Linux

kodi is best as a front-end for an already curated library. ive used it extensively since the xbmc days...

i use mediaelch to scrape, generate metadata files and rename files and folders into a standard way. it [can] generate things in a kodi-compatible format. kodi is set to just pull in that data. i concurrently use emby (jellyfin) to access that same metadata.

your problem is conflating the curation of your library with the applications that will use it.

kodi does need a full computer to run. thats where emby comes in. its for viewing the same shit on any other device

The directory is not organized, file names aren't manually adjusted, and the movies and shows are mixed together

Disgusting

Is there a reason you don't want the files organized? Id suggest using radarr or something else to organize them first.

As an alternative to kodi, jellyfin is great.

I was a long time Kodi user from back when it was called XBMC.

About 5 years ago I got tired of messing about with managing media, editing config files and installing addons. Moved to Emby first, and now I am on Jellyfin. No media management required, the backend server does it all for me and the front end is great, never gives me any problems and plays everything. I run the front end on multiple Nvidia Shields with no performance issues.

I’d manage your media better with movies and TV in separate parent folders and not all mixed together. When you setup Jellyfin, you point it at a folder and tell it what media type it is. Mixing up different media types in the same folder structure just makes things harder than they need to be for no gain.

Just organize your library properly and pretty much every software will manage it better. There are options for organizing and renaming them mostly automatically, like EastTAG or filebot. Some people use Sonarr and Radarr to organize shows and movies, but those are probably overkill for you. The various *arrs will be more useful if you're consuming new media through a server hosting Plex or Jellyfin. Kodi is also a waste if the library isn't already meticulously organized and you don't need a 10 foot interface.

If you're only consuming on desktop and you insist on being disorganized, then why even bother with anything other than VLC? It runs on Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android.

I used Kodi with LibreElec for years in a similar setup. It was nice... but in practice I didn't really use the "cool" functionalities (like indexing, image preview, Web remote control, etc) so instead I checked how Kodi works and noticed DLNA. I saw that my favorite video player, namely VLC, supports DLNA. I then looking for DLNA server on Linux, found few and stuck to the simplest I found, namely minidlna. It's quite basic, at the least the way I use it, but for my usage it's enough :

• install VLC on clients, including Android video projector, phones, XR HMDs, etc
• install minidlna on server (RPi5)
• configure minidlna to serve the right directory with subdirectories ( /var/lib/minidlna by default )
• configure few extra software that get videos to push them (via scp script and ssh-key) to rpi5:/var/lib/minidlna/

voila... very reliable setup (been using for more than a year on a daily basis.

The directory is not organized, file names aren’t manually adjusted, and the movies and shows are mixed together.

Sounds like a nightmare for me

I use Jellyfin in conjunction with Kodi. Basically I only have Kodi as front-end, as it treats subtitles better than the Jellyfin client does. Works great.

The main alternatives to Kodi are Jellyfin and Plex but I suspect those will have the same problem if your library isn't organized. How well are NOVA and Infuse handling your library? Like are they able to tell queue up the next episode of a TV show? Because Kodi is basically trying to be more like a local Netflix than "just a video player".

Jellyfin and Plex are web-based so you'll get a a far more consistent experience across devices than Kodi. But they'll generally expect Movies to be in one folder, TV shows in another, and will have some expectations of the file name. They won't open the file to figure out what movie it is.

Long time Kodi user, since it first came out on the original xbox.

Assuming you are a watch and delete person then for films you really do not need more that a seperate folder than you dump films AND only films into and make sure that the film name is correct AND it includes the accurate year for the film. Vast majority of downloads will already have this in place, I never have to bother to rename or move films about as they just go straight into my download folder that Kodi is looking for my watch and delete films. Older versions of Kodi used to be much more annoying for film scanning requiring proper spacing and so on. However its very very important that only films go into this directory otherwise it will fuck up if you start dumping TV programs into here.

TV is much more complex if Kodi is doing the metadata scanning as it normally relies on the top level folder name, and a proper season and episode numbering scheme. If you watching TV I would just switch to a managed downloader like sonarr, its a PITA to manually manage weekly show downloads anyway and sonarr will sort everything out for you.

Stremio, stopped using Kodi ever since.

What desktop?

can't go wrong with jellyfin + this way you help out by seeding if you go down the tracker route too