Gaia: Add-on for Kodi - Part two

Gaia Streaming Add-on Configuration

Congratulations, you have successfully installed the Gaia Repo. Part two of this article will show you what each section is designed to do as well as the recommended settings and why. But trust me, while these next steps look daunting and complicated, they are quite easy to complete.

 



 

After installing Gaia, as soon as you open the add-on there will be a popup asking if you would like to Proceed using the Configuration Wizard or Cancel and use the Default Settings ? I have to admit that I did try using both methods on different versions of Kodi and where it says “You can run the lengthy wizard” ? it wasn’t kidding ! While it was quite long to complete, it was simply a matter of selecting Yes, No or Continue without giving much detail as to why. So when I installed Gaia for the second time, I used the default settings by cancelling the wizard setup.

As a result, I was able to see what was set as the default and given the option to change if I wanted to based on my device. The following list is based on my limited experience and what I have read about the Gaia Add-on. The recommended settings are just that, you may wish to enable these as shown or change to your needs.

 

Configuring Gaia Add-on

This Article will not be short, in fact it will be rather lengthy. Due to the amount of different settings available, it would have been an injustice to say enable this or not that without explaining why.

Once you have Gaia installed and have skipped the Wizard Installation, select Open and then Tools.

 



 

After clicking on Settings, before proceeding, a prompt will ask you use the Wizard or continue with Advanced Settings. Select Advanced.

 

GENERAL

After each description, the recommended setting will be in Bold and Italic. This will make it easier to understand what should be applied.

Launch:

• Automatic Launch- Opens Addon when Kodi is launched –OFF


• Splash Screen- Location of Gaia icon on middle of screen at start up – NONE


• Startup Sound- Sound on add-on Open – NONE

Language:

• Primary Language- Set your primary language for example English


• Secondary and Tertiary Languages are up to you –NONE

Settings:

• Settings Cache: Cache the add-on settings in memory. This drastically increases performance, reduces scraping time. May cause issues with certain devices and versions of Kodi/forks. If using an Android device-OFF , if using on a PC-ON.


• Automatic Backup: Auto backup of Gaia settings in case of add-on failure- ON


• Count Limit: Maximum number of backups- Default-10

Playback Section

• Status Tracking: How to track watched Movies or TV Shows if you have a Trakt.TV account for example. More on this later on- LOCAL = only specific to that device.


• Progress Tracking: Tracks where you left off while viewing a media file. Trakt.TV Account users will have stop points- LOCAL


• Resume Playback: how Kodi will ask you where you left off. Select, because it will ask to resume or restart-SELECT


• Playback Timeout: Maximum amount of time to wait for it to start. For slow internet or using a VPN, 30 SECONDS


• Retry Playback: Occasionally for unknown reasons, Kodi will be unable to connect. Leave on to retry the valid link –ON


• Retry Limit: Maximum number of times to retry-


• Retry Delay: Number of seconds between retries if more than One(1)

VPN:

• VPN: Highly recommend using a VPN for obvious reasons. For those who have a premium account with Premiumize.me, there is a VPN included. But for more protection it is suggested to ENABLE. Follow the easy instructions supplied.


• Parental Control: Restrictions for Children- OFF


• Statistics Sharing : Usage and Speed test stats sent to Gaia Community Anonymously. If you wish to help the Dev improve the add-on leave it On, if not turn it Off- PERSONAL CHOICE


• Access Code: Not applicable here- IGNORE

 



 

 

 

INTERFACE

 



Theme:

• Skin Theme: Gaia theme, click to change. Personal choice-DEFAULT


• Icon Theme: Icon Themes. Click to change, Personal Choice-DEFAULT


• Background: Will use Gaia Theme when enabled. Off will use Kodi Background-ON


• Poster Type: Personal choice, default is Artwork. Click to change-DEFAULT


• Banner Type: Type of Banner Image to use, same as Poster-DEFAULT

Appearance:

