technical Specs

Price: $59.90 (Currently 20% Off)
Operating System: Android Marshmallow 6.0
CPU:Comes loaded with a Amlogic S905X Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (2GHz)
GPU: Penta Core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to 750MHz+
RAM: 2GB of DDR3
Internal Storage:Flash 8GB
Ethernet:100Mbps Lan
WIFI: 802.11b/g/n at 2.4G only
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Expandable Memory: Micro SD Card support but also comes equipped with two USB slots you can use for external storage or connecting a keyboard/mouse.

Video Playback

Video playback is superb. Kodi playback on the Mini M8SII supports a variety of playback options thanks to it’s decoding capability. The new H.265 bit 4k at 60 frames per second will have you future proof for some time to come as 4K video starts to become common in our living rooms.

If you don’t have a 4K TV this box will still be able to handle everything you throw at it (1080, 720, etc) making it a great choice for your home entertainment player.

Pros

Powerful enough to handle anything you throw at it. Coming equipped with a Quad Core processor the box is capable of playing virtually anything it can install. 4K video playback was great and even installing 3D games from the Google Play Store provided a fun experience converting our TV into a gaming device (you may want to look into purchasing a game controller if you’re thinking of playing games on this).
Easy Setup. This box comes loaded with a handful of streaming options. If you’re looking specifically for Kodi you’ll be running in no time. While having Kodi pre-installed is a plus it also comes loaded with things like Netflix, Hulu, etc. Meaning more down time to enjoy your favourite movies and TV shows.
Extra USB Options. It’s becoming more and more standard on streaming boxes these days so it’s something you should be looking for when purchasing. Whether you want extra storage or perhaps a keyboard/mouse combination to control Kodi this box provides the ability to do so.
WIFI and Bluetooth capability. The remote that comes with the Mini M8SII works but if you’ve ever used Kodi before you know it can be tiresome using a remote to type in search queries. With both WiFi and Bluetooth enabled on this box you can pair a keyboard and mouse to make it easy to navigate menus, browse the web and even play games.

Cons

The remote. Like a lot of other options out there the remote appears to be an after thought. I’m not saying it’s terrible, it works, but if they were to invest (or just use) something similar like the handheld keyboard like the Rii 8 it would solve every problem.
100Mb Ethernet. Not necessarily an issue if you’re simply streaming content online but as something released this year (2016) I was hoping for Gigabit LAN.
The Price. With tongue in cheek I have to say this isn’t really a con at this point but as this is a list of the best Kodi boxes under $100 this one is in the upper echelon of pricing. It’s regularly priced at $79.90 but currently on sale for $59.90.

The Verdict

As a new player in 2016, the Mini M8SII is easily one of our favourite options for new Android Kodi boxes.

You can look at the Mini M8SII as a tablet in a box. A lot of other boxes are built on Android but the software is custom designed (think Fire TV, Google TV, etc). The benefit to running on Android Marshmallow is you’re capable of running pretty much anything from the Google Play Store making this more then just a Kodi box (should you choose). Whether this is just for playing Kodi this box provides the opportunity to convert your home entertainment system into more with 3D games and other applications from the Google Play Store.

The Mini M8SII is more then capabale of handling your Kodi needs. At $59.90 it’s a little higher priced then some of the other on this list but with it you’re getting a bit more beef out of your box, an updated version of Android, the latest version of Kodi (for now), and more.

If you’re looking for a robust option with a little more power then the Mini M8SII is for you.

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Raspberry Pi 3

Technical Specs

Price: $35.70 (Currently 40% Off) *Please note that this is for the board only, if you want a full kit look at the starter kit edition for $74.99
Operating System: For Kodi, you’ll want to run OSMC or OpenELEC
CPU:1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
GPU: VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
RAM: 1GB of DDR3
Internal Storage:None
Ethernet:100Mbps Lan
WIFI: Dual Band 802.11 b/g/n.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1
Expandable Memory: Micro SD Card support. The Operating System (in this case OSMC or OpenELEC) will need to be loaded and run from the MicroSD Card. The device has 4 USB ports that can be used for things like a Mouse/Keyboard, external storage, etc.

Video Playback

A few years back the Raspberry PI2 was a popular choice amongst Kodi fanatics due to it’s low price point. Unfortunately there were some complaints with it in regards to playback as the hardware on the device was falling behind some of the more popular box options out there like the M8S, the Amazon Fire TV, Nexus TV etc.

Since then though we’ve had a new version released with the Raspberry Pi3 which has made significant improvements. Menu browsing is smooth and crisp and playback on the majority of videos is flawless. Depending on which OS you use for your Kodi playback there has been some hits and misses from both but most of the complaints come from playing large Blue ray rips locally on the device. If you’re just using the device for internet streaming you shouldn’t have an issue playing 1080p playback but it’s recommended that you use a wired ethernet solution to reduce buffering.

Pros

Lowest Price. The Raspberry Pi3 itself is the most affordable solution for people wanting to have a Kodi set top Box. It lacks some of the hardware that the other boxes have but is more then capable of playing most content.
Sideload Multiple OS’s. If you’re someone who enjoys playing around with gadgets then the Raspberry Pi3 is a dream come true. While the device doesn’t have onboard storage that runs the OS it’s one of the perks that makes working with the Pi3 fun. With MicroSD cards under $10 now a days you can sideload multiple operating systems onto these cards allowing you to run OSMC, OpenELEC, Linux, and more on the PI3.
4x the USB Love. The majority of pre-built Kodi boxes come equipped with one to two USB ports. The Raspberry Pi3 has 4 allowing other goodies to attach to the device. External hard drives, USB drives and more can be attached.

Cons

Tech Knowledge Necessary. The Raspberry Pi3 isn’t as user friendly as some of the other options on this page. You’ll need a decent tech understanding or be able to follow instructions. Other boxes have everything pre-loaded whereas the Pi3 you’ll need to manually load Kodi onto an MicroSD card and do some configuration options to get everything up and running.
No remote/extras. At $35.70 the Pi3 is one of the cheapest options to get up and running with Kodi. If you have a spare USB keyboard and mouse laying around you can use it but if not you’ll need to invest some money into one. As recommended in our other budget Kodi boxes you don’t need to break the bank here and something like the Rii8 Keyboard/Mouse Combo will work wonders in Kodi. It’s also important to understand that while you can purchase the PI3 board for $35 dollars you’ll need some other things to use it, that’s why we recommend investing in the starter kit as it includes a MicroSD card, power supply, case, and more.

The Verdict

If you’re into technology (and I’m assuming you are reading about Kodi players) then the Raspberry Pi3 might be right up your ally. While it’s not the most powerful solution in this list it is more then capable of handling Kodi playback. One of the best things about the device is the ability to load multiple operating systems onto multiple SD cards to test and play around with it. If you want to watch movies on Kodi, load up OSMC or OpenELEC and let it go. If you want to search the web or learn some linux, pre-load a linux distro and get to it.

For the average user who wants something simple that’s plug and play the Pi3 is not for you but with the ability to do just about anything it is a tech’s dream device.

If you’re just getting started with it we advise to buy the starter kit as it features everything in one, the $35 option is for the Pi3 board only and you’ll need to purchase the MicroSD, power supply, case etc separately.

