Kodi is the Swiss Army knife you need to turn your old phone into a media center

Free, open source, with almost endless possibilities and a veritable Swiss army knife for media playback: Kodi is an application that powers any content player. Your TV doesn’t have access to Kodi? No problem: if you have an old Android You can use it as a “decoder” or as a playback device.. It’s worth giving the phone a new life.

If you are one of those who keep your old cell phones in case you use them again in the future, you surely have several that still have potential. What does it offer video output via its USB port? Well, you don’t need a Chromecast with Google TV or an Amazon Fire TV anymore: you can turn that old Android into a great media player. Kodi is the key.

Free TV channels, your movies, series… Kodi is wonderful

This open source application is an almost incomprehensible collection of tools. Because with its additions or add-ons, you can do almost anything: from loading IPTV lists to playing your Netflix. Kodi is truly versatile. And with excellent playback quality; which will of course depend on the source files.

If your TV is not a Smart TV and/or does not have access to the Kodi app, you can use your old Android phone as a bridge. To connect it to the TV you will need a video and audio cableis the only way to get the best playback quality. It is also possible to share the screen wirelessly, but in this case you will notice jumps in the image and sound: playback will not be smooth.

Not all androids have video output via USB port, so You must ensure that your mobile meets this requirement. Then you will need a cable from said USB to the HDMI of the TV: this can work (USB C).

Once you have connected your mobile phone to the TV, and the image from the smartphone is well projected on the big screen, you need to install Kodi if you have not already downloaded it. It is an application that can be found on Google Play and also on the Kodi page itself. The second option usually updates faster, but you will have to download the APK.

Loading add-ons, choose what you want to see on Kodi

The application installs the player with its basic functions, tools and interface, You won’t do much with Kodi until you configure it to your needs. (yes, you can download the videos from your mobile). To expand the possibilities, add-ons and links to repositories are used from which to download streaming content, offline content, games or other add-ons. Kodi opens up a very wide universe.

The most common thing in Kodi is to access streaming content through IPTV. If you want to have more TV channels or if DTT does not reach your home properly, using your old mobile phone to access Kodi broadcasts is a great way to expand the use of your TV without spending extra money.

For this task, we will use a list of public and legal TV channels. Once Kodi is installed on your old Android, and it is well connected to the TV with an HDMI cable (remember that the phone must be compatible with video output), simply follow the following process:

• Go to Marc Vila’s GitHub and copy the link to the m3u8 playlist of TNT channels. You must manually copy the link as you will need to type it in.
• Open Kodi on your Android and click on the top gear icon, then click on “Add-ons”.
• Select “Install from repository”.

• Go to “PVR Clients” and search for the “PVR IPTV Simple Client” application. Click “Install”, at the bottom right, and accept the installation of the added plugins. The add-on will be installed in your Kodi application, it will also ask for permission to install player add-ons. You accept.

• Now click on the “Configure” icon. It appears at the bottom of the installed add-on.
• Click on “M3U Playlist URL” and type (Kodi keyboard doesn’t let you paste) the link you copied from Marc Vila’s GitHub. The URL should look like this: “https://www.tdtchannels.com/lists/tv.m3u8”. Click ok.
• Click on the “TV” section on the Kodi side.
• You will see that the full list of DTT channels already appears: you just have to click on the one you want to see and Kodi will broadcast it.
• Want even more free public TV channels? With this legal IPTV list, you will add thousands of broadcasts to your Kodi. Repeat the process to incorporate it into the add-on.

Kodi has countless uses, it even lets you play all the video content you already have on your phone (if it has large storage or supports SD cards, you can use it as a hard drive). It even doubles as a music device: the media player built into Kodi itself will open most files on your phone. And they will play on TV if you connect it to your old Android.

Cover Image | Edited mid-term

In Xataka Android | Android TV, it’s good, but installing this application is even better. All DTT channels without antenna and you don’t need to register