MrMC has just been approved into the Amazon Fire TV appstore. MrMC is a modified version of Kodi, the popular media app that Amazon notably removed from their Android appstore. While Kodi was once in Amazon’s appstore for Android devices, it, nor any of its clones, ever made it into the Fire TV appstore. That makes MrMC the first Kodi app of any kind to make it into the official Fire TV appstore. MrMC is compatible with 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV’s, as well as Fire TV Sticks, but it does appear to require Fire OS 5.
The primary difference between Kodi and MrMC is that MrMC does not have the ability to install 3rd-party addons or plugins. The removal of addon support removes the possibility for MrMC to directly be used to stream pirated content through 3rd-party piracy addons. It is Kodi’s potential for piracy that Amazon had issue with, resulting in its removal from the Amazon appstore. Without addon support, MrMC is strictly a media player app for local content.
MrMC is currently priced at $6.99, which is a fairly high asking price considering anyone can sideload Kodi for free and have the same capabilities. In comparison, the Apple TV version of MrMC is priced at $4.99. Version 2.1 of MrMC, which is the one currently in the Fire TV appstore, is based on Kodi 16.1 RC2, according to its release notes. The Kodi team just released the final version of Kodi 16.1 a couple days ago, making MrMC 2 versions behind at the moment.
If you don’t care about addon support, the main reason to purchase MrMC over sideloading Kodi yourself is the convenience of installing directly through the official appstore and easy/automatic updates, assuming the app receives regular updates. Whether you’re interested in MrMC or not, it’s nice to see Amazon isn’t completely against apps related to Kodi as a whole.
Update
I incorrectly stated the Apple TV app costs $4.99. It’s the iPhone/iPad version that costs $4.99, while the Apple TV version costs the same $6.99 as the Fire TV version.
Also, I’ve written an article addressing the hate towards this app here that I encourage you to read.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
This is total nonsense because we will pay for an internal player? no sense of this, not that trame amazon with all this but now if it is almost certainly a lock Kodi approaches, use proposed here for updates block hope I results and not have problems with my fire tv one and Kodi.
Yep, they’re profitting off the backs of the Kodi developers who put the most work into this app to make it free and open source. They charge more than other app developers do for apps that are original and not piggybacking forks. Don’t waste your money on this and get the free and original Kodi that has everything this does and more! Use the tutorials from this great site to sideload it with full Fire TV compatibility
Can this app play dvd iso files with menus?
yes
Info on this fork is sparse. I can hardly find any discussion of it, even in their forum. Their site gives little to no details about its features. What I need in kodi is the ability to add custom menu items or at least some way to separate home videos from movies. I use aeon not 5 to accomplish this, but would like an amazon supported app like mdmc that could provide me this feature. Does anyone have enough familiarity with mdmc to tell me if it does have some kind of customization that would make separating home movies from movies doable?
autocorrect…mrmc
It depends, most advanced skins use python helpers (scripts) to augment their needs. MrMC has no python so those features will not work. We do plan on replacing those helpers with core code. Low on the priority list right now.
The best thing is to join our forums and there is a section for requests. Tell us exactly what you want to do and we will consider it. For example, originally, DVD iso handling was removed, but our users convinced us to bring it back, so we did.
Why in the heck is this approved by amazon but not the actual kodi app? Did you pay them or something?
With Kodi its fairly easy to watch “pirated content” by installing 3rd party addons. With MrMC you can not install 3rd party addons.
Read the second paragraph, explains it better than I do.
And with MrMC it’s fairly easy to watch nothing. Even legal addons are unavailable.
because this one doesn’t allow the pirated addons like **** to their version of Kodi. The whole reason Kodi can’t get on is because the majority of people use it to watch copyrighted videos
This is just another step until the hammer comes down on Kodi as we know it. Make no mistake, Amazon does have a “master-plan” at work behind the scenes. What the end-game is… who knows.Maybe they will make a bid to buy exclusive rights to Kodi and incorporate it as a built-in service on future FTV versions (thus no longer making Kodi open source). This app, and any other down the pipeline is a carefully crafted consumer test. Money talks as the saying goes… but for me, I will remain updated blocked as long as I can hold out…
Once opensource, always opensource. Yes If Amazon could close source KODI, but the likely hood of Kodi going away for ever is like 0%.
Don’t think so? Look at all the other OpenSource Projects that went down that route. OpenOffice, MySQL….
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
An open source license makes it legally impossible to close that code. They would have to replace nearly 100% of the code, as nearly 100% of the code is licensed under the GPL. The GPL was chosen because it protects Kodi and code from the kind of situation you just described.
I don’t know about the master plan. You could say the same about plex being available for so long. i don’t think this is any different.
Let’s hope I’m wrong, time will tell. I know there have been a lot of comparison’s between Kodi and Plex over the years and they do more or less have the same end result. But there is a major difference between the two: hardware. Having to keep an additional pc running as a server in the background is tedious at best. Not necessary with Kodi, it’s all about ease of use. I tried Plex years ago, yes it works, but the setup is just not appropriate for the casual user.
The advantage that Plex has is that it can run on very simple devices. Having the server and client separate has many advantages. Just the ability of being able to sync views across platforms is really great. In a sense Plex Media Server + client = MrMC.