Pi3 Board Starter Kit

Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

Technical Specs

Price: $99.99 (Occasionly on sale) or look into the Fire TV Stick at $39.99
Operating System:Fire OS
CPU:Quad-core up to 2 Ghz
GPU: Power VR GX6250
RAM: 2GB
Internal Storage:8GB Internal
Ethernet:1000Mbps Gigabit Lan
WIFI: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1 + LE
Expandable Memory: Expandable storage up 128 GB

Video Playback

Since owning a FireTV I haven’t had one issue with video playback. In times of stuttering or buffering it’s been an issue related to my ethernet connection. The latest version of the Fire TV comes equipped with everything you’d expect for video performance and is capable of handling everything up to 4K with ease. The picture is crisp and clear on every test I’ve run.

The complication comes if you’re running the Fire TV Stick instead of the box. The boxes advantages outweigh the stick but the price point may end up being a concern if you’re looking to not break the bank. If you’re looking to get into flawless video playback the box should be an easy purchase, the Fire TV stick on the other hand may result in some stutters with higher end video. Still at just under $40 the Fire TV stick will handle basically everything Kodi is capable of streaming and most of your buffering issues will result in the sometimes spottiness of WiFi connections.

Pros

Longevity and Support. Backed by Amazon the Fire TV isn’t going away anytime soon. While a lot of other boxes out there may be cheaper there’s a chance they may not have the support you should expect from a massive company like Amazon. With their commitment to building the platform the device should see regular updates for a long time to come.
More then just Kodi. Hundreds to thousands of apps await on the Fire TV for your use. One of the nicest features is it’s integration with all other Amazon services like Prime. If you’re a prime subscriber you’ll enjoy some of the extra content and the ability to “rent” movies off the service should you choose. While Kodi will have most of those options already sometimes it can be challenging to find a reliable stream which shouldn’t be a problem from Amazon.
Ease of Use and 3rd party Apps. Having used the Fire TV as one of the first options for Kodi it’s been an easy transition. While the installation of third party apps can be a bit confusing for some tech novices out there you shouldn’t feel overwhelmed as there are hundreds of tutorials out there that will help you get up to speed with installing Kodi.

Cons

The remote (sort of). I listed the remote here based solely on the fact that I hate having to manually use it to type out search queries. That being said the newer versions of the Fire TV remote have voice search enabled through the Alexa platform making finding stuff on the Fire OS/Fire TV very easy. Unfortunately this doesn’t work in Kodi (yet) so you’ll be left with searching manually using the up/down left/right arrows. When you’re entering in long URL’s for sources this can eventually get a little tiresome but if you’re not at picky this shouldn’t be to much of a concern. The other part of the problem I’ve found with the remote is the astounding amount of batteries I’ve had to go through.
Don’t be fooled, this is geared towards Amazon Content. If you’re a prime member you’ll enjoy the extra options but this device was built with Amazon Prime in mind. That means you can end up being limited to what’s only available on Amazon (unless using Kodi), Netflix, Hulu etc. While you have options to work with other streaming providers you’ll need a subscription to almost all of them in order to expand your library. Kodi is free but again it’s a topic for discussion of the legality of third party apps in that program that open up free options. If you’re OK with it then this won’t be an issue.
Fire OS. The operating system running on the Fire TV is pretty slick! It works well with everything created for it and even Kodi is easy to operate and manage as a third party app. Thanks to a recent update you’re even capable of launching Kodi from the home screen which was a huge deal in the past. Still, if you’re wanting to use the Fire TV for more then just Kodi you may be out of luck in regards to certain features and apps. One of those being something like a VPN (which you should use if you’re using Kodi to stream). As an avid user and promoter of Private Internet Access it’s discouraging not to be able to use their Android app on the Fire TV. These are some of the things to consider before purchasing.

The Verdict

The Fire TV exploded when it came onto the scene and it was rightfully justified. It’s got poise and polish thanks to being developed from Amazon and with a huge development team behind it you should only expect it to get better. Video playback is flawless and it’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it with no issues from full Blu-Ray rips to HD streaming content.

It also has the ability to integrate with multiple other streaming services like Netflix which can enhance your options for content.

Kodi use is flawless and smooth, the only issue will be getting Kodi installed on the device which you can do so quite easily through the use of ES File Explorer.

While the price is the highest of the boxes listed it comes with a safety net knowing Amazon should replace it should you have problems with it. Simply put, if you’re looking for a no fuss box that works the Fire TV is for you. There’s a reason why it is highly recommended from users throughout the Kodi and Reddit community as a capable streaming box.

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The T95M

Technical Specs

Price: $56.99
Operating System:Android 6.0 Marshmallow
CPU:Amlogic S905X Quad Core ARMCortex A53-2GHz
GPU: Penta-core Mali-450MP GPU-750MHz
RAM: 2GB DDR3
Internal Storage:16GB Internal
Ethernet:100Mbps Lan
WIFI: 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1 + LE
Expandable Memory: Expandable storage with two USB ports

Video Playback

There’s very few boxes in this list that stutter in regards to video playback, the T95M is no different. Like the rest video playback on this device is top notch and shouldn’t cause any problems for any user (unless you get a defunct box).

With the slow emergence of 4K televisions it’s important to have a 4K option when selecting an Android TV box. The T95M handles everything from 480 to 4K efficiently meaning video playback in Kodi shouldn’t be a problem.

Pros

16GB Storage. While a lot of the earlier versions came with 8GB internal memory the newer T95M’s look to include double the space to their predecessor. This helps tremendously if you end up wanting to use the box for more then a Kodi streaming application.
Marshmallow 6 and Kodi 16. Some of the more popular options on this list include everything pre-installed yet they unfortunately are a few versions behind on there operating system and/or Kodi version. The T95M is perhaps the easiest and most up to date plug and play option on this list.
Easy To Operate. I really loved the ease of use of this box. Being fairly tech savvy I was capable of using them all but the T95M was plug and play and seemed to “just work” after plugging it in.

Cons

The remote. Surprise surprise! Another negative complaint about the remote of these boxes. Out of all of them tested I disliked the T95M’s the most and it felt the cheapest to hold in my hand.
No Bluetooth! I typically use a wireless/USB keyboard mouse combo like the Rii8 so not having Bluetooth is a big deal however at this stage in development one should expect the device to have Bluetooth. *Please note, I couldn’t find BT in any of the settings so if you do see it in yours please let me know!

The Verdict

The T95M is relatively new to the scene but it’s already shown it can handle the needs of all Kodi users. With the added storage space and 2GB of DDR3 Ram included it’s an easy choice to handle all your content needs when streaming content through Kodi.

While it doesn’t necessarily have the following of boxes like the M8S or Fire TV, it’s in the perfect price range, has more storage and ram and works just as well, if not better, then the others on this list. In the end the choice is up to you but at $56 dollars you won’t be disappointed in your investment.

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What Did We Miss?

There are literally hundreds of options out there for Kodi (or so it seems). These are just the boxes that we’ve managed to have our hands on and test ourselves.

While we’d love to test everything we haven’t so we hope that if there is a box you love then please feel free to drop a comment below letting us know and we’ll add it to this list. We hope to make this the most extensive list for affordable Kodi boxes under the $100 dollar mark.

Top 8 Kodi Addons For September 2016

Walks — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 19:26:01 +0000

This is a new feature we’re looking at to implement month to month for our readers to keep up to date with the ever changing Kodi landscape. While we primarily focus on “how to guides” we want to help Kodi users keep up to date on what some of the latest and most popular add-ons are currently in Kodi. This will typically include add-ons from both the Kodi repository as well as all 3rd party add-on services.

