Oliver Haslam·

Kodi 18 Beta 3 Now Available To Download, Here’s What’s New

Fans of Kodi will be super pleased to learn that the folks behind one of the most popular media center apps have today released a new beta build of Kodi v18.

Codenamed Leia, the release is currently all the way up to beta 3 as the developers continue to work towards a final release. The focus is now on making sure the release is as bug-free as possible, while also allowing the team to focus on ironing out any usability issues that remain.

According to Kodi’s developers, a full changelog is “nearly impossible to create,” which we’re taking as a good sign that there is plenty going into making this a great update. The bad news is that we also now have confirmation that Kodi v18 will not receive any more features after this release, meaning it’s now feature-complete and is essentially being polished for release.

So what can you expect? The beta 3 announcement post says that these are the most notable changes:

  • Fix slow browsing in library that was a regression added in Beta 2
  • Updated button maps for controllers that changed Beta 2
  • Improved playback on Android regarding video and DTS-HD audio
  • Revert changes for smooth video on Windows that caused issues
  • Various other fixes regarding video playback

We’re very pleased to hear that stability is a focus right now, because that can often be something that falls by the wayside in projects as ambitious as this. We’ll continue to follow the ongoing development cycle ahead of a final release, but if you want to head on over to the official Kodi Wiki, you’ll find a full changelog to get your teeth into. Head on over to Kodi.tv to download the beta itself.

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