Running a Plex server of a low end NAS such as a QNAP TS-251+ gives you the best of all worlds in that you do not need to have your main computer running. Setting the Plex Media Server up is very simple but of course to really benefit from Plex you are better of with a Plex Pass membership which costs money ( similar to Emby). The MrMC model starts to make more sense as devices have become more powerful and the division into server and client matters less. Nevertheless, the syncing across devices is a big Plex plus.
MrMC is a really nice media player on our Apple TV. It has replaced Plex there, though not totally. I am looking forward to using it on the Fire TV.
Both MrMC and Plex are miles above alternatives.
Having to not sideload Kodi, worry about where the user data is, etc… is worth it for me. Then again, the Addon’s are not something that I use so …
I didn’t think that Kodi (and other open source code) could be sold like that?? Why would amazon approve this one and not Kodi or SPMC? Seems to go against the idea of Kodi
AFAIK, you can legally sell GPLd code so long as you link to the source code and don’t violate any trademarks/other copyright.
You’d be surprised how often GPLd code is used in commercial products e.g. Fire TV.
“MrMC, a crippled forked version of Kodi, gets approved into the official Amazon Fire TV appstore because it’s crippled & charges for something that is free”
Fixed that for you Elias…
Pay for the privilege to not add addons to Kodi? And $6.99 for said privilege? What a freaking joke. Good luck with that MrMC.
We all know this just means Kodi and SPMC will be the next apps to be blocked. I’ve already turned all my 5 star FireTV reviews to 1 stars, next will be to leave Amazon Prime. Jet.com matches (or barely beats) amazon prices, just a little annoyed it takes an extra day to ship.
Hi there,
MrMC here. Just to straighten a few things out.
First, we are actually a mix of Kodi 16 + AudioEngine/Player changes from a version of Kodi 17. But database compatible with Kodi 17 for those that run an external mysql server.
Second, yes. The entire python/addon bits have been removed. If you need those, MrMC is not for you. Eventually these will get replace with something better/cleaner and much more controlled to avoid the massive tarnishing of the Kodi brand since I (and another person) did the original Android port to Kodi long, long ago.
Last, MrMC has two price structures. For iOS, it’s $4.99. For tvOS, it is the same price as under Amazon, $6.99. We feel that this pricing is fare given that we do have to handle various licensing.
Again, if you don’t like the idea of MrMC, then this app is not for you. Side load Kodi or SPMC and move on :)
Thanks for the honesty Scott. It is appreciated.
Sorry but…I do not think Scott is being completely honest. No way this app was approved without Amazon upper management meetings. I would like to know what was discussed as to the future role of this app on Amazon considering the elephant in the room (Kodi). I would also like to know why add-ons have been hobbled.
Addons and python have been gone from MrMC fork for a long time now. Check out MrMC for iOS/tvOS. No special treatment for Amazon nor getting reviewed.
Checkout our github repo too, our public pushes match any binary we release.
Amazon has always been on our target list, see our forums, there’s a user poll there. Started several months ago. We picked Amazon FireTV specifically because we could specifically target it’s capabilities and make very sure that it was stable and played nice for users. That is job one at MrMC.
As to what Amazon intends for the future, that’s for them to decide. We are not party to those discussions.
I suggest trying to provide a better argument for why you’re charging for this (especially on Android) since this essentially seems to be a stripped down kodi.
For example, where you say licensing, is that for codecs, etc?
You already have a bad review because of this.
Support, stability and proper licensing. That pretty much sums it up.
We know that we will get people thinking why pay, Kodi is free? Again, if you don’t like what we are doing, sideload Kodi/SPMC and move on.
MrMC is already considered upstream for iOS/tvOS and we intend the same for FireTV. The source is open, there on github, compile/sideload, we are perfectly happy if you do that too. We follow the same model under iOS/tvOS. Don’t want to pay, compile and sideload. Don’t like our model, sideload Kodi/SPMC and end of story.
As for as those type of reviews, what can I say ? People are entitled to their option. 15,000+ active iOS,tvOS users might disagree. We think there is a class of users that in fact prefer the direction we are going with MrMC.
I understand the purpose of a controlled, supported fire tv-specific app. Could remove some legwork on my part. With that said, I would like to buy if it supported custom menu items to separate content like some of the add on kodi skins do. If it had that I’d buy.
So why aren’t you saying this in your description?
Android is more open by default so things like side loading is more common, you need to be TELLING people why they should pay for what is essentially a gimped version of Kodi.
Also, reviews may matter if people see your 1 star media player when browsing Amazon’s app store.
That’s being just a bit disingenuous. People approve of what you’re doing because it’s the only way to get an approved, automatically updated, supported version of Kodi on appleTV and FireTV devices.
Nobody is HAPPY that all addons are disabled, they just accept it as the price they need to pay (in addition to the six bucks).
Maybe you should try being a little less of a d*** while you are trying to make money off some ones else work, by releasing a crippled version of said work.
Just an idea
Scott, we Android users are not mindless IOS ‘tarts. We don’t pay for code that is free just because it’s been repackaged nicely.
And MrMC is giving Amazon another excuse to continue to blacklist Kodi from their app store. So we won’t be moving on from trashing MrMC for this.