Please use these add-ons at your own discretion. While some have no legal ramifications if you’re not careful you may end up with potential problems down the road. We highly recommend you protect yourself by using one of the VPN’s we recommend.

Some of these lists will contain a lot of the same add-ons over time but we try to keep it fresh by scanning a lot of the channels that Kodi users communicate in to come up with a top 10 list for each month.

Without further ado here is September 2016’s top 10 add-ons for Kodi.

Top 8 September 2016 Add-Ons For Kodi

Exodus

If you’re new to Kodi you may have not heard about it yet but the popularity of the Exodus add-on is second to none. Similar in functionality to the now defunct genesis add-on Exodus was created by the same developer but created with a more open mindset to make use of premium streaming services. Exodus works with and without a premium streaming subscription but you’ll notice a significant improvement when powering Exodus with Real Debrid.

Pro Sport

While it probably wouldn’t have made this list about a week ago the Pro Sport addon for Kodi jumps back into the top 10 thanks to a new developer taking over the project. Pro Sport takes and scans Reddit’s more popular streaming channels (NHLStreams, NBAstreams, MLBStreams, NFLStreams) and allows you to watch live sports in your Kodi box. If the channel you use isn’t in there you can even add your own sub reddit into the plugin to add even more sports streams.

Quasar

Quasar is an add-on based around leveraging the power (and speed) of torrents. If you’re tech savvy and have used Kodi for awhile you should be able to set this up with ease but if you’re a newcomer to Kodi you need to follow the advice listed above and use with caution. The single most important thing you should do is install and run this addon with a VPN enabled. It works by connecting peer to peer with other users by sharing illegal content, so if you’re watching a movie through Quasar you’ll be technically sharing it which can result in a possible copyright infringement claim. It’s worth mentioning that the addon itself appears to have been abandoned but still continues to work.

MLB.TV

This is a personal favorite of mine after having used it for the past two years. There are ways you can watch the MLB for free through Pro-Sport but anyone who has used “free” sports add-ons in the past should both know the risk but also the quality and reliability of each streams. MLB.TV is a paid subscription from the MLB that allows you to stream every out of market baseball game for a fee. If you’ve done enough research you can find ways to get discounted rates (for example I paid $50 for the entire season, $59 dollars off the regular price). It’s easy to setup MLB.TV in your Kodi device and it provides the highest quality streams with the least amount of downtime. If you’re a huge MLB fan this add-on is an easy choice to be included in your setup.

Cast A Way

The last sports add-on for Kodi in this list, CastAway took over as the go to resource for live sports streaming when Pro Sport was abandoned months back. While Pro Sport is back being developed CastAWay is still a top notch plugin for you to get your sports fix with your Kodi setup. Originally created to stream sports from websites the plugin developer wisely adopted the same feature set as Pro Sport so you could connect and stream sources from select sub reddits. Now you have the best of both worlds!

SALTS (Stream All The Sources)

Next to Exodus SALTS is your best bet for TV/Movie streaming. It also offers the ability to integrate premium streaming services taht help supercharge your Kodi setup. Premium services like Real Debrid will enhance your experience by providing more reliable sources and limiting the amount of buffering that takes place. SALTS offers a plethora of options in this department but we still recommend Real Debrid.

Phoenix

Phoenix is essentially a multi purpose addon that combines multiple developers in one. It comes fully equipped with HD content, live TV, live sports and more. It also comes equipped with content that’s curated from around the world meaning you have a large library of choices and some that may not be located in some of the more popular options. The add-on lacks a few of the features that some of the more popular ones in this list have but it’s still a capable option for many.

Specto

banking on the huge titan and massively success of Genesis, Specto was created as a form of the abandoned plugin to help revive one of the Kodi’s most popular addon’s of all time. If you’ve been an avid user and Genesis for a long time using and installing Specto should be a breeze as it uses the same layout and style but provides a few modifications to improve it’s overall functionality.

How To Install Pro Sport (September 2016) in Kodi

Walks — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 05:04:30 +0000

I’ve been fielding a handful of questions surrounding the Kodi plugin called Pro Sport which enables the ability to watch access of sports streams through provides in there respective reddit channels. It’s been quite sometime since the addon itself has been updated due to the original developer taking leave and focusing on others. Since then though someone else has taken over and an update was just recently pushed. You won’t be able to install it through Fusion but we’ll walk you through the steps below.

If you’ve installed Pro Sport before with our tutorial then chances are you simply did so through installing Fusion. Our old guide is a little outdated as the Pro Sport addon doesn’t appear to be in the Featured Videos section anymore, instead you simply will have to install the PodGod repo instead. Installing the repository is just as easy and should provide a better solution moving forward (given podgod’s ability to keep the Pro Sport addon in his repo).

Below we’ll quickly walk you through the steps you’ll need to do to get it installed and back up and running.

What You’ll Need To Install

You shouldn’t need much, for the purpose of this tutorial you simply need the following.

A Kodi Box (duh!)
Fusion installed on your Kodi Box, this provides a much easier solution to add/remove any addons or repositories in the future so we highly recommend installation.
A little patience!

How To Install PodGod Repository for Pro Sport(updated for September 2016)

Once you’ve installed Fusion into your Kodi box simply follow these steps to get up and running.

Browse to Fusion by visiting the Programs Menu on the main screen.
Next up browse to the Addon Installer
Inside of Fusion we want to browse and select the option Repositories.
Now just scroll down until you find the “PodGod Addon repository”.
You shouldn’t see to much in here, the one we’re looking for is “podgod repo”.
Finally all you need to do is click “install podgod repo” and you’ll get a notification where you can simply click OK after success.

Now that we’ve got the repository installed for Pro Sports it should auto update if you’ve previously installed it. For those that haven’t continue below and learn how to install it from the repository we added above.

How To Install Pro Sport Addon

Once again following the steps should be straight forward and installation will be a breeze in Kodi. Let’s get started.

If you’re still on the podgod repository screen, exit out and return to the home screen. From here you want to scroll down the “SYSTEM” menu and click enter.
We want to install an addon so let’s browse to the ADD-ONS option and hit enter.
Inside of add-ons we want to “Install From repository”.
Depending on how many addons or repositories you have installed, simply scroll down and find the “podgod repo” and hit enter.
The next screen all you should need to do is select “Video Add-ons”.
Finally all you need to do is move down to Pro Sport and hit enter. A popup box should show up and an option to INSTALL should appear. Hit enter and let the magic commence. Please note, if Pro Sport doesn’t appear in this area there’s a good chance that it has been removed from the PodGod Repo. Drop us a comment below and we’ll point you to the newest tutorial or provide another option.

Wrapping Up

You should now have the PodGod Repo and an updated (September 2016) Pro Sport addon installed and fully functioning.

Please note, as reports have begun to surface of users getting copyright infringements on select Kodi addons we urge everyone to start protecting themselves by using a VPN. If you’re unsure of what VPN to use we’ve rocked a monster post on the subject which you can view here. Please ask any questions you may have.

