With this tutorial, reduce buffering on Kodi and download your multimedia content faster. Kodi, the open source media player, is the reference for all streaming needs.
It’s a very easy way to stream music, photos and videos from a computer (Mac, PC) or NAS server, as well as stream videos online.
How To Reduce Buffering On Kodi?
However, Kodi has a problem common to all these platforms: buffering. In this tutorial, we give you 3 techniques to overcome this problem when you use Kodi, we reveal them in the rest of this article.
Check your internet speed
Before starting to adjust Kodi’s settings, we recommend checking your internet speed. In general, those who want to stream videos online need a download speed of 5 to 10 megabits per second minimum. If yours is lower then you do, from time to time, face a buffering.
Some streaming services like Netflix, can work with a relatively slow internet connection; the same can not be said for most of the services available on Kodi.
To test the speed of your speed, connect to the same network as Kodi and go to www.speedtest.net via your PC, Mac, or download the Speed Test App.
Run the test and pay close attention to ping and download speed. If it is high and your ping is too high then it is obvious that you are having problems with buffering.
On the other hand, if your internet connection is slow, then try restarting your router or contacting your ISP, maybe there are malfunctions in your area.
If your test shows reasonable results then continue with our tutorial.
Move closer to your router or use an Ethernet cable
If connecting your router to the internet is not the problem then your next step is to try to improve it and this is done in two ways.
The first is if the Kodi box is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi then try to bring it closer to your router to get a better signal. You may also be able to connect to the 5GHz Wi-Fi network (up to 1300 Mbps).
The second is to connect your Kodi box to the router via an Ethernet cable. It should provide faster throughput. However, because of the variety of devices on which Kodi can be used, this is not always the best solution …
Note that the Nvidia Shield has an Ethernet port, but if you have an Amazon Fire Stick for example then you will have to settle for Wi-Fi.
Adjust Kodi’s video cache to stop buffering
If you’ve followed our previous tips and still see that Kodi is idling, then we recommend adjusting the video cache. This maneuver is a bit more complicated than the steps listed above and requires an add-on.
If you’ve followed our previous tips and still see that Kodi is idling, then we recommend adjusting the video cache. This maneuver is a bit more complicated than the steps listed above and requires an add-on.
- The first thing to do is to go to this address http://ares-repo.eu and download the zip file.
- In Kodi, select the settings by clicking on the gear.
- Click Add-ons and select the option Install from zip file.
- Select the file in which the add-on downloaded in step 1 is located.
- Open the zip ares so that it settles.
- Go to the main Add-ons window, Ares Wizard should be in Programs. Run it.
- Go to the Tweaks tab and click Advanced Settings Wizard, then Next at the bottom of the window.
- Kodi tells you how much RAM you have and need. Take note of it.
- Click the Advanced Settings Wizard option.
- Adjust the Video Cache Size to half of the available RAM, based on the amount you wrote down. Above all, DO NOT change any other settings.
- Confirm your changes with Apply these settings and restart Kodi.