PS5-22.0-RC2-20261112

PS5-22.0-RC2-20261112

Application version: 22.000.004.

Changes since the last published release, 22.000.002, compared with commit 4d3b74714b.

PS5-specific changes

Enhanced startup elevation

These changes address the notification:

Kodi cannot access its home directory. Sandbox escape or directory creation failed.

Kodi now supports additional methods for obtaining the access it needs at startup, with configurable method selection and fallback order. By default, it tries:

1. ELF loader on port 9021: Kodi sends a bundled payload to the loader. Many jailbreak environments already provide this port; otherwise, start an ELF loader on port 9021 before launching Kodi. This method is intended to be firmware-independent, although compatibility still depends on the loader and jailbreak environment.
2. Marker-file request: The existing method requires the Lapy daemon or OnionHEN to be running. With OnionHEN, whitelist Kodi's title ID, PPSA99420, in the OnionHEN configuration. The Lapy daemon currently supports firmware up to 12.00; OnionHEN is expected to support newer firmware. ETAHen 2.6B also supports this by whitelisting the title_id.
3. etaHEN IPC: With etaHEN 2.5B, enable Toolbox > Settings > [Debug] Legacy Jailbreak CMD server. Upgrading to etaHEN 2.6B is recommended instead.

etaHEN 2.5B note: Its port-9021 ELF loader does not work with this elevation method as it does with other HENs. Enable the legacy Jailbreak CMD server, upgrade to etaHEN 2.6B, or use another compatible HEN or partial HEN.

Configuration and diagnostics

• Configurable startup and diagnostics: A JSON configuration now controls startup methods, general debug logging, video diagnostics, and add-on diagnostics. The three debug options can be enabled independently.
• User configuration survives upgrades: Releases ship a separate default configuration rather than replacing your custom configuration. Invalid configuration is reported instead of silently ignored.

Important notes

• To customize settings, copy default-config.json to config.json beside the application executable and edit that copy. Restart Kodi after making changes.
• The old kodi-debug, kodi-video-debug, and kodi-addon-debug marker files are no longer used. Configure debug.enabled, debug.video, and debug.addons instead.
• The kodi-reset and kodi-uninstall marker actions have been removed. Those files no longer delete Kodi userdata or prevent normal startup.

Upstream Kodi changes

• Updated to Kodi 22.0 RC2.
• More focused movie-library updates: Changing movie artwork or refreshing movie information updates the affected entry without unnecessarily reloading the entire list when possible. Cancelling the Manage menu no longer triggers a needless refresh.
• More reliable movie-information editing: User ratings are saved before navigating to another item, artwork changes are retained when several artwork types are edited, and requesting a refresh after changing a rating is no longer skipped.
• Correct cue-sheet track selection: Starting a track from the Files view plays the selected track instead of always starting at the beginning of the album.
• Audio passthrough fixes on supported platforms: Fixed audio bouncing after seeking and short dropouts with high-bitrate 96 kHz TrueHD streams. These upstream fixes do not introduce new PS5 audio-output capabilities.
• Android/webOS: Fixed excessive memory use when truncated HEVC HDR10+ metadata is encountered during HDR10+ removal.

Other changes

• Fixed overlapping folder requests interfering with each other during browsing and cancellation.

PS5-22.0-RC1-20261108

Release Notes

PS5-Specific Changes

• PS5 Media Remote support: Navigate Kodi, open playback controls, pause and resume, rewind, and fast-forward using the PS5 Media Remote.
• More reliable remote reconnection: Playback controls recover after the remote disconnects, without interrupting controller input.
• Correct video pausing: Pausing holds the displayed picture instead of allowing video frames to continue advancing. Frame-by-frame stepping remains available.
• Improved VP9 playback: More reliable playback after seeking or recovering from an interruption.
• Improved video stability: Safer transitions when hardware playback falls back to another playback method.
• Expanded optional add-on support: Added PS5 support for RTMP streams, SFTP file access, RAR and other archive formats, and PDF viewing. These add-ons are intended for the PS5 testing repository, are not bundled, and still require on-console validation.