How To Add Evolve Addon to Kodi

Walks — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 04:13:06 +0000

The ongoing quest to find addons to make a complete Kodi experience continues. For now popular plugins like Exodus, SALTs, and Specto continue to lead the charge among users but in the prototypical life span of a 3rd party Kodi addon I’m sure at some point one (or potentially all) of these addons will cease to exist. If you’re an active user of Kodi then you’re probably well aware of this and we’re always on the lookout to find the latest and greatest Kodi Addons to add to our media center. Today I’m going to show you how you can install an addon called Evolve.

If you’re using Kodi to simpy watch your favorite TV shows and Movies then chances are you probably won’t need to install the Evolve addon. Like a lot of users though once they get the hang of using the platform they’re often looking to add more functionality to it. Things like Live Sports and live TV are two of the most sought after things in Kodi and both come equipped with there troubles. Still, if you’re dead set on cutting your cable completely then you’ll need to look into addons like Phoenix and the Evolve addon which is very familiar to it’s counterpart.

Evolve was developed to centralize it’s content through curation through a group of 3rd party developers. It feels very familiar to Phoenix in that aspect as it has a mix of a little bit of everything. Things like direct movies and TV links, music videos, workout videos, live tv, sports and much more. There is definitely some interesting categories in there so if you’re like me and at times can get bored you should install this and have some fun browsing.

What’s In The Evolve Addon

Here’s a list of some of the categories seen in the Evolve addon:

Evolve Sports: Typically covers all IPTV/Live sports and replay content
Goliath: Comes loaded with a bunch of different categories. Sports, documentaries, movies, fitness, live tv and more.
Kraken: Similar to Goliath but also has things like PPV replays, rock music, and a special section related to hoops/basketball
Gorgon: Has some 24/7 channels along with a collection of movies, TV, and more.
Trapper: Rugby, Sports, Concerts, Documentaries and even interesting things like Go Pro Videos, Bodybuilding etc.
Hank: Covers sports with major event replays as well as some of the classic wwe matches and some of the greatest sporting moments.
Slim: An interesting subsection, Slim comes loaded with out of market ideas in Kodi. Golfing world, Drumming world, Rockumentaris and perhaps one of my favorite being a food nerd is all the Tasty recipes typically seen plugging our Facebook feeds.
Markov: If you want to get your fill of Karaoke and recaps of the Naked News this subsection has you covered. It also comes loaded with Movies, TV Shows, and full box sets of your favorite series.
Parnell: Again this section has a little different feel with videos of things like battle rap, comedy, and tech related videos.

The whole Evolve addon in Kodi has a different feel and one that I highly recommend you to at least give it a shot.

How To Install The Evolve Addon Into Your Kodi Box

If you’ve followed any of our other tutorials before this should be a breeze. The Evolve addon can be installed two different ways, the hard way and the easy way. Truth be told even the hard way isn’t that complicated but to save some time and make your life a lot easier I’m going to assume you’ve installed the Fusion addon from the folks over at TV Addons. If not no need to panic, I’ve got you covered and you can simply follow this easy how to guide on getting Fusion installed into Kodi.

Without further ado, here is how easily you can install Evolve and get up and running once you have Fusion installed in Kodi.

Once Fusion Installer has been installed browse to the Programs menu and hit enter.
Inside here we want to browse to and select Video Addons.
You’ll need to scroll to the bottom and select Next Page.
On this screen you should see the Evolve addon. Select it and hit enter.
Hit enter to install Evolve.
You should get a notification saying the addon has been installed. Now that it’s installed we can take it for a test run in the video addons.

How To Use the Evolve Addon in Kodi

This is fairly straight forward if you’ve used other plugins and addons in the Kodi system.

The only thing you should have to do is browse to the Video section and choose “Add-ons” from the sub menu. Inside of here you should see the Evolve plugin if everything’s been installed successfully.

When you first open Evolve you’ll be greeted with a notice that in order to get the best experience the following addons should be installed.

For me personally, I haven’t bothered to install them but in no particular order they are:

SportsDevil
F4m Tester
The latest YouTube update (follow this tutorial to update it if it isn’t working).

That’s really all there is to it. If you have any problems feel free to leave a comment below or on our YouTube Channel.

Kodi Announces Alpha Version 2 For Version 17

Walks — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 05:36:08 +0000

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the U.S!

Kodi announced a few days ago the release of Aplha version 2 for their latest version of Kodi, version 17. Having been a user since it’s inception as XMBC on the original Xbox it’s amazing to see just how far the developers have come making Kodi one of the most popular open source platforms on the planet. Every day I see more and more people asking questions and wanting advice on how to get started with Kodi and with I fully expect version 17 to make the program that more popular.

Image credit: Kodi.TV

There’s a lot to be excited about with the latest release but here are some of the favorites:

The Kodi Name

With every version Kodi changes it’s name, version 16 was Jarvis, version 15 Isengard. This time around Kodi asked for it’s users feedback and the support was over expected and overwhelmingly in favor of it’s latest release name labelled “Krypton”.

Since the dawn of time, or at least since 2008 each released version has received a code name next to the version number. Giving each development iteration a code name in a certain category is kind of a tradition that is not only applicable for software but also for hardware. Google does so for Android, Intel and NVIDIA also names their chips. Who are we to break this tradition and as such we follow in their steps with a theme that started out with mythical places or names. For our v17 release we actually let the public chose the name and with an overwhelming majority they chose the name “Krypton”.

Looking back so far at what our small team of developers has done to the code, the name Krypton certainly gives a certain emphasis to it that fits. As you may have noticed it took quite some time before we came out with our first Kodi v17 alpha 2 (sorry that we skipped alpha 1) and we have some very good reasons for that. Several years ago we set a path that we wanted to improve our code base instead of just slapping on new features and this release will certainly be no exception to that goal. Certain parts of our code underwent a complete overhaul or in some cases even went through a blender to be almost rebuild from the ground up.

The Kodi Look

With version 17 the Kodi look will forever be changed d it’s something to be excited about.

Credit Kodi.TV

Past March we announced that we had replaced the aging Confluence skin which did it’s job since 2009 as default skin. V17 will mark the new arrival of Estuary and Estouchy (touch enabled) skin as the new default skins. Many months have been put in getting these skins build from the ground up and utilise all of the new features Kodi has to offer. During this period we also rethought on what was actually needed for skins and with this we also added features we only came up with by rebuilding this skin as we wondered why it never was able to do it in the first place. The home screen has been revamped and now utilises a smartplaylists implementation to automatically show you what probably interests you the most. We suggest you just give it a try and see for yourself. If you still prefer Confluence skin then you don’t need to worry as it’s still available from the official Kodi repository.

Improved Android Audio and Performance

The Android platform on Kodi has quickly become one of the most popular options on the market and as such continues to see major improvements with each major release. Version 17 proves no different with some welcome features.

HD awesomeness

As you may have read several times is that the Android part of Kodi is currently low on development. It’s the platform with the largest user base but somehow there don’t seem to be a lot of developers around that can work on Kodi for that platform. Since Kodi isn’t the standard JAVA app like the million other out there working on it is certainly a challenge. Regardless for this release we still have some big improvements lined up. The most important one is probably what most of you have been waiting for and that is HD audio passthrough capabilities. Although we had a proof of concept for v16 it wasn’t in a state where the team was comfortable adding it that late in release cycle. However for v17 we can now tell you that passthrough for DTS, DTS-HD, DTS-X, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby ATMOS should all be working if your device supports this. The NVIDIA SHIELD TV is certainly one of the best supported devices that use the standard Android audio methods.

