Kodi 22 Release Candidate 1 enters testing phase

The developers of the open-source media center Kodi have released the first Release Candidate (RC1) for version 22, codenamed ‘Piers’. This milestone indicates that the development cycle is nearing its conclusion, moving past previous beta stages toward a final official release.

Key updates in this version focus on stability, bug fixes, and performance optimizations. Notable technical improvements include an update to FFmpeg, enhanced recognition for PVR, Live TV, and streaming content, and fixes for crashes during playback. For users of physical media, the update offers improved playlist recognition for Blu-rays.

Video and subtitle enhancements include support for HDR overlays with UHD PGS subtitles, improved color representation for PGS subtitles, and HDR-to-SDR tone mapping for PGS subtitles on Windows. Additionally, the RetroPlayer component has received significant upgrades for gamers, featuring an integrated cheat engine, hardware rendering for game clients via Game API 8.2.0, and expanded RetroAchievements support including leaderboards and on-screen displays.