• FanArt Backdrops: Type of backgrounds that appear after selecting a Movie or TV Show. Enabled tends to slow down browsing speed due to downloading images-OFF

Language:

• Multiple Languages: If you wish to see all languages available, select Multi-LANGUAGES

Navigation:

• Stream List: How Links appear after Scraping-DIRECTORY


• Progress Dialogue: Indicates how Gaia is scraping and checking the links of Providers. Foreground (default) shows What quality it is getting while Background shows How it is going.- FOREGROUND

Stream Layout Section

• Stream Layout: How Stream Information appears-DEFAULT, MULTIPLE LINES


• Label Colour: Colours parts of a streams label- ON


• Label Padding: Pads stream labels with spaces to align both lines and to show all metadata correctly-LEAVE AT 4


• Premiumize Information: Will enable selected stats about your Account such as Cost, Usage, Limit, Any combination of or All. Convenient to know and saves you opening your Account online to view. Personal choice, but mine is at-NONE


• EasyNews Info: Enable if you have it.


• Show Type: Stream type; Cached Torrent, Direct, Premium links, etc. ENABLED


•  Provider: Shows website link was sourced from-ENABLED


•  Release: Shows release Type in the source label-ENABLED


• Uploader: Unless you’re curious- DISABLE

Title Layout for Gaia

 



For those who have a Trakt.TV Account except for Season and Episode layout, change to Title or the list in Trakt will be out of order.

• Movie Layout:-TITLE


• Show Layout:-TITLE


• Season Layout:-DEFAULT


• Episode Layout:-DEFAULT


• Documentary Layout:-TITLE


• Short Layout:-TITLE

Menus:

Enable the labels you want to use Disable the ones to do not want. For example, Trakt users have no need to enable Favorites. Personal Choice here

Arrivals:

• This section allows you to select what movies or shows come up when pressing movie or show arrivals. Some of the examples are New Releases, Most Popular, Recently Premiered, and Currently Trending. I use Most Popular for Movies, Currently Trending for Shows (TV) and default for the rest.

Shows:

These Options for Shows(TV) are for How they will be viewed, once again this is a personal preference. You may change based on the description listed below or keep as default.

• Flatten Seasons: Show all episodes from every season in one list-DISABLE


• Future Seasons: Shows future seasons and air date ( if already announced)-ENABLE


• Future Episodes: Shows announced future episodes with future air dates if listed.-ENABLE


• Special Seasons: – Occasionally, a TV Show will have special seasons like season 0.-ENABLE


• Special Episodes: Same as above.-ENABLE


• Air Information: – Date Aired.-DISABLE


• Unwanted Count: How many episodes from that show that are not watched yet.-ENABLE


• Unwatched Limit: – Limits the above counter to 99 so no text overflow occurs.-ENABLE

Favorites:

Settings on how you would like to sort your favorites if you use them. For all Labels, set to DEFAULT and the Sorting Order set to ASCENDING.

Colours:

• Customize Colours: Disable if you are happy with how the Source links are shown. However, I found the Seed numbers as well as the Resolution were difficult to read. By accident I found it I changed the “Excellent” setting to FFFFFF, it greatly improved the look of the sources as shown in the Photo examples.

 

SCRAPING

 

 



Providers:

• Provider Optimization: Attempts to find the best provider timeout for your internet speed.


• Provider Timeout: Time allotted for sites like Piratebay for example to try before timing out. If you have Kodi installed on a PC or a Good Android device such as a Nvidia Shield that is 4K compatible with a good ISP service, set to 30 Seconds.


• Page Limit: Limits the number of pages supplied by the provider. 0 = All pages available but that will affect your scraping time, less is best.- 3 is BEST.

Season Packs:

• Season Packs: Enable this for shows like the Simpsons and The Walking Dead for example. Many torrents will be whole packs with all the episodes. An excellent way to “Binge watch” for those that are inclined to view their shows.-ENABLE.