Android 5.0 Lollipop (or later) as minimum

Over the years the Android platform started to mature and catch up to the other platforms regarding capabilities. This also means that we can drop all the custom code we had to add in the beginning to get Kodi running at all as that’s now becoming obsolete. One of those from back in the days was libStageFright which we dropped in a previous release and was replaced by the standard MediaCodec from Android. With v17 we have started to clean up all the old implementations which sadly also means we had to set the minimum Android version to at least 5.0 Lollipop. It’s uncertain at this time if we even hove to go higher and set minimum to Android 6.0 Marshmallow as this contains certain features we need to improve Kodi. For now you are safe if you at least have Android 5.0 Don’t worry you can keep using Kodi v16 on all previous Android versions however you just can upgrade to a newer Kodi version.

Grey Area Addons From Unknown Sources in Kodi

Another interesting change involves the discussion of “grey area” addons from developers and plugins not endorsed by the Kodi community. For the past year Kodi has made it publicly known to it’s users not to trust out of market addons and Kodi box sellers due to not knowing what’s in the code. Kodi’s popularity in large part the past couple years (not to say it wasn’t popular to begin with, just gaining that much more) is from a lot of users finding out ways to watch free movies and TV shows on their Kodi boxes.

Moving forward Kodi users will be given one warning explaining the risks of out of market addons. If you want to install these addons you’ll have to acknowledge the risk once before being able to install.

First of all we added an option to warn new users that installing add-ons outside of Kodi repository could potentially bring harmful add-ons to their system. A more extensive write up (read here) explains these hazards they might get their selves into. Of course this doesn’t mean all are bad however we do feel that users should at least be warned. From now on if a user wants to install any add-on from .zip they need to acknowledge they understood the risk and enable the option to allow installation. This is a one time warning so you do not need to do this each time.

Wrapping Up

There is so much more expected with the release of Kodi Krypton in the coming months. While highlighted some of our favorites of the upcoming release and we urge you to check out the full post on the latest Alpha release of Kodi.

How To Stream Usenet in Kodi With EasyNews

Walks — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 22:07:25 +0000

There’s been an abundance of options out there for Kodi streamers and as the program has grown in popularity so has the amount of plugins as well as the demand for maintenance of them. For anyone that’s been in the game for sometime now you’ve seen your favorite addons come and go. Nothing will change that today or in the future and in my opinion it’s only going to get worse as third party addons for Kodi become more popular as more and more people become aware of the ability to do this. Let’s not forget that as this continues to pick up steam so to will the endless takedown requests of this movie and TV show sites. That being said over the course of Kodi’s existence (and movie/TV sharing’s existence) there are two technologies that have remained consistent. Torrenting and Usenet, both of which have their advantages and disadvantages. Today I’m going to show you how you can set up Easynews to stream content in Kodi.

Torrenting has long been the more popular choice for users looking to download content. Torrenting works in different ways then Usenet, typically with a torrent connection you share that same content you’re downloading which in some cases can result in legal ramifications. Usenet on the other hand is a one way download street. While still not technically legal it provides a little more security for the end user as whoever is pursuing would need to see the active logs of what you’re downloading…thus making it important to choose a reliable usenet provider like Easynews (you can make it even more secure using a good VPN) who doesn’t save logs.

As an avid Kodi user you’ve undoubtedly used addons like Exodus, Specto, and SALTs and have noticed that sources can stop working, suffer through constant buffering and just flat out suck. Usenet links are stored on a private encrypted server and allow easier and more dependable access to your favorite content. Real Debrid is a wonderful Kodi addition (and cheap) but you may just enjoy using Easynews thanks to it’s security and never ending supply of new files added daily.

The only downside, it’s a premium option (there is a 14 day free trial for you to test out before committing). Still a 14 day free trial can help you make a choice whether it’s right for you or not.

First and foremost.

What You Need To Install

An Easynews Account (click for a free trial)

A Kodi Box
Installation of the Xunitytalk Repository

This will take a few steps to complete. The first thing you’ll need to do (if you don’t have it already) is to install the Xunitytalk Repository.

Installing Easynews and Usenet into Kodi

Make sure you’ve signed up for an Easynews account and fire up your Kodi Box. Browse to SYSTEM, then FILE MANAGER.
Inside here we want to add select ADD SOURCE, then enter in the information like below (http://xunitytalk.me/xfinity as the source and .xfinity as the source name).
Now return to the main menu and select SYSTEM once more.
Select Addons
Select install from Zip File.
Highlight and select Xunity, the source we originally setup.
Scroll down and select Xunitytalk_Repository.zip
You’ll get a notification that the repository has been successfully installed and you’ll be taken back to the same menu, this time choose Install From Repository.
If all went well you should see .XunityTalk Repository. Select it.
Inside the Xunitytalk repository scroll down and select Video Addons
You should now see a large list of addons available. We’re looking for EasyNews. Highlight it and hit enter.
Choose Install.
Once complete you’ll get a notification in the lower right corner saying whether or not it was a success. Don’t leave this screen quite yet. We want to configure the Easynews addon. To do that bring up the context menu (“C” on most keyboards) and select Configure.
Under the Accounts tab you might as well turn off the pop up message you’ll be greeted with.
In the EasyNews Tab this is where you’ll enter in your information for your Easynews Account you registered for.
Finally scroll through the remaining tabs (Movies, TV Shows, etc) and turn off No Dialog For Preferred Extension.

You should be now setup to use Easynews within your Kodi setup. To use it all you need to do is visit your Video Addons section and select the Easynews plugin. If you’re familiar with the Kodi platform and have used previous addons like SALTs, Genesis, and Specto you can integrate Easynews with those addons.

A Warning

The Easynews service is efficient and one of the best in regards to reliable streaming. The issue arises if you’re a heavy streamer as the caps enforced on their accounts will limit you and could cost you an arm and a leg if you’re not careful.

I’m still a big believer in Real Debrid and it’s pricing but if you’re a serious usenet junkie this is one way you can get your fix, just be leary of the limits on the Easynews accounts.

If you have anymore usenet providers, please feel free to drop them in a comment below, I’d enjoy checking them out.

How To Watch MLB.TV in Kodi

Walks — Sat, 14 May 2016 04:18:43 +0000

Should you ever decide to cut the cable and go with a live streaming solution as your entertainment option the biggest obstacle you may face is finding some reliable options for sports streaming. In the past I’ve provided multiple options to find free options to get started but as such these typically end up dying, are less reliable, or the quality just downright sucks. Today, I’m going to show you how you can pay for a premium and legitimate service and enjoy the benefits of no down time and the best quality possible for watching Major League Baseball.

The addon wasn’t created by the MLB, but it does require you to use a premium subscription in order to get the full benefits. As of this writing you can typically get a full years worth of MLB watching for around $110 dollars U.S. If you watch a lot of baseball it’s more then worth it, if not you may want to settle with using Castaway or checking out the Pro Sport addon (please note that as of right now the MLB portion of Pro Sport is having issues and requires constant updating, I touch on this in the video above).

What You Need To Install MLB.TV For Kodi

You don’t need much to get going:

First and foremost some sort of box using Kodi. If you’re using an Android box like the Fire TV (Lowest Price) this will take a little more effort as you’ll have to us ES File Explorer to manually install the repository. I’ve got a good tutorial on how to do that here.
Next you’ll need an MLB.TV account, premium will allow you to watch all games but a free one will allow you to watch the free game of the day and possibly open you up for discounts on the service down the road.
Finally you simply need to download and install the repository from eracknaphobia, he has a forum thread here for updates and you can download the repository here.

