Kodi add‐on
The Howl Sync add-on for Kodi allows .funscript files for videos that you're playing in Kodi to be automatically sent to Howl and synchronised with the video position. It is by far the most convenient method for playing funscripts.
Kodi add-on features: -
- Funscript files will be automatically sent to Howl by the Kodi add-on (you do not need to copy them to your phone).
- One-way sync for player events from Kodi to Howl. E.g. if you skip forward in the video, Howl will skip forward too. If you stop the video, Howl will stop.
Obtain the latest Kodi add-on ("howl_sync.zip") from the Releases page. You can install this in Kodi in either of two ways.
Method 1 In Kodi select "Add-ons / Install from zip file" and select the .zip file you downloaded from its location on your machine. Since the add-on isn't in Kodi's official repository, you will first have to allow the installation of add-ons from unknown sources. Kodi should prompt for this when you try to install, or you can find the setting under "Settings / System / Add-ons".
Method 2 You can alternatively extract the "script.service.howl" folder from the .zip file you downloaded, and place it in Kodi's "addons" directory. See this page for where to find that directory on different platforms. (Re)start Kodi and the add-on should be available. It will probably be marked as disabled initially, but you can enable it in the next step.
Please note that Kodi version 19 (Matrix) or higher is required to install Howl Sync.
After installation check under "Add-ons / My add-ons / All". You should be able to see "Howl Sync" in the list. Select "Howl Sync" and you should see the add-on's screen, which will look similar to the screenshot.
Note the "Status" of the add-on on the right hand side of the screen. If it is disabled, pick the "Enable" option to activate it.
Next pick the "Configure" option to display the add-on's settings. The only one you will need to set is the "Remote IP address" setting. That must be set to the IP address of your Android phone that's running Howl on your local wi-fi network.
You will need to set up a source in Kodi that contains the videos you want to play. You'll have to look elsewhere if you need a guide on basic Kodi setup, but either local files or files on a network device (such as a NAS) should work fine with the add-on. You'll probably want to set the content type of the source in Kodi to "None" (as we're not playing standard TV shows or movies that Kodi can scrape information on) and access it under the "Videos" section.
Your funscript files need to be placed in the same location as your videos, and should have exactly the same name as the related video, but with the .funscript extension instead of the video type. For example if your video is called "Very Sexy Video.mp4", then the accompanying funscript should be called "Very Sexy Video.funscript". Everything in the file name such as capitalisation, symbols etc. needs to be exactly the same in order for the add-on to detect your funscript when you play the video.
Turn on the "Allow remote access" option on Howl's settings page. Howl will then allow the Kodi add-on to control it.
Simply play the video you want in Kodi. Howl should automatically play the corresponding funscript (assuming you named it correctly), and follow along as you do operations in Kodi like skipping around. You don't need to do anything special on the playback side - once Howl Sync is properly configured, everything works automatically.
Like everything else in Howl, remote funscript playback works even if you don't have your Coyote connected. So you can test playing files in Kodi and check if that triggers playback in Howl, without needing to set up your estim equipment.
Howl has a "Remote funscript latency" option in the player options. You can adjust this value to compensate for the typical latency between Kodi and Howl, in order to achieve near perfect sync.
The "Sync delay" option in Howl Sync is how long the add-on waits after a Kodi operation (like skipping forward or loading a file) before it syncs the playback position with Howl. The default value is generally good. Setting too short a delay can cause missed skips or very inconsistent sync, because we might read the position too early before Kodi's video playback has properly got going again. Lowering the delay does not improve sync, it just makes Howl follow Kodi's position a bit quicker after a skip. If Kodi is running on a slow device, you might find that increasing the delay from the default gives you better sync results.
If your phone regularly changes IP address on your home network, you might find it helpful to assign it a static IP instead of using DHCP.
The Howl Sync add-on logs various information to Kodi's main log file "kodi.log". See this page for where to find the log file on various platforms. Search the log for "[Howl]" to find the relevant lines. If something isn't working, the add-on will usually have logged some helpful information about what the problem is.