Reduce Buffering: Kodi, a world that allows anyone to see any content, an app that opens the door to a streaming world.
One of the problems, however, is buffering, which sometimes occurs when watching a variety of content. Considering that the contents are free, the number of users who go to connect on the same stream is high.
Let’s see what are the various factors that influence vision and therefore buffering.
PREMISE
Much depends on the server that streams the stream, not on the add-on you use. Add-ons simply enclose lists and it is the latter that affect buffering a lot, many times different add-ons use the same lists.
BUFFERING, WHAT DOES IT DEPEND ON?
The various blocks that occur during viewing are influenced by various factors:
- Speed of the server hosting the list
- Connection and internet provider
- Device used
- Number of users on the list
These are the main factors, as you can see it is not possible to improve all these parameters. But you can act between the various settings to improve streaming.
HOW TO REDUCE BUFFERING PROBLEMS?
Now let’s see the various settings to improve vision, avoiding blockages completely is not always possible.By following these steps and trying the various xml lists you can find an excellent compressed!
Below you will find the various tips and settings tested by me, of course the whole thing is to be tested on your devices, seeing if you too canimprove streaming.
1. Change F4mtester
Settings.–F4mtesteris a fantastic addon that works “in secret”, it allows the viewing oflists (live TV channels)and manages a very important value thebitrate.But what is it? The bitrate indicates the transmission speed and in some cases also affects the quality of the streaming,a high value also indicates more transmitted data therefore more buffering and blocking probabilities.
Settings to use F4mtester:Open Kodi, go toaddon – addon videoand open the F4mtester settings (right click on Windows or hold down on Android), you will have a screen where you can enter a value, which is basically 1500. Click and change it to800.
2. Use SD Channels
SD channels are those channels that alongside the name have the word SD. They indicate a lower video quality, however going to “lighten” the streaming. Useful during events where many people are connected and toreduce blockages.
Change Kodi’s use of hardware acceleration.Using hardware acceleration on Kodi in many cases creates visual artifacts (image noise) while viewing. Reason why itis better to disable it.
How to disable it: Open Kodi click on the wheel symbol at the top (settings), thenplayer settings.At the bottom left you will have the word “basic” click twice and it will become “advanced”.
Now on the left column click on themovieand at the settings on the right scroll until you findhardware accelerationand disable it.
3. Increase the buffer.-
What is buffer? Also from Wikipedia
Buffers are necessary to cover the latency times of network connections. Two devices that have to send large amounts of data, in a one-way system, will have to save the data to be sent in a buffer, and then send it when the channel is free.
Therefore, by increasing this value, we “save” the video on the device. In theory so in the moments when we should have the blocks, Kodi will go to “resume” the flow from the buffer. How to increase it?
The steps to do, require the installation of an additional addon. You can read this guide , with a step-by-step video guide inside.
4. Keep Kodi clean (maintenance).-
Kodi saves a lot of data during use, this weighs down the whole system and can cause slowdowns. We see a guide that allows you to setthe Kodi self-cleaningin anautomatic.
Automatic cleaning of Kodifollowing this simple guide with Indigo addon.
As I said at the beginning, these settings can have a huge impact on streaming, but they can also have no effect on some devices. The setting that has improved most of all streaming in my case, on Android box, is point 1 (f4mtester).If you use Kodi on multiple devices try this guide and you will see that on some the improvement is remarkable.