Now that we have everything, let’s get started.

How To Install Plugin MLB.TV in Kodi

Now that we’ve got everything set, make sure you remember what your account details are and more importantly where you saved the repository.

Let’s get started.

First open up Kodi and scroll over until you see SYSTEM
After opening this screen scroll down to ADD-ONS
Inside of Addons we want to choose the option INSTALL FROM ZIP FILE
Now browse to where you downloaded and saved the eracknaphobia repository, click enter to install.
You should get a notification saying the repository was installed successfully. Don’t leave this screen just yet, this time we want to select INSTALL FROM REPOSITORY.
We want to scroll down until we see eracknaphobia’s Repo, hit enter.
Inside of the repository, we want to select VIDEO ADD-ONS.
You should now see the option to select MLB.TV, hit enter and you’ll be greeted with a popup menu where you simply select the option to Install.
If successful you should get a notification that it’s been installed and enabled. Before you leave this screen let’s configure the MLB.TV addon options where we will enter in our username and password. To do that hit “C” on your keyboard to bring up the context menu in Kodi. If you’re using a Fire TV, simply hit the menu button. A popup box should appear, select CONFIGURE.
Finally you’ll be able to enter in your details for your subscription in the appropriate boxes. If you want to play around with some options you can check out the visual tab which allows you to change the quality of your stream (if your internet isn’t fast enough), select your favorite team and more!
Finally hit OK, congratulations you’ve got the unofficial (but somewhat official) MLB.TV app installed and ready for use in Kodi.

Using the MLB.TV Addon in Kodi

If you’ve used any Kodi addon in the past this should be pretty straight forward. If not it’s simple. Start by going to the VIDEOS section in the home screen. From here a sub menu should popout where you can move down and select “ADD-ONS”. Hit enter and you’ll then be greeted with all the addons and plugins you’ve installed into Kodi.

Now simply browse to MLB.TV and hit enter. You should be greeted with this screen:

Choose which option you like, typically were looking for Todays games so hit enter and you should then be greeted with a list of all the games being played on today’s date. If you’re a premium subscriber you have access to all the games listed, but the MLB does provide one free game per day as well.

Wrapping Up

This MLB.TV app is a wonderful option if you’re a big baseball fan. It costs money but a one time payment (or monthly) still is a lot cheaper (and a lot more options) then a regular cable subscription. The lone problem associated with these types of official apps is the possibility of regional blackouts, you could be living 5 hours away from your favorite team and not be able to watch the game through the premium MLB.TV subscription and instead have to use your local cable channels.

If that’s the case you’ll also need to look at investing in a VPN and if you’ve been using Kodi for any extended period of time with the use of free 3rd party addons you should be using one anyways. We recently wrote a monster post on the best VPN’s to use with Kodi and will be having guides added to it as well moving forward. Check it out, the cost isn’t expensive for one and you’ll be able to avoid blackouts, open up national streaming services (like Netflix in another country), but more importantly protect yourself from any peering eyes who may be watching you online.

Good luck, if you enjoyed this tutorial or have troubles then drop a comment in the box below.

How To Install SportsAccess For Kodi

Walks — Wed, 11 May 2016 16:21:46 +0000

In the never ending quest for cord cutters to completely get rid of their cable TV one of the toughest challenges have been finding a reliable sports solution. In the last year 3rd party addon developers for Kodi have raised the bar significantly and opened up numerous options for the sports enthusiast. At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. Do you want to pay or do you want it for free? Again I won’t go into the legality of paying for a premium service but one thing to keep in mind a premium service with any third party addon will typically provide a better solution in terms of speed, content, and quality. Today, we’re looking at the premium sports option named SportsAccess.

I highly recommend adding an extra level of security when using third party addons like SportsAccess. One such option is to look into using a reliable VPN which you can learn more about by reading our suggested top five picks for Kodi VPNs.

What You Need To Install SportsAccess in Kodi

SportsAccess wasn’t originally designed to become a Kodi plugin but someone managed to build a plugin and provide it for download. The toughest challenge with getting up and running with SportsAccess is actually managing to purchase a subscription. If you’re familiar with Bitcoin it won’t be an issue but for those that are new to the cryptocurrency might struggle initially to get started.

You’ll need a Kodi box setup
A bitcoin account with some bitcoin in it to get started.
A little bit of some technical knowledge to purchase a subscription.

How Much SportsAccess Costs

If you’re looking to get started with SportsAccess as I mentioned having some bitcoin and understanding how to use it will be the toughest part of this process. In the past I was a little hesitant to write this tutorial as there were a lot of users who had since been complaining about the lack of support and functionality of the plugin but it appears that the original developer has come back and is helping those who had trouble before (even providing free trials).

To get started you’ll approximately need these prices (in bitcoin).
$3.00 for one day
$14.00 for 30 days
$38.00 for 90 days

How To Install Sports Access

If you’ve installed a repository in Kodi before you shouldn’t have any problems installing SportsAccess. If not this is pretty easy if you follow the instructions below.

Open Kodi and Browse To SYSTEM
From here scroll to the sub menu and select File Manager
Inside File Manager we need to click Add Source, a pop up box should show up.
Enter in the same information as in the image below.
Click OK and return to the main screen of Kodi, this time simply click SYSTEM or SETTINGS (on the sub menu).
Scroll down and select ADD-ONS.
Inside of Add-ons we want to scroll down and select INSTALL FROM ZIP FILE.
Now simply select the SportsAccess source we just set up.
Install the repository by selecting repository.sportsaccess.zip
You should get a notification saying it was successfully installed, don’t leave the screen we now have to install the actual addon. Instead of selecting Install from zip file this time select Install From Repository.
Scroll down until you see SPORTSACCESS XBMC ADDONS and hit enter.
Select VIDEO ADD-ONS.
Finally hit enter on SPORTSACCESS
The last thing we need to do is configure the addon with our account details. To do that don’t exist out of this screen, once SportsAccess is installed simply hit “C” on the keyboard to bring up the context menu (Or hit the appropriate menu button on your device remote). Next select CONFIGURE.
From here you should be able to enter in your username and password and now be able to access the SportsAccess Addon by browsing to the VIDEOS and ADD-ONS Sub Menu.

Wrapping It Up

That should be all you need to do to get up and running with SportsAccess. As mentioned you will want to watch the video on the actual SportsAccess website to learn how you can get a subscription through BitCoin and see what the channel setup is like. If you have problems with getting up and running then I highly suggest checking out the Pro Sport Addon for Kodi or if you have problems please feel free to comment below.

Get Started Using A VPN With Kodi

Walks — Wed, 11 May 2016 00:10:42 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk in the Kodi world the past couple months in regards to 3rd party addons killing the open source software. Chances are if you’re on this site you’ve likely stumbled across a tutorial that helps you install one of those 3rd party addons and while I don’t necessarily condone doing illegal things with Kodi I still like to provide the opportunity to help people use it. Whatever you choose it’s important to understand the risks of using the aforementioned addons and it’s probably equally important to understand that you should be using a VPN to help protect yourself. A VPN, or virtual private network, isn’t a Kodi addon so you’ll need to have a little bit of tech know how to use one. Truth be told if you can’t figure out how to set one up you probably shouldn’t be streaming 3rd party addons from Kodi for your own safety.