MrMC is not Kodi repackaged, visit our github repo and you will see the difference. Anyone that thinks MrMC is identical to Kodi (minus addons) does not really know what they are talking about. While at github, visit the XBMC one and look at commits by person. I’m not hard to miss, very near the top.
And, FYI. Myself and another person spent an entire year long, long ago doing the port of xbmc/kodi to Android. So you are talking to a well versed, multi-functional master coder here, not some packaging droid :)
Also, my understanding (from reading about MRMC with the initial appletv release) is that you contribute patches back up to Kodi, correct? So you’re still supporting the main project.
And that’s why we should all applaud the developer.
While I don’t directly submit PRs anymore (too much bikesheding), I do point out important commits to interested kodi-devs.
But as Kodi does not have an Android maintainer anymore and the main core developer is rather hostile to Android/iOS/tvOS, that only goes so far.
I do communicate with Koying (SPMC), and we trade off fixes and information.
Maybe I was thinking of Koying, then. I know his split off with SPMC was acrimonious also.
Ahhhh, DRAMA!
How about you repackage MrMC for the user to have the option to re-enable or add addon support outside the App store thru a repository or other method instead of helping to expand Apples model of a close app system like your doing by releasing this for Android.
SPMC joined Kodi by taking itself off the Amazon app store. MrMC is doing the opposite by perpetuating the close app system from the Apple over to Android. We Will never welcome that here.
The existing addons and python are gone forever, as is windows platforms. All of that code has been stripped out months ago. It will not come back in its present form. It’s not a simple repackaging job to re-add them, as they touch all the way down into lib depends.
There is a plan to replace addons with something cleaner, better and more controllable but like a good wine, these things take time.
Sorry if this does not fit with your needs, like I’ve already said elsewhere , MrMC is not for everyone. We knew from the very start that some would disagree with our vision however we think (based on iOS/tvOS response) that there is a definite demand for MrMC.
Your needs seem different from our vision, in that case, sideload Kodi/SPMC and be done. Both of those distros are certainly free to backport our changes and additions from our codebase. We are still near enough for this but over time, we shall diverge more and more as we improve things with stability in mind.
Thanks for the info Scott.
When you do roll out your new addon support with this be open to 3rd partys? and if so does this then open MrMC up to the same ‘legal’ issue that is stopping KODI from being in the Amazon store?
Yes, 3rd parties will be able to develop using this new structure. But there will be a few necessary changes in loading them. Those changes are still being worked out.
For what it is worth I regularly use MrMC on a 4th gen Apple TV and I couldn’t be happier. It’s really great in my opinion. While the lack of user AddONS seems to not be for everyone it does have the advantage of making MrMC very stable. Audio passthrough also works very well for us.
I suspect that these very capabilities (user AddONS) have given XBMC and hence Kodi a really bad reputation to the point that the future of Kodi must surely be in doubt. MrMC gives a stable future to a great media system. I really see this as an important addition to the Amazon Fire TV.
Why not just put code in to restrict/hardcode the repo’s to only ‘offical ones’?
That would achieve the same thing.
While I would not use MrMc on the Fire TV – as the original Kodi is perfect -, I am really thankful that it exists:
1. People who do not know anything about or just do not want to use sideloading have now a nice alternative.
2. I use MrMc almost every day on my iPad and it just works fine and is the only way to have basic Kodi functionality on a non-Jailbroken iOS device.
MrMc has a right to exist and I will therefore not participate in all the criticism.
Full-fat Kodi can be sideloaded on iOS, as developer licenses are now free. It’s not particularly difficult to do if you have a Mac.
Having to reinstall Kodi every 90 days, and having all settings and program erased whenever a tvOS update happens, is kind of a major issue for a lot of people.
I thought signing certificates lasted 1 year? And if you use the same certificate, you won’t need to worry about your settings. So you may need to run the backup addon and then restore once per year.
From what I quickly googled, tvOS upgrades don’t lose settings either, that was people that deleted their old certs.
All that said, I know who you are so you’re probably right. :)
Opps, meant to say ‘database compatible with Kodi 16 for those that run an external mysql server.’
That is really nice though it would be nice to have an easy way of synchronizing views and such across different versions of Kodi, MrMC, etc… Running an external mysql server is not exactly trivial!
just wait, we have something planned for that :) it will knock your socks off.
well well, right opensource script kiddies, it would be perfectly legal to take the source, recompile, submit it for approval for a free version and if Amazon don’t approve it, its time to tickle the Opensource lawyers. Yes its perfectly fine to fork code and charge, but its also perfect legal to republish it for free. That’s the fun of source code. MrMC and Amazon its open season and you are now fair game !
I don’t have any problem with the MRMC guys charging for their work, but yes, it is open-source and you absolutely could do that. You would need to change the name, though. May I suggest “FreeMC”?
We, in fact approve of forks. That’s the beauty of open source. Just don’t call it MrMC and our legal department will sit idle with nothing to do. Fork and rebrand, fine.
We aka with Kodi or We standing on the shoulders of giants…? Give it away…be a man, add value to Kodi not take from it ?
Unless someone does something to the mess that Kodi has gotten into with AddOns it will disappear. People don’t seem to realize what a bad reputation Kodi has. Why do you think Plex is everywhere and not Kodi?
Scott *is* the giant. He ported XBMC/Kodi to Android in the first place. MrMC’s existence greatly helps Kodi’s. Make no mistake, MrMC is a friend of the Kodi project.