Upstream Changes

These changes were merged from Kodi's upstream Piers branch. Not all changes may apply to the PS5 platform.

Video Playback and Subtitles

• Improved navigation between chapters, bookmarks, and scene markers, with large skips when no markers are available.
• More accurate seeking and automatic commercial skipping, including avoiding brief glimpses of adverts when seeking into a marked commercial break.
• Improved Blu-ray playback continuity and menu reliability, including keeping menus visible and separate from subtitles.
• Improved audio/video synchronization when using audio passthrough.
• Easier subtitle browsing, with direct access to the current video's folder and correctly listed local drives.

Movies, TV Shows, and Library Management

• Safer library refreshes: Movies remain in the library when their details cannot be retrieved.
• Improved handling of multi-disc movies, including grouping matching discs into one library entry when automatic grouping is enabled.
• More reliable scanning and refreshing of disc images and Blu-ray/DVD folder backups.
• Corrected matching of artwork, trailers, subtitles, and external audio to the appropriate movie version, extra, episode, or disc.
• Improved local metadata discovery and reduced unnecessary rescanning after refreshing movies or episodes.
• Fixed upgrades from older libraries that could incorrectly turn movie versions into extras or leave the movie library empty.

Pictures, Browsing, and Reliability

• Correct HEIF and AVIF photo display: Large tiled photos, including many iPhone images, now display completely rather than showing only part of the picture. Image rotation is also handled correctly.
• Reduced memory use when loading large JPEGs and browsing artwork.
• Restored UPnP file sharing that could fail with "not found" errors.
• Fixed browsing checks for SMB server addresses.
• Fixed notifications becoming stuck or disappearing when a new notification arrived as another was closing.
• Improved long-text wrapping, interface rendering, and music visualization timing.
• Improved shutdown responsiveness and reduced freezes during add-on management.
• Improved stability when discovering network shares and displaying closed captions.

Games

• Smoother gameplay when a game's frame rate closely matches the display, with improved audio synchronization.
• Improved save-state restoration and mouse support.
• More accurate achievement tracking, clearer achievement progress in Encore mode, and fixes for empty leaderboards after submitting scores.

Other Platforms — Not PS5 Changes

• Apple TV: Added HDR10 and HLG playback, HDR10 playback for HDR10+ content, and improvements to HDR screenshots, rotation, and picture controls.
• Android: Improved HDR detection and playback stability.
• Windows/Xbox: Improved audio-device compatibility and support for some Python-based add-ons.
• webOS: Improved playback compatibility for certain AAC audio streams.

PS5-22.0-RC1-20261106

Release notes

Changes since (release tag 22.000.000).

PS5-specific changes

• Improved controller support: Added a DualSense controller profile with PlayStation button labels, automatic button mapping and optional remapping. Supports controllers for up to four signed-in users, analog sticks and triggers, and standard vibration. Existing media controls are preserved, with right-stick volume control added.
• Controller settings: Fixed missing vibration settings. Adaptive triggers and advanced DualSense haptics are not supported.
• USB storage: Improved detection of connected and removed drives, and added safe removal through Kodi.
• Disc eject: Added support for ejecting discs through Kodi.
• More useful system information: Added storage capacity and usage reporting, live CPU usage, and more accurate available-memory information.
• Increased memory allowance: Kodi can use a larger memory budget.
• New experimental add-ons: Added NextPVR support for watching live TV and accessing recordings from a NextPVR server, plus FFmpeg Direct support for compatible streaming and timeshifting setups. Both remain in the Kodi PS5 Testing Add-ons repository.
• Add-ons promoted to stable: InputStream Adaptive, the TVHeadend client, music decoders and screensavers previously offered through testing are now included in the stable PS5 add-on catalogue.

Upstream changes

These improvements were merged from Kodi's upstream Piers branch.

Playback and subtitles

• Fixed subtitles not reappearing after being hidden and shown again.
• Improved subtitle discovery alongside local .strm files.
• Improved handling of streams whose aspect ratio or video format changes during playback.
• Fixed some DTS-HD Master Audio tracks being incorrectly identified during playback.
• Improved audio handling when seeking or switching streams.
• Fixed playback of multi-part disc images being mistaken for games.