Alternative Titles:

• Alternative Titles: Helpful if looking for streams with Alternative titles of media especially foreign languages-DISABLE

Debrid Cache Inspection

• Debrid Cache Inspection: Checks to see if torrents are in the Premiumize, Real Debrid, or Offcloud cache system.-ENABLE


• Timeout-DEFAULT


• ENABLE the Services you use.

Failure Detection:

• Failure Detection: Automatically disables scrapers that fail to finish before Provider Times out.-ENABLE


• Stop Threshold: 3-DEFAULT


• Retry Delay: 5-DEFAULT

Preemptive Termination:

• Preemptive Termination: A new feature that works well with Premiumize.me. Wait times are lowered when enough links of what you are looking for are found.-ENABLE


• Stream Mode- OVERWRITE


• Minimum Streams-10


• Stream Type-CACHED


• Video Quality- (this setting is the minimum not the Quality you wish to find, change to your choice)- HD 720p


• Video Codec- If your device is not able to play H.265, change to H.264. If not set to –ANY


• Audio Channels- Again this will depend on what device you are using as well as the type of Audio System you have. There’s no sense in setting this to DTS, DD or AAC if you only have a two speaker system. Set to-ANY

 

PROVIDERS

 



 

This is where you will be able to control what providers to use when scraping links/streams.

Provider Customization:

• Custom Locations: If you are from a Country like the UK where certain websites are blocked, you will be able to link to a mirrored site that contains the same data.


• Custom Presets: Provide presets-DISABLE

Universal Providers:

• Local Content: Use only if you have files locally or thru a nas, enable. If not-DISABLE


• Special Content: For NAN Scrapers on Android devices.-ENABLE (Only for NAN scrapers)


• Premium Content: ENABLE all services you have.


• Torrents Member: For Torrentleech users. Enable only if you have it.-DISABLE


• Torrents Open: Most definitely ENABLE . Leave all in default or change if you do not want to use.


• Usenet Member: Use only if you have accounts there. I don’t so I have no opinion on the topic.


• Hosters Member: This was setup for Alluc. But since it is no longer providing any support-DISABLE

English Providers:

• Hosters Members: – For GoStream, Ororo, Streamlord, or moviesplanet. If you have entered your information in the Accounts Section further on-ENABLE


• Hosters Open: If you wish to Scrape the same sites as Elysium, Placenta, Neptune Rising etc.-ENABLE


• However, after using this configuration without those sites, I found the selection much better and reliable. I have mine Disabled, but that is my choice, you may find it more to your liking with it on.

 

ACCOUNTS

 



 

Artwork:

• Fanart: Uses media from Fanart TV. If you have an account, enable and fill in the appropriate areas for API Code etc. No account?-DISABLE

Informants:

• Trakt: if you have a free account, enable and fill in the appropriate information. If not, by all means acquire a free account, *see link* Click here  to see how to install Trakt.TV


• IMDB: Not a necessity, but it does improve the quality of the links found. Very easy to get but it’s recommended to get a fake name to join. *see link* Enter the user name given here.


• TMDb: Using the name given to you from above, you will be able to acquire a API Code when asked from that site (all is explained in the IMDB link shown) Enter the API key code here.

Premiumize

 

• Premiumize: Please click here to see how to acquire and install Premiumize.me, this is a paid service.-ENABLE


• Enter your ID # and PIN # in the appropriate areas.


• Encription: Default is- ENABLED


• Request Method: Set to-DEFAULT


• Automatic Removal: Set to-DEFAULT


• Add-on launch: – Default-NONE


• Playback End: – Default- LAST


•  Download Failure:- Default- LAST


• Offcloud: An API Code is needed, have never used this, but an account is needed. Default is-DISABLED


• Real Debrid: ENABLE and ReAuthorize when prompted.


