Kodi has been present in Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles for a few days now and its arrival means some incredible new flexibility for users who want to make the most of their consoles’ media playback capabilities.

As anyone who owns an Xbox console (and particularly an Xbox One S or Xbox One X console with its integrated 4K Blu-ray player and other content viewing options) knows, these devices are about a lot more than just gaming. Movies and shows are their other major benefit for both 4K and ordinary video entertainment. However, no set-top box is much good if its user interface and media accessibility functions are a disaster of content restrictions and bad design, no matter how strong its specs or hardware.

Kodi’s purpose in the Xbox One X and Xbox One S gaming platforms is designed specifically for eliminating any problems they might give their owners in these two ways. The media player update basically makes the Xbox into one of the most versatile set-top box/media device boxes there is out there for anyone who just wants to sit down and entertain themselves with any kind of media from pretty much any source without DRM bullshit or other hassles.

Now, to be fair, the Xbox One platform was already pretty good for versatile media playback before Kodi arrived but with the add-on’s arrival the overall platform now becomes more versatile than ever before. The media player originally came from an open source project that was started for the Xbox way back in 2002 and in its earliest version was simply called XBMC. In its current form on the latest Xbox consoles, it lets users do exactly what we mentioned above: access and actually play media from any sort of remote drive without worry about DRM and compatibility issues.

In other words, those of you who have huge old libraries of ripped DVD movies, torrent downloads and even pirated files should be able to play them through your Xbox via Kodi with a minimum of hassle.

Augmenting the Kodi’s power even further however is its massive collection of available accessory add-ons. These can be used in assorted ways that are very useful for content access. Principally, through the Kodi’s add-ons, you can get your hands on apps that might suddenly be removed from the Xbox One consoles you own because of a dispute between giant content providers and device makers. Thus, if Sony PS Vue isn’t allowed on Xbox, or YouTube disappears, the add-ons for the Kodi can let you get either of them back.

Aside from Kodi and the integrated streaming media apps found in the Xbox One S and One X consoles you then also have the 4K Blu-ray media playback capabilities of these two most recent devices. Their integrated Blu-ray players are something that isn’t found in any other console and something that makes them exceptionally unique in the sheer versatility of their content access, which the Kodi media player contributes to even further. To top things off even more nicely, the Xbox One S and One X are also unique in their ability to decode encrypted cable provider content, meaning that in total, the two gaming platforms work as DVRs, cable boxes, Blu-ray players, streaming media set-top boxes and with the Kodi in place, as easy to use stored digital media players.