Media library and artwork

• Library scans are more resilient: a failed lookup or problematic item no longer unnecessarily stops scanning other content.
• Improved handling of episode filenames, local artwork and actor thumbnails.
• Fixed issues with library cleaning and cancelled scans.
• Improved watched-status updates when a remote-control app marks an entire TV show as watched.

Live TV and guide

• Fixed channel up/down navigation after switching channel groups.
• Fixed a guide-window crash triggered by add-ons accessing the selected item.
• Improved programme-guide maintenance and Live TV shutdown.

Games

• Added categories for browsing video filters.
• Improved save-state thumbnails and their display during gameplay.
• Added a game-manual button to the in-game menu.
• Expanded achievement information, including achievement sets, missable achievements and beaten-game progress.
• Fixed RetroAchievements leaderboard standings.
• Improved game startup so a previously used disc does not override the game selected.

General fixes

• Improved interface responsiveness and animated artwork updates.
• Improved handling of network-login credentials and unavailable custom subtitle folders.
• Updated trusted certificates for secure online connections.

PS5-22.0-RC1-20261028

Binary addons logic has been re-written to be able to support these type of addons better. It now loads native SPRX modules as addons.
Furthermore, all binary addons from the PS5 Test repository have been recompiled and uploaded again to support the new way of loading these type of addons.

Backwards compatibility has NOT been taken into consideration so you MUST update any previously installed addons from the test repository.

You may need to update the PS5 Kodi Test repository by going to My addons --> Add-on Repository --> Kodi PS5 Testing Add-ons --> Press Triangle button --> Check for updates. When checking Information --> Versions, you should see version 2.0.0. The newly updated addons will have a postfix version "PS5+2".

New binary PVR Client TVHeadend has been added!

Full Changelog: PS5-22.0-RC1-20261021-8285ee937a...PS5-22.0-RC1-20261028

PS5 - 22.0-RC1-20261021

There's a new sheriff in town

Handover has been done from VivaLaVent to Notedop for continuing development of the Kodi fork for the PS5 platform. Going forward new releases will be published via this channel.

For binary addons two repositories are shipped together with the build. One is a stable repository, the other is the testing repository. The testing repository is disabled by default and must be enabled manually. Currently all binary add-ons live inside the testing repository. Once there's sufficient feedback from the community on the binary add-ons they'll be moved to the stable repository.

Missing a binary-addon? Join the discord community and create a request.

PS5-specific changes

• Migration: Created a dedicated XBMC fork, migrated the PS5 changes from the vivalavent branch, and consolidated build dependencies and packaging.
• Add-ons: Enabled binary add-ons, additional audio decoders, and non-DRM adaptive streaming, including 4K playback.
• Video playback: Fixed VP9 stuttering, stale-frame flashes, and green-line artifacts.
• Subtitles: Fixed invisible PGS bitmap subtitles.
• Network playback: Fixed large-file playback issues and improved SMB share browsing and compatibility.
• Audio: Improved decoder stability, memory cleanup, track information, and handling of looping music.
• Usability and stability: Fixed saving media sources and exiting through the shutdown button; improved startup, app-path detection, and thread cleanup.
• Performance and graphics: Updated PS5 OpenGL integration, improved database caching, and moved logging off playback-critical threads.
• Build process: Simplified setup and automated add-on packaging.

Upstream Piers changes

• Video library: Improved scanning, refreshing, and cleanup, avoiding duplicate imports and unintended removal of offline movies, versions, and extras.
• Interface: Fixed image-loading updates, dialog refreshes, skin timers, and video-version labels and icons.
• Playback stability: Fixed a crash while loading library lists and prevented unnecessary audio muting during synchronization.
• RetroPlayer: Fixed game-related hangs, shader handling, rendering, and save-state loading; expanded game information.
• Networking: Fixed WebSocket connection shutdown and socket leaks.
• Other platforms and maintenance: Added Xbox Dolby Vision support, improved Apple release packaging and Windows build caching, and updated dependencies.