But which one do you use and in the grande scheme of things which one is the best?

Which Are The Best VPN’s for Kodi

With so many options available on the market, we’ve narrowed down our favorite and what we feel are the best vpns to use with Kodi. This page will continue to get updated with our tests and results so you can find the most secure, safest and fastest VPN to use for your Kodi streaming experience.

Update: Please note if you’ve come here looking for a VPN for a Fire TV read carefully. While we’ve managed to get most VPN’s working on the Fire TV box the Fire TV Stick has been a different story. It seems the newer versions of the stick work fine with our choices below but the first generation models have problems. We’re thoroughly testing some options for the older Fire TV models and will be listing them below once we find the best ones.

First and foremost, a little information on what a VPN is

In the simplest terms VPN’s let you change your geographic location by overriding your IP address that was given to you by your ISP (internet service provider). This can come in handy in multiple scenarios, for example if you wanted to stream a different countries version of Netflix or perhaps popular websites like Facebook have your country blocked.

More important though is a VPN’s ability to hide and encrypt all the data and online traffic you are using. This prevents third parties from spying on you, whether it’s because your sharing torrents or perhaps even just using a free Wi-FI connection in your local Starbucks. By using a VPN you’re a lot less likely to be a target.

Five VPN’s To Get Started with and use with Kodi

I spent the past couple days searching and reading a lot of user opinions and feedback on which VPN’s they use or prefer the most. Everyone isn’t going to be the same and if you’re using devices like the Amazon Fire TV to stream content it’s going to be a little trickier

Private Internet Access (or PIA)

After reading endless forums, threads and sub reddits on the subject it always seemed one VPN provider stood above the rest when it came to recommendations. That provider was called Private Internet Access (or what most refer to as PIA). When it came down to it PIA was the favorite among most users because the ease of use and more importantly the price. With over 3000 servers spread across some 24+ countries Private Internet Access has some of the best diversity possible.

Features

Comparable to most of the other options in this list, Private Internet Access comes with a solid foundation of features you’d expect from a top flight VPN solution. Some of our more favorite ones include:

5 licenses allowing you to spread your PIA access across multiple devices.
No Traffic Logs
PPTP, OpenVPN and L2TP/IPSec
Socks 5 Proxy included in purchase
Unlimited Bandwidth

Ease of Use

Installation and setup is pretty straight forward. The interface itself is minimal and when it’s running it’s next to non existent. When you first install or start you’ll be prompted with a login window which ends up running in your system tray (tested this on windows) which provides easy access to the connection and settings page of PIA. When connected it glows green, when disconnected it’s red. It couldn’t get any easier then that.

Speed

Performance wise PIA has long been suggested that it blows other VPN providers out of the water. Speeds across North America we’re almost twice as fast as some of the other providers but again this is something that will ultimately differ from user to user. Overseas speeds again we’re tops from our testing standpoint.

Pricing

Private Internet Access doesn’t come with a free option (VPN and the word free aren’t typically a good idea anyway) but is priced incredibly reasonable and we really like the packages they have to offer. It comes available in three tiers, monthly, semi-annual, or annually. At $6.95 a month you won’t be breaking the bank by any means but it makes much more sense to incur the incredible discount of the annual service of just $39.95 (Lowest Price) for the whole year. If you’re like me and looking to save money the annual plan is a no brainer as it’s one of the best values you can find, but before you bite the bullet you could easily try the service out for one month before making a decision. With so many users giving it a 5 star rating we’re confident you won’t have any problems.

More Info and Installation

For android users (specifically those using a Fire TV(On Sale) PIA allows you to install an app on your android device giving you access to using it’s DNS right from the app instead of having to worry about tweaking settings in your router. I’ll always recommend using a VPN from the router level but for those less tech savvy or just want one for using Kodi this is the way to go.

Pricing, protection, and the lack of data being logged makes Private Internet Access a can’t miss for your VPN setup.

Learn more about Private Internet Access Here.

Related Tutorials

How to install Private Internet Access on Fire TV

PureVPN for Kodi

From here on out it was nothing short of a crap shoot to see which one would come recommended as close to Private Internet Access. I suppose the one con that I read in regards to PIA was some users had been complaining of the recent drop in speed. It’s always possible that this can happen and some had suggested that perhaps the company grew to fast and can’t keep up with the demand. Whatever the case it still works and with any VPN it’s important to find the one that works for you.

Features

PureVPN aims to provide a seamless experience and there aren’t to many out there who provide a more robust feature set on the market as they seem to have everything one would need when setting up a VPN for Kodi. Smart DNS, Kill switch, Firewall and DDoS protection as well as some other handy features for more advanced users. Some of our more favorite options available on the platform include:

5 licenses allowing you to spread your PIA access across multiple devices.
No Data Logs
Smart DNS
Split Tunneling
Unlimited data transfer

Ease of Use

PureVPN provides an easy to use app allowing you to connect to your VPN server of choice easily. While recently re-designed and launched the app is designed strategically making all the essential functions for a VPN connection right at your finger tips and readily available.

Speed

After having tested PureVPN for a bit we diagnosed that it wasn’t among the best providers for speed. That being said you should expect a deduction in service when using a VPN (even though sometimes you see anomalies in increases with PIA) due to your connection being routed through multiple destinations. After being connecting with OpenVPN we noitced a 1-3Mbps reduction in speed, which while a downgrade, is still damn good in the VPN industry.

Pricing

PureVPN comes in three tiers of packages similar to PIA. Monthly, semi-annually, and annually. If you’re looking to just test out the service the monthly rate will cost you $9.95/month. If you’ve tested and figured it’s the best option for your VPN you’ll again see savings on an annual plan where it will then just cost you $4.16 a month. ( View Pricing )

More Info and Installation

PureVPN was another option on the market that I couldn’t find to many complaints about. While not as widely used as some of the others it seemed to be a rock solid solution to use not just for Kodi but a VPN for your day to day internet browsing (like all VPN’s should).

Similar to PIA it comes packed with a handful of options. A lot of the top VPN’s are going to provide similar feature sets but where PureVPN our performs PIA is in the amount of countries and IP’s it serves.

Learn More About PureVPN

NordVPN

It wasn’t often mentioned in the places we looked but when it was the feedback on NordVPN was positive. Having heard a lot of good things about the VPN we decided to take it for a test drive with a one month trial (we’ll get to the pricing shortly).

NordVPN’s motto is “The World’s Most advanced VPN” so it was in my interest to see if that actually applied to them. Let’s face it, this isn’t necessarily about how good or advanced there feature set, it’s more about how this works with Kodi. Kodi is easy to use and thus we want our VPN to be the same.

Features

NordVPN doesn’t offer a whole lot of different options that matter to us when it comes to Kodi, as I mention in most of the other providers they all do a reliable job at providing a solid feature set and Nord is no different.

Some of the more interesting features that I found interesting were:

Double VPN (There technology not only encrypts your data, but does so twice.)
No Logs Policy
534 servers in 47 different countries
6 Devices
OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, IPSec protocols
Automatic Kill Switch

Ease of Use

NordVPN is available in a wide variety of platforms. Windows, Mac, Raspberry PI, Android, Linux & more. Like PIA I found it incredibly easy to use. I simply downloaded the client of choice (in this case Windows 10), installed and then logged into my account. Once successful I was redirected to the dedicated server list provided by Nord where I simply chose the VPN server I wanted to use to connect with to their service.

