You can use UPnP in Kodi to view your MC Library. I have done it on Amazon FireTV and FireTV Sticks. It does have a few disadvantages:
1) You need to be on the same network as MC (so either at home or set up a VPN to log into)
2) Not all of the meta data shows up in Kodi as it would if the files were imported directly into a Kodi library. For example, with Movies, you get Cover Art, Genre, Description, and Duration. But you don't get Background Images (since it isn't scraping) or Actors. Also, all my Dates show up as 1905 for some reason under media info. The Date field will get passed correctly though if you have customized your MC Server views by Date.
3) As a result of above, you loose a lot of the dynamic capabilities of Kodi. For example, looking up other Movies in your Library with the same Actor.
4) Due to the UPnP standard, Cover Art is sent as a dynamic address. As a result, your Cover Art thumbnails get jacked up by changes to your MC Library. Every couple days on the Kodi client, I delete the Thumbnails folder as well as the Textures13.db file in the Database, then reboot Kodi. It then rebuilds the thumbnails as you go. It's a pretty nuclear fix, but Kodi rebuilds thumbnails quickly.
5) There is an issue with Kodi where it doesn't always show up as a Renderer in MC. Usually restarting the MC server fixes it if you want to push from MC. The biggest issue is when you're trying to use Gizmo as a DMC remote, it is very difficult to get Kodi to show up as a client to play to. For some reason, it does seem to show up on BubbleUPnP more regularly, so I just change aps. Hopefully, this will be fixed in Isengard: http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/15636
More info:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/UPnP_Server_and_Devices_%28Media_Receivers%29http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_UPnP
Author
Topic: Compatible 3rd Party Frontends (Read 5908 times)