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Usage

Once the add-on is installed, every way of using it comes down to the same thing: a URL reaches the add-on, yt-dlp resolves it, Kodi plays it. This page shows the ways to send that URL and what happens during playback.

From the browser

The SendToKodi browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and other Chromium browsers is the most comfortable way. After entering your Kodi's address once:

  • Click the toolbar icon on a video page and press Play. The URL of the current tab is already filled in.
  • Press Alt+Shift+K to play the current tab or Alt+Shift+Q to add it to Kodi's queue, without opening the popup.
  • Right-click a link, a video or a page and choose Play on Kodi or Add to Kodi queue.
  • Keep several Kodi devices (living room, bedroom, …) and switch between them in the popup.

Setup and troubleshooting of the extension are in its own documentation: firsttris.github.io/chrome.sendtokodi.

From Android

Kore, the official Kodi remote, sends shared links to SendToKodi:

  1. Install Kore and connect it to your Kodi (it finds Kodi on the local network when Allow remote control via HTTP is on).
  2. In any app, open the share menu of a video (the YouTube app, a browser, a chat message) and choose Kore.
  3. If Kore asks which add-on should handle the link, choose SendToKodi. Kore remembers the choice; it can be changed later in Kore's settings.

If a YouTube link opens a different add-on, set SendToKodi as the preferred add-on in Kore's settings.

From iPhone, iPad and Mac

The official iOS SendToKodi app is retired. The SendToKodi Shortcut replaces it on iOS and macOS:

  1. Open the link on the device; the Shortcuts app offers to add the shortcut.
  2. Put the address of your Kodi web server (http://<ip>:8080), the username and the password from Settings → Services → Control in Kodi into the shortcut (the Shortcuts app shows its settings when you add it, and you can edit them any time).
  3. Share a video from Safari, the YouTube app or any other app and pick SendToKodi in the share sheet.

The shortcut sends the same JSON-RPC request the browser extension sends (see Integration), so it works with any link yt-dlp supports.

From Kodi itself

Opening the add-on in Kodi's add-on list (Add-ons → Video add-ons → SendToKodi) opens its settings: the add-on has no browsing interface, since it only plays what it is given. To play a link from inside Kodi, put it into a playlist or a STRM file as described in Playlists and STRM files.

What happens on playback

  1. A progress dialog Resolving … appears while yt-dlp fetches the page and the stream information. This takes a second or two; sites with a JavaScript challenge (YouTube) take a little longer the first time because the JavaScript runtime starts.
  2. The add-on picks a stream (see Stream selection) and hands it to Kodi. Adaptive streams play through InputStream Adaptive and show quality switching in Kodi's player settings.
  3. Title, description and thumbnail from the website appear in Kodi's player info. Subtitles the site offers are downloaded and selectable in the player.

If anything fails, a notification Could not resolve the url appears and the reason is in Kodi's log; see Troubleshooting.

Playlists and the queue

Playlists on the website. A YouTube playlist, a SoundCloud set or a channel URL is sent like a single video. The add-on resolves the playlist, adds every entry to Kodi's video playlist and starts the first one. Each entry resolves itself only when its turn comes, so long playlists start quickly.

Kodi's queue. Instead of interrupting what is playing, a link can be appended to Kodi's current playlist. The browser extension does this with Add to Queue (Alt+Shift+Q) and the context menu entry Add to Kodi queue. Other clients use the action=queue parameter of the plugin URL, see Integration.

Your own M3U playlists in Kodi can mix website links with local files, see Playlists and STRM files.

Stream selection

Most sites offer several qualities and formats. By default the add-on chooses on its own:

  • Adaptive streams (DASH, HLS) are preferred whenever InputStream Adaptive is available, because they let Kodi switch quality during playback and deliver the highest resolutions.
  • Separate video and audio streams, as YouTube serves them, are combined into a DASH manifest by the add-on's manifest builder.
  • Maximum resolution in the settings caps the video width. The default is 1920 pixels (Full HD); choose Adaptive to let InputStream Adaptive decide by bandwidth, or 4K or 8K if your Kodi can play it.

Turn on Ask which stream to play in Settings → Adaptive to pick the stream yourself for every playback. The dialog lists each format yt-dlp found with resolution, codecs and container. This is useful for audio-only playback (choose an audio stream) or to work around a format Kodi cannot decode.

Subtitles

Subtitles the website offers (for example YouTube's manual captions) are downloaded to the add-on's data folder and attached to the playback, so they appear in Kodi's subtitle menu. Automatic captions are not fetched. The files are downloaded again on every playback, since the subtitle URLs of most sites expire.

Downloading instead of streaming

Auto-download resolved media before playback in Settings → General makes the add-on download the media file first and play the local file afterwards. This helps on slow or unstable connections, with streams that expire quickly, and when Kodi should keep a copy. A progress dialog shows the download. The target folder is Media download path, by default special://profile/addon_data/plugin.video.sendtokodi/downloads; any Kodi path works, including network shares. A playlist is not downloaded as a whole: each video is downloaded when its turn comes.

Playlists and STRM files

Kodi plays any plugin:// URL from an M3U playlist or a .strm file, so website links can live next to your own media library:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:1,[Youtube] Booka Shade - Body Language
plugin://plugin.video.sendtokodi/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTLNdBIRTNM4

#EXTINF:2,[Soundcloud] Sam Feldt - Show Me Love
plugin://plugin.video.sendtokodi/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fspinnin-deep%2Fsam-feldt-show-me-love-edxs-indian-summer-remix-available-june-1

A .strm file holds a single such line. Put it into a folder Kodi scans and the video shows up in the library like a local file; the link is resolved when you play it. See Integration for the exact URL format, including the legacy form without url= that older playlists use.