• Auto Removal: Default-ENABLED


• Add-on Launching: Default-NONE


•  Playback End: Default-LAST


•  Download Failure: Default-LAST

Universal Providers: Make All (English, German and French)-OFF 

 

STREAMING

 



Direct Streaming:

• Direct Streaming: ENABLED

Torrent Streaming:

• Torrent Streaming:ENABLE


• Default: If you have Premiumize or Real Debrid, you may select one or the other as the default Provider. Because I have both I have set mine to SELECT and have found no difference.


• Enable All Providers you have an Account with.


• Usenet Streaming: Enable if you have it- DISABLE


• Hoster Streaming: ENABLE


• Select only those you have an account with.


• Default: Once again I have left mine at SELECT with no ill affects.


• Do not forget URL Reslover and Resolve URL.

 

MANUAL

 



If you wish to use Manual Mode, this will show how the links are gathered and sorted.

Service Restrictions:

• Utilize Services: What type of Services to Link-ALL


• Max Debrid Cost: Default-NONE

Provider Restrictions:

• Ignore Captchas: Default is-OFF I happen to have mine ON, personal choice.


• Utilize Providers: Hosters and Torrents


• Torrents Cache: REQUIRE

Sorting Restrictions:

• Sorting Restrictions: How to sort the Links.


• Prioritize Streams: –ENABLED


• Local Streams: Only 1^st if you have any. Set any remaining with the preceding number, if not set to ONE.


• Premium Streams: 2^nd


• Cached Streams: 1^st


• Direct Streams: 3^rd


• Quality Sorting: High to Low


• Sorting Order: Quality

Bandwidth Restrictions

• Bandwidth Restrictions: To prevent downloading a Huge file, setting the bandwith restrictions will help.


• Speed test optimization: If not sure what your ISP service is, this is a good tool to find out. You may be asked to disable your VPN prior to starting.


• Maximum Bandwidth Consumption: If you are going to use the Min. and Max File Size, this is not needed.


• File Size: o


• File Size: Some have found 5500 to be sufficient. But feel free to set it higher if you want.


• Unknown File Size: Most Hosters who do not provide the size are usually not large, but just in case select –INCLUDE

 

Additional Restrictions: Personal choice, you may wish to use these.

• Release Editions:-INCLUDE


• Release Types: –ALLUpload


• Users: –ALL

Video Restrictions: Quality restrictions on the Links you wish to find.

• Min Video Quality: If you do not mind viewing Cam versions then set to NONE. If not, set to HD720 or SD Keep in mind this is for manual Mode only.


• Video Quality: Set to HD1080 or higher if your ISP Service is able to handle it.


• Video Codec: if your device has issues with 265, set to H.264.


• 3D Videos: Unless you have a TV with 3D capability, set to-EXCLUDE

Audio Restrictions:

• Dubbed Audio: If you only want English-EXCLUDE


• Audio Channels:-ANY


• Audio Codec:-ANY


• Language:-SELECTED

Subtitle Restrictions:

• Soft Coded Subtitles: Many stream sources have these and are easily disabled when viewing in Kodi- INCLUDE


• Hard Coded Subtitles: If you dislike Subs on your screen-DISABLE

AUTOMATION

Automatic Playback: –ENABLE  Gaia works best at this setting.

DOWNLOADS

• Manual Downloads: I do not use this option, so the choice is yours. Not Recommended.


• Cache Downloads: Experimental, not recommended-DISABLE

SUBTITLES

• Selection: Default-DISABLE

LIBRARY

• Enable: Default-DISABLE

LIGHTPACK

• Enable: Default-DISABLE

 



 

The above photo is an example of what you can expect using the correct settings as suggested here. Most noteworthy are the sizes of the two 4K links at the top and the two 1080P  links further down.

 

In Conclusion

Whew, yes that was quite the read. But I believe once you have configured Gaia Streaming Add-on to the recommended settings, you’ll be surprised at the quality of streams available. Please visit http://www.best-kodi-guides.eu/home/ for more helpful articles.