It’s also not possible to have the same feature set and charge for free, because of the way some of these app stores work. They require that various licenses and patents be paid for upfront, while Kodi leaves that up to the end user to comply with (or not). This is why a free version of XBMC was once removed from the old OUYA store and replaced with a version that didn’t have Dolby Digital audio decoding. (more or less. The full situation is actually a complicated mess of law, politics, and other factors).
Charging for the app also allows MrMC/Scott to put a lot more time into the program, rather than it only being a hobby. And, like I said before, that work also feeds back into the Kodi project.
If you see that as taking something away from Kodi, and not adding value to it, then you are very dense.
This Exactly!
I would like to second Ned Scott’s support of Scott. Scott is Davila. He basically created Kodi/XBMC for Android. His pivos box was the first android xbmc box. There is, right now, within the Kodi devs, an active Android hate. They see Android as piracy. I think things like SPMC and MrMC actually help Kodi. And $6 is not the end of the world, guys.
Anyway, Scott and Koying are really the only tw making any kind of Kodi on android possible right now. Sooo, maybe not be so negative? Tough questions are fine, but Amazon buying Kodi and accusations of greed? Come on. He is not plotting with Bezos to rake in the dough off of a $6 app. Ha
Is it just me? why do people insist on using a Firestick to run Kodi?
Good luck with this app. (meant sincerely) I hope it grows into a solid media center app. I have no problem paying for any app if it is or is growing into something solid. Not every person that runs a fire device that is tech savvy and wants to side-load and deal with any potential issues. I would hope an “official” app would play nicely within the OS. I know I have set people up with fire TVs and sticks and would rather give them an “official” app that doesn’t require any special steps or quirks to operate. Open source is open source its the risk run. I believe Plex & Boxee have/had pay point as well which were I believe forked from Kodi/XBMC.
I can somewhat understand the need for something like this that can be approved on app stores but it seems crazy to charge that price for it. It’s just a repackaged version of Kodi and the people that made Kodi did much more of the work and didn’t charge for it.
It has a right to exist but isn’t something I’d support. If it was say a dollar or two and offered advantages over Kodi or at least had a “light” version it might be different. But priced at $7 and taking advantage of the fact that Kodi is banned on amazon seems like people just trying to make a quick buck off of others work.
MrMC is not a repackaged Kodi, visit our github repo, the difference is plain to see.
As for cost, support, infrastructure and licensing are not free. Someone has to pay for them and we think the pricing is just right.
As for making a quick buck off the work of others, visit the xbmc github repo and look at the top committers, I’m not hard to miss. MrMC is the culmination of over a decade of my hard work.
So less We…more my.. my = Mine… Ah I just for a moment thought we had a philanthropist. Guess not.
Sure, I do the heavy lifting on core/player code, others work in different areas. MrMC is small team of developers that share the same vision.
Does that vision includes consumer choice to full code. Add the option to add Add-on support outside the stores so that both Apple & Android MrMC users can get the full benefits of any code you or anybody has added to Kodi.
If folks want to pay what ever amount for what your selling them. Even though it’s free elsewhere. Then that’s on them. But don’t try to use the monopolistic Apple & now Amazon system to sell them a cripple app that can easily be made whole outside of said close system.
Go ahead & sell your crippled Kodi App in order to get into the app stores. But give the buyer the choice to add the missing features. Don’t just vow down to the blacklisting of the same code your selling.
I’m not a coder. What exactly is different from Kodi? Where do you plan to take the project? Your site doesn’t offer much explanation which is why there has been much speculation here.
So if you swore up and down in previous posts about Kodi being banned that you “don’t use Kodi for illegal streams!!” but are jumping all over this app with negative remarks, here’s an easy multiple-choice question: Are you a A) Liar or B) Cheapskate
No shame in being the latter, just accept that not every app is for every user nor will every app be free.
it is free and open source, you should be able to download the source, compile it…and off you go, What else is there to say…
And what is stopping you from doing that with Kodi code? What this developer is doing isn’t illegal, no matter what you feel entitled to with regard to this fork. You can see from his posts that he’s no fool, and if you don’t like the app you’re free to sideload Kodi anyway.
Were you answering a different question? Or did you not understand what I was asking. There were two choices.
sorry yawn did you say somat. nitey nite has a goodun.
And you still can’t answer a simple question. I see your other responses are either posturing, nonsensical or – remarkably – both. Hope you had a good nappy-nap, kiddo.
Neither; I use tons of Kodi addons, just none of the pirate ones.
I use addons for Youtube, Vimeo, podcasts, various TV channels like CBS/NBC/foodTV/etc, one to backup my Kodi config, revision3, geek and sundry, and of course I use a custom skin.
All of those are Kodi addons, and none of them pirate.
What licensing is there?
Excellent question! Can we get an answer regarding licensing?
At the very least, Dolby has a history of going after apps that don’t pay a license to use their audio decoding technology. DTS probably does this as well, IIRC.
I think MPEG-2 requires a licensing (which is needed for DVD image playback). I think most of their patients are expired or going to expire, so hopefully that won’t be an issue in the near future, but it is a requirement for today. This is why the Raspberry Pi requires a $2 purchase for hardware MPEG-2 decoding, because the Pi alone does not cover that fee.
