Kodi 22 'Piers' Alpha 2 is out with new features and fixes -- download it now!
It’s been four months since the Kodi Foundation released the first version of Kodi 22 “Piers,” the long-awaited next generation of its widely used home theater software.
Following close on the heels of Kodi 21.3 “Omega,” which was released a few days ago, a new build of Kodi 22 has arrived in the form of Alpha 2.
SEE ALSO: How to install the new Kodi 21.3 Omega on Amazon Fire TV Stick (the easy way)
The team explains that “the step from 21 to 22 is a major release, but it's also an Alpha at this stage, so you're going to get some bugs as well as funky new features.”
This is what’s new in the second alpha release:
Video/audio
- Upgraded to FFmpeg 8
- Added HEIF/HEIC support
- Fixed playing streams with more than 256 audio+video+subtitles tracks
- Improved audio channel handling
- Improved subtitle selection for "forced_only" subtitles
Library/Sources and Management
- Added Season Plot
- Added Movie/TV Show Original Language
- Fixed bug in Alpha 1 where scanning fails if local NFO files are present
- Improved Video Version importing
PVR
- Fixed Daylight Saving Time switching issues
Weather
- New Weather Skinning API
- Various fixes and improvements for the Home widget and Weather window
Python
- Upgraded to Python 3.13.7
- Added ability to set available fanart
Platforms
- Windows
- Multiple Kodi instances can now be run simultaneously
- Android
- New dialog explaining microphone permission
- macOS
- Fixed high CPU usage in the background
- LG webOS
- Improvements for new Media Pipeline
- Fixed very bright subtitles and GUI when playing HDR / DolbyVision content
- Fixed subtitles sometimes not displaying
You can get Kodi 22 Alpha 2 from here. Select your platform of choice, and grab the new build from the Prerelease section. Naturally, as the team warns, "expect some breakage, don't use this as your daily installation unless you know how to get things working again."
If you try it, share your thoughts on the latest version of Kodi 22 in the comments.
