What is OSMC

Open Source Media Center (OSMC) is a Kodi based project that allows users to turn devices into full blown open source media center. More information can be found on their website.

Installing OSMC

For my setup, I used a Raspberry Pi 3B which is officially supported by OSMC. Installing the OS is fairly straightforward. Just download the img.gz file, unzip and dd onto the microSD card. After getting the image on the SD card, put it in the pi and connect the power supply. The initial boot process will take a few minutes, but will then take you to a set up screen.

Setup

The setup process is also fairly straightforward, however, I do recommend connecting a keyboard to the Pi for it. Select the language, timezone, and give the machine a hostname. Next, open the ‘my OSMC’ app and go to the network settings to get the wireless setup (this step can be skipped if using wired Internet). Turn on wi-fi, and follow prompts to connect to network.

Now the device is connected to the Internet and updates can be installed. The device is also accessable via SSH, which will be needed for third party plug-ins like Netflix.

Getting Fire remote to work

I had a firestick remote laying around since my firestick recently went out, so I decided to use that for the remote. This part of the process was actually much easier than I thought it would be. Go to the network section in the ‘my OSMC’ app, turn on bluetooth, and scan for devices. Press the home button on the remote for 10 seconds, or until the light is flashing. Pair the remote on OSMC (mine came up as ‘AR’). From there the remote can be used to control OSMC.

Installing Plugins

The termininology in OSMC kind of threw me off a bit here. An ‘app’ is something like FTP or SMB, whereas a plugin is something used to connect to a service. After figuring out the differences I started looking at the various plugins offered in the default repo; unfortunately Netflix was not one of them. However, a quick search on the OSMC forum lead me to a GitHub project that allows OSMC to connect to and stream Netflix.

Installing Netflix

Follwing the guide for the Netflix Addon was not terribly difficult, and only required a few minutes.

After logging into my Netflix account, attempting to watch a video prompts for the installation of Widevine (1.2 GB download for those on data). Downloading and extracting the package takes a bit as it is a lot of data, however, after it is done the selected media plays without issues.

Installing YouTube

OSMC does have a YouTube player in their repository of software, however, it requires API keys provided by the user. While this process does not look very difficult, it also requires signing in to Google services to do, which is not something I am particularly interested in doing. The guide is available here for those interested in doing so.