There could be others as well, but even just those two or three can easily add up for an under $10 app.
So is Kodi illegally using licensed material? How is it Kodi can be free? Or are the licenses only for things that were added to MrMC and not part of Kodi? Because in that case seems like there is still a market for a Kodi fork with no new features, plugins disabled, that could be free or cheap on the Amazon Appstore.
You can’t really remove all the licensing requirements from Kodi, because it’s based upon the ffmpeg library to decode media. This is all legally murky, actually, and the reason why Kodi wasn’t in _any_ appstore for so many years, and now that it’s in the play store, is completely free.
If you charge for Kodi (or a renamed derivative) I have no doubt you would need to pay license fees sooner or later.
That is not really correct for Fire TV.
Any decoder that works in the system (incl Dolby, but not DTS) should be already licensed by Amazon.
So, if the app just uses Android decoding API, it is already OK.
If they pay for DTS, that makes sense.
Hillsborough….now that is a coincidence today of all days. #JFT96.YNWA
Wrong Hillsborough :)
What amazed me is that some people actually paid money for this sort of thing. It’s just ridiculous that people would waste their hard-earning money i.e. Switzerland companies charging people $29,000 to name your babies,selling bottled air, paying someone to breakup with gf/bf. I thought that majority of android users are either cost-conscious buyers or curious tinkerers,unlike the simple-minders iOS users.
What are you even talking about? Why shouldn’t app developers get paid for their work? No one is forcing you to buy it. I try to always donate if I get an app for free that I like. Or buy from amazon links on a website I visit. And developers, websites, blogs like the site you are posting on, rely on income from some source to keep them going. And it helps encourage them to create more great content.
Get out of here with that simple minded iOS nonsense. One could simply call you a freeloader, but most of us don’t care enough to make petty generalizations.
Several people seems to be confused, understandably so as from their perspective we came out of nowhere.
1) MrMC != Kodi. We might have similar roots but but our codebase is rapidly diverging. We are not a simple repackaged Kodi/SPMC. Everyone on our team has contributed heavily to xbmc/kodi over the years and have decided to move forward under the MrMC fork. We follow a different vision and are moving forward on that vision.
2) The conspiracy theories are just that. We have zero control over what Amazon does. If they blacklist kodi/spmc, it will because Amazon have chosen to do this. My bet would be the rampant content piracy addons that seem popular and pressure from content providers. Not our fight.
3) Addons/Python are gone because we decided when we started MRMC that they must go. If you doubt me, check out our github repo and looks for the commits that removes them. That was over five months ago and we only decided to do Amazon a month ago.
4) If you want what kodi/spmc offers, then by all means, sideload and go. Freedom is choice and you are free to choose which app fits your needs.
Great explanation, product, patience and thanks for providing us more options. People are so quick to pick up pitchforks who obviously don’t understand open source software, licensing, costs, or software development in general. Keep on coding!!
Thanks for bringing your project to the FireTV. I don’t understand why so many people are getting bent out of shape on here. This is clearly not the same thing as Kodi. Scott and his team have obviously committed a lot of time and code to this project and have told us that there is more to come. I don’t think $7 is going to break the bank. This project is accessible and easy to install for non-tech savvy people. So I think the price is justified. Scott hinted at what direction they’re taking with MrMC and I don’t see that being the wrong way to go. Like he said, if you don’t think the addons are something you can live without, then sideload Kodi. No one is forcing you to buy MrMC. I’ve personally never been a fan of Kodi as I am a Plex user but I do see the value in this fork. Unlike Kodi, MrMC is able to get in the app store and most likely that’s because it doesn’t support those pirating addons that Kodi does. It’s not a direct copy of Kodi nor does it some how take some value away from Kodi by simply existing. I think most people are only throwing a fit because it’s not free. Well guess what, developers have families to provide for just like the rest of us. If you can’t afford to give back a little, a measly $7, then don’t, that’s your choice. I think the fair thing to do would be to at least wait to pass judgement until we see if Scott and his team deliver on these features.
Still can’t use HD files via external HDD over USB. Pass I’ll stick with free Kodi and root!
Please visit our forums, sign up and post a bug report, we even have made is dirt easy to get to mrmc.log .
This is the only way we know to look into issues, with some many features, it is very difficult to test every single one under every single configuration.
So many ridiculous comments here, it’s embarrassing. Not sure if I’ll try MrMC or not, but I commend you on your patience Scott. MrMC does sound like it has its place, and I don’t see a reason anybody should be acting offended by it. What’s wrong with having an additional choice?
This does not somehow hurt Kodi or us users. Please stop.
Man so much negativity and really adding nothing to the conversation!
I started reading up on Kodi after seeing a few posts on Reddit about the Android maintainer leaving Kodi. Seems like there is an internal fued at Kodi about the android version and currently there is no one at Kodi to manage all the Android specific fixes and updates. That means that moving forward fixes for things that don’t work in the Android version alone are not getting put into the main releases. Koying who used to handle the Android fixes is doing his own fork; SPMC and is fixing Kodi issues with the Android system itself but his primary focus is with the Nvidia Sheild.