From there it was as simple as clicking connect and getting a message stating I was successfully connected.

The whole setup and ease of use was wonderful and it didn’t require any technical knowledge at all for the end user. Simply login, point and click and choose connect. If you’re worried about it disconnecting and being vulnerable dont, NordVPN offers a kill feature that automatically closes any program you use whenever your VPN is disconnected.

Speed

As great as the user interface and setup was the speed had a lot left to be determined when compared to others in this list. A speed drop is expected as mentioned but when compared to some of the other options I was a little disappointed in the speed I ended up with after running some tests. That being said it’s important to keep in mind that every result varies from one server to another and one user to another. What may have been slow and disappointing for me could be speedy and zippy for you.

Pricing

Priced competively NordVPN offers three package options for the end user. Simple, Standard, and Best Offer. All three plans come with the same features, the only difference of course is the price. The Simple plan is paid monthly at $8/month, the standard is a semi-annual (6 months) paid at $5/month that’s billed every 6 months at $30 dollars, and the Best Offer plan is $4/month billed annually at $40.

Pricing is more then reasonable but once again comes just a little more expensive compared to some others.

More Info and Installation

NordVPN is an extremely reliable VPN service and it comes packed with multiple features that will enhance the security on your day to day internet activites. I will say that the customer support is second to none, I often got quick responses to any questions or problems I had. The biggest drawback to the service (which might be a deal breaker) is it’s speed. If you’re using addons from Fusion you’re going to want to best speed possible unless you sign up for a premium service like Real Debrid. NordVPN works and it works well and is arguably the best VPN for security and privacy, my only advice would be to test it for a month and see how your speeds compared to other VPN services.

Learn More About NordVPN

IP Vanish

You’d be hard pressed to find many sites not promoting IP Vanish. A lot of the top dogs in the Kodi tutorial industry are recommending it. Through my research I never seen it mentioned nearly as much as the other two above this list but that shouldn’t discredit you from trying it out. IPVanish boasts a lot of great features, many similar to a lot of other VPN providers.

Perhaps the biggest perk from the company is it’s home to one of the largest network footprints of all VPN providers. At the moment of this writing it is working with 40,000+ shared IPs, 500+ VPN servers in 60+ countries giving you more selection no matter where you are in the world. This can help open up the ability to watch things like Netflix, Amazon Prime, in countries that may not typically offer the service. IPVanish has claimed that all there servers are listed at a physical location, a lot of other highly reputable providers simple provide a geo-spoof to make it appear that they are there.

Features

Some of the more important features included are:

Unlimited bandwidth
256-bit AES encryption
Zero traffic logs
Anonymous torrenting (important if you’re using addons like Quasar)
Unlimited P2P traffic
OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP/IPsec VPN protocols
Unlimited server switching
Mobile, desktop, Android, iOS, and more apps for your media players

Ease of Use

IPVanish is one of the more user-friendly platforms I had the pleasure of dealing with. It’s reliable, straight forward and very easy to use. Signing up takes mere minutes and once you’re logged into the platform you have the ability to change your IP and change to whatever server you’d like to connect to.

The inerface on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android (and I imagine more) is crisp, clean and will provide easy access to the settings and information you need.

Speed

As I’ve mentioned throughout this article it’s important to take VPN speed with a grain of salt. You probably won’t max out your connection speed if you weren’t using one but the fact that your data and privacy is much more secure should be satisfactory for a drop in speed.

When comparing all other VPN’s in this list both PIA and IPVanish were tops (on my tests) in the speed department. There was no noticable slow down when using it with Kodi, or Netflix for streaming movies or downloading large files. You may notice a drop in both download and upload speed but it is head and shoulders above most other VPN providers…and as I mentioned having peace of mind with encrypted data, increased security and privacy should be well worth a small drop in speed.

Pricing

Similar to the others, this company provides three different options on checkout. The only difference in these plans is IPVanish doesn’t offer a semi-annual plan, only a quarterly plan paying every 3 months.

Pricing starts at $10/month if you’re paying monthly, $26.99 ($8.99 per month) if paying quarterly, and $77.99 annually ($6.49 per month).

More Info and Installation

IPVanish provides reliable privacy at some of the best speeds for a VPN making it a good choice. There are a few minor flaws (lack of kill switch in Windows) but all in all you should be happy with the result the service provides.

Learn More About IPVanish

Torguard

The last mention on this list was a toss up. There were so many available options out there it was hard to choose but I eventually settled on TorGuard.

Torguard is a VPN service in the U.S and has quickly become one of the more popular services in the world thanks to it’s reliability and easy setup.

Features

Similar features run rampant through TorGuard so you won’t really find anything that separates it from the rest of the pack pushing you to having to buy it. It’s compatible across multiple platforms and perhaps if you’re looking for more anonymity you can purchase a subscription via Bitcoin.

No Logs
1600+ servers in 43+ different countries.
Unlimited speeds and bandwidth
Up to 5 Simultaneous connections
Dedicated IP Address

Ease of Use

The TorGuard client is simple and straight forward and I’ve found that it’s almost impossible to find a client these days that doesn’t make connecting to a VPN easy. To get started you simply purchase a subscription, download the client, install and then login. Once logged in you’re able to select the desired VPN of your choosing and you’re off and running.

Speed

In my testing TorGuard is hit or miss. Some locations have had good results with speeds but others have been awful. It’s easy enough to browse the web and watch videos off of Netflix but when it comes to Kodi some of the streaming sources often have never ended buffering issues. Some Kodi addons do provide the availability to download said movies and TV shows which will work with the proper P2P protection.

Again, it works but testing on my end TorGuard was behind the other four mentioned above.

Pricing

TorGuard provides four options to get started, monthly, quarterly, semi annually, and annually. It’s pricing is on the higher end of the spectrum compared to some others but not something that will break the bank. Still the savings you’ll incur from choosing a cheaper option may benefit you more in the long run as you can reinvest in purchasing and setting up a Real Debrid account (see our tutorial).

Pricing is as follows: $9.99 monthly, $19.99 quarterly (paid every 3 months), $29.99 semi annually (paid every 6 months), and $59.99 annually (paid yearly).

More Info and Installation

When it comes down to it Torguard was pushed to the bottom of my list for a reason, pricing and customer support. Upon initial setup I had some connection issues and was disappointed in the lack of response I had seen when sending inquiries through the ticketing system. There’s a large FAQ but not every problem can be solved through a simple FAQ solution and unfortunately I was left unimpressed at the delayed response time.

The service works that’s fair but for the price, speed, and customer support I felt the the other options in this review provided a better solution, especially for beginners and those using Kodi.

Final Thoughts

Starting to work with a VPN can be a daunting task for a beginner but more and more Kodi users of third party addons recommend using one to keep your privacy and data safe. Truth be told it really shouldn’t matter whether you’re using Kodi or not, I can’t recommend a VPN enough with the amount of data being logged online from multiple companies. In this day and age we need to be safe and while streaming content may not technically be illegal right now where you’re at that doesn’t mean it won’t be in the upcoming future.

If you’re looking to get started I highly recommend (in no particular order)

Private Internet Access

IP Vanish

PureVPN