MrMC’s developer from what I read was VERY involved with porting and getting Kodi to work on Android in the first place so first give the dude some respect for without him you wouldn’t have Kodi on the Fire TV in the first place. Second he is activly developing the fork to work on Fire TV which honestly you will not be getting from the official Kodi version.
Now all that said I have Kodi & SPMC loaded on my Fire TVs, I play from a NAS local files and use plug ins rarely. MrMC seems like a nice software but I do feel it is a little pricey so I will continue to just update what I have but I appreciate knowing if my time becomes to scarce to do that I can just spend some cash and have something that just works and works well.
Not at all sure why all the negative comments are being tossed about as it’s pretty obvious that this particular app is not targeted at the typical aftvnews reader, but, rather, the far more common and mostly technically inept AFTV box purchaser (probably about 90%+ of purchasers?). Live and let live.
Thanks for the support guys.
Yes, there seems to be some negativity. I suspect more driven by more emotion that fact. We have been involved in the xbmc/kodi developer community for a very long time and are quite familiar with such behavior. The best one can do is explain the facts and differences and maybe, just maybe the other party will understand. However, some people are just fixated on their option and refuse to accept any other.
Just in case there still is doubt, MrMC is a true fork and rebrand of Kodi 15.2. Currently, we are in sync with Kodi 16 with AudioEngine and Player from Kodi 17. I doubt that anyone but a very small number could have done such a merge and have something functional and stable. We maintain some sync purely for external mysql database compatibility for those that run Kodi on other devices.
We removed addons/python and added/fixed:
1) core external subtitle support
2) smbX support (Win10 and OSX servers)
3) log fetching from webserver
4) json stack overflow crashes
5) NextPVR client crashes
6) saving of GUI/skin settings
7) numerous fixes for overall stability
This is just a small few of the things we have done inside that might not stand out on a feature list. Just visit our github repo and glance over the commits, you don’t have to understand them, just think, all of these commits are something that added, fixed or changed code. There will be more, much more over time.
For general users, rest assure. We are seasoned developers that understand and in some places are the original authors of the software code. We are not fly by night repackagers and are dedicated for the long term on our vision of MrMC.
I can not get SMB to work at all with MrMC, but it works with all my Kodi devices, what is the secret?
please visit our forums or email support@mrmc.tv and we would be happy to assist resolving your issues.
I went to the Forum but found no useful info there, I will however send an email… Thanks
Why not just sideload the full Kodi on which has everything this stripped down version doesn’t?
There is negativity because your fork has killed the philosophy and essence of Kodi. Kodi is the player which gives the internet creative license to be whatever it wants to be without restrictions. Kodi has a cult following and a lot of people are very loyal to the core philosophy of the Kodi developers. Most Kodi users use Kodi for third part addons, it’s the very reason Kodi is so popular compared to other player alternatives.
Kodi might have a cult following but I suspect that the very thing that has given rise to this cult will be the end of Kodi as it is known. Sooner or later, this cult will attract the attention of the very deep pocket content providers and they will act to shut it down, free or not.
Even in the official Kodi forums, such discussion of these type addons are forbidden in an attempt to disassociate from them. Yes, it is unfortunate that in MrMC, addons are gone but that is the only way to flush out the bad and start again.
I’ve been involved with XBMC/Kodi since 2008, so I do know how things have changed over time including the rise of addons popularity. Unfortunately, this same popularity has now tarnished the Kodi brand and associated it again with rampant piracy. This might be an idea of the internet creative license to be whatever it wants to be without restrictions but RealLife(tm) does not follow those dreams.
This is like being offered a free car and then deciding instead to BUY another one without an engine.
The engine being piracy?
I have no shame in watching copyrighted content on Kodi because being in Ireland I have no access whatsoever to half the content produced in America despite owning Netflix, my local cable, Amazon Prime. Kodi is the only way to access much of the best content of the US. So is studios want to discourage this they need to stop being so anal about region licences! Anyway, not all third party addons are piracy, I use some that puts all my free TV channel players together in one app.
Bob Kodi is not piracy …… look at all the plugins on kodi.tv
Don’t assume!
LOL!!! Right. “Then Engine” is being able to install the legal add-ons? Give me a break. Almost any good add-on is available via the Amazon app store…. which is exactly why they only approve this flavor of Kodi. Non-compete. You don’t have to buy it, but please don’t ask me to assume that people complaining around here are only using legal add-ons.
Exactly! The whole point of people using Kodi on the Fire TV is to install addons, so it is indeed like buying a car without an engine. Kodi is useless without addon support
What don’t you get that this is not the target of this product. The developer (who made Kodi possible by the way so you can watch your US streams, so you should thank him) has stated that many times on here.
The first line of their website says:
MrMC is based on an award-winning free and open source (GPLv2) software media center for playing videos, music, and pictures.
The target usage is local videos, music and pictures.
And honestly what gives you any right to dictate or criticize what a former member of the Kodi team, who is working closely with that team, and who made Kodi on Android possible, does with their hard work?
You are just sitting in a chair loudmouthing on the internet, talking down the very person who made it possible for you to stream your illegal content (which you are forced to do as you say). You should be buying MrMC just out of principal for the amount of money they have saved you. Just unreal you are criticizing a developer charging a measly $6 for an app that has interest to people.
MrMC is basically not a Kodi addon as it’s virtually useless when you have the likes of Plex that has always been better than Kodi at organising local media. What good is Kodi without third party addons like ****, the whole reason most people here buy Amazon Fire TVs? I don’t see it being an app any Kodi fan will ever install.
I really like Plex. Have used it since it broke from osxbmc. The idea of splitting up the server and clients makes a lot of sense, especially when clients run on weak systems and battery life is an issue. The client systems are getting far more powerful now without affecting battery life and of course media players are really becoming capable. From hat perspective splitting up the server and client parts is not as critical. However, syncing is and Plex is very good at that.
All that being said, I mainly use MrMC on an Apple TV on our main TV. I find subtitle support any better, metadata I’d just as good and far more flexible, like Amber, find networking to be way better and MrMC is just more stable. In addition, it handles audio way better. Having it arrive on the Fire TV is just great, for me at least.
I don’t want to turn this into an MrMC vs Plex post but I do find that Plex is becoming really overwhelming in terms of its interface. Too complicated, which is probably why there is a $10 Plex client for tvOS which brings back a much simpler interface. It’s actually quite nice but has some small issues. I can’t quite see how $5 or $7 for MrMC is so unreasonable given that it will run on many devices, have free upgrades, is stable and one doesn’t need to keep side loading ever now and then Bly to end up with a product that is not as stable ( but does have those AddOns that many want). I get it. Free is always preferred to the alternative, especially when it doesn’t come out of your pocket.
In 1 week KODI will be on the Amazon Blacklist. Then Amazon will say “it’s alright – we have a KODI alternative!” Don’t believe me? Check the AFTV News comment history pertaining to FireStarter. Early on everyone believed it was just an update conflict that was conflicting with FireStarter then we learned the harsh truth.
No disrespect to this particular developer, they have a right to exist like any other. Tune in next week…
I’m really annoyed by this app. Not only has the fork killed the essence and philosophy of the Kodi developers by restricting something that was designed to be open and give the internet greater creative freedom, but it has added fuel to the fire by trying to charge nearly 9 bucks for something that is 90% the efforts and work of the original Kodi developers that made their work free and open source. 9 bucks when most apps on the Amazon store are no more than 3 bucks. I hate seeing developers trying to profit off the backs of other developers’ hard work at making it free and open source. Anything to do with Kodi, because any fork will depend on 90% of the core work of its original developers should only be donation only, or at the most no more than a buck or 2 for development support.
Have you read any of the discussion?
Have mrmc on the appletv and love it. No use for add ons for me and use kodi mostly for tvheadend. Therefore, a stable well packaged and supported producy is important to me. Having Kodi just stop working one day on my old box kinda ruined the WAF
Less everyone forget, It was my hard work of over a year in the first place that brought Android to Kodi in the 1st place. It’s pretty insulting to be pointing at us as taking from others when I still stand as #4 in commits in the Kodi source code base.
I don’t think you realize just who you are talking to and who is behind the MrMC development effort. We WERE part of the original Kodi developers for over a decade. We left and started MrMC.
MrMC developers are also responsible for Kodi on tvOS, everything there came from us. So do not even try to suggest that what we do does not migrate back to Kodi. Oh and oh yea, iOS/atv2 ports originated from me too. And the entire concept of lib depends for without, embedded ports would be a nightmare to handle.
And, it’s $6.99, nearly seven, not eight or nine. Get your facts right.
I think the majority of us understand. There’s just a few loud, clueless people here who are misrepresenting the aftvnews community. Please forgive their ignorance.
Christopher Loughrey is just one of the few idiots on this site who fires off before properly understand a topic. You were extremely kind to give him a response after an ignorant rant like that.
Seems like some children have made it their mission in life to be difficult and continue on their noisy, ignorant ways. No problem, our facts stand true and google knows all.
Time to get back to coding and stop wasting time trying to educate them on the facts. Our work (both past, present and future) stands on it’s own merits. No amount of mud slinging will change that.
To others, make you own decision and if you do decide to purchase, hop on over to our forums and join the others. We are not done yet, there is much more planned to come.
Any plans for Blu Ray playback support via a BD drive?
Nope, that would involve decryption and it is high cost to get that.
Already decrypted BD content is another matter, we handle that fine.
Just ignore the idiots. Keep going.
Scott, First of all thank you for your part in bringing Kodi to Android. Kodi is a result of very smart people and it’s very appreciated.
At the end of the day if the current Kodi team are ok with MrMC then one should have any issue with, even if the Kodi team is not on board then as long as you guys do everything ethically and morally in line with how open source licensing works then it should be good.
Personally, it’s not for me as I like to have access to the full features of Kodi. I also use Plex so I don’t have any allegiance, everything has it purpose and use. Although I believe MRMC will be more easily adopted by iOS users as they are used to restricted/closed environments and a lot of them are oblivious to what is out there, but they are willing to pay for plug-&-play environments.
Good luck in your endeavours !!!
Team Kodi is well aware of the MrMC fork and has no problem with it. We have constant lines of communication. The same with Koying and SPMC, we share issues and solutions. This is open source at its best.
While it is disheartening to be accused of profiting of others when the others of which they speak includes the ones they accuse :) , what can I say, some people, clueless. But we press on, continuing to improve the code base and stability.
As for Plex, check back later, we have something brewing that might catch your fancy.
I’ve been involved as a kodi user back in the days of soldering the original Xbox and saw xbmc coming to life. Back then it was “out of this earth” player – still is. After so many years I am amazed on what has been achieved. The most modular player gets bad reputation because… it’s modular! I can think a dozen of reasons why Apple will never approve Kodi.
But what you do with MrMC is basically a disgrace and disrespect to the history of Xbmc.
While the philosophy of XBMC was all about modularity and interoperability you are doing exactly the opposite :
You strip it down and lock it up only to meet the ridiculous requirements of Apple to get into the store.
Then you ask money for licensing and development. Let’s not talk about the licensing part cause we might start arguing forever. Basically you ask money for trying to add features you removed in the first place but in a way that complies with Apple’s standards.
And since you moved away from the code of Kodi in order to be “clean cut” now you can’t use fully the collective code and you have to work on your own more and more.
So you give a good excuse for earning money and the corporate are rest assured they don’t get losses in their ecosystem from the possibility of piracy.
So it’s not about “different direction” of MrMC and the decision to ditch the addon system with hundreds of awesome addons that are not related to piracy. It’s all about profit and win – win situation from the parties involved.
You might as well rename the MrMC and call it ABMC (Apple’s Bitch Media Center) for ios and ABMC (Amazon’s Bitch Media Center) for fire tv.
It’s open source and you have every right to do what you do. But let’s not fool ourselves on what you are trying to achieve with MrMC. You saw a window of opportunity for profit and you had the knowledge and experience to deliver a nice product to a restrained ecosystem with a huge target group. As a business model I congratulate it . Ideologically though… you created a monster with no respect to the history of the code you ported .
Lots of negative nancys on here! Some people need to realise that not everyone is the same and stop being little bi*ches.
I have Kodi on two fire sticks and one Fire TV 4k in my house. I have installed Kodi on Fire sticks for a few friends. I bought a firestick for my parents, but will not put Kodi on it.
1. I don’t want to keep needing to help them update it/fix it/change it (all the addons)
2. They do NOT want anything to do with streaming anything from a non legal source or even something in the grey area.
BUT! They do have lots of home videos and DVD’s that I have converted to digital for them. With something like this I could attach a HD to their router VIA USB, place all the digital content they already own onto it and make it super easy for them to stream to the TV. They would love it. Well worth $7 for them. Negative Nancy’s, kiss my ass.
That’s really bad! How can a giant like Amazon approve such thing? Just recently I have heard that Ivacy VPN also launched their VPN add-on for Kodi, but if the creation of developers is copied like this without any recognition, it will really give a bad image to the company.
Keep your head up, Scott. I purchased MrMC tonight and uninstalled Kodi on my fireTV. I don’t use any of the Python stuff so it was a no brainer to not have to sideload. Thanks for releasing this on the Amazon platform. Now if we could just get those new skins…. ;-)
Thanks,
Jose
I would be very curious nearly 4 months later how many nay-sayers ended up deciding “you know what, 5-7$ just isn’t that much money” and went and installed it after all.
I know I was initially opposed to it, thinking “why should some jerk get money instead of the Kodi devs”. I eventually caved when I found myself fighting with a side load and spending hours of grief to save myself a couple of bucks. Since then I’ve learned so much more about the situation and totally support this project, and have no regrets on the purchase (if anything I regret ever thinking these guys were trying to profit off “others'” work)
Favourite Feature: GUI for MySQL Connection Settings. I seriously hate transferring around and managing those XML files, and while I do for my Kodi installs (which I have several of) it was refreshing to plug it in and have MrMC on the same libraries as everything else in a few seconds.
Very much looking forward to cleaner more controllable Addons, those just turned into a mess and while I still use them, and miss things like YouTube right in Kodi, I’m kind of okay with the whole “lets try this again and learn from our mistakes” approach.
Thanks for all the work across MrMC/Kodi/XMBC, this media software is really great across all of it.
Not really that bothered by all the ‘profiting off the back of Kodi’ stuff but I am struggling to see how MrMc is worth the cost? OK so I see people say it’s just $7 or whatever. But it’s not in some cases. For me:
Fire TV: $7
Apple TV: $7
Shield TV: $7
iPhone / iPad: $5
So that’s $26! I’m not even sure if the Android app for the phone would be yet another cost.
So I have Kodi and SPMC installed on the Shield and Fire. I see people bemoaning the side loading bit on the Fire but jeez, it’s a one time thing! It’s easy as heck and once it’s installed it can update itself. On all of the devices I also have Plex. Free on the ATV, Shield and Fire TV and a one off $5 for all iOS devices and I think $ for Android mobiles.
So what EXACTLY does MrMc have that my current set up doesn’t? I see loads of explanation of why the Python add-ons were removed, explanation about how the price pays for all the hard work of the developer but little about what it provides for the end user that is better than the currently available free or even cheaper paid options given that I’m not bothered about funding the hard work of developers just for the sake of it. I also see a lot of ‘well if it’s not for you just install Kodi and move on’. Aside from being somewhat of dickish comment (as someone has already made reference to) this also smacks of there not actually BEING any good reasons that anyone can come up with.
I too have had some annoying issues with Plex. But not with Kodi / SPMC such that I now know what I use each player for. Why I might pay for another app merely to provide another alternative I’m having a hard job getting my head round.