SPMC Amazon Fire Stick Fire TV

For a long time, Semper Media Center (SPMC) was a must-have for anyone who primarily used Kodi on Android devices thanks to its low resource usage. After it was officially discontinued in 2018, the creator began working with the MrMC team, which provided similar functionality. However, MrMC is a paid service, doesn’t permit the user to install any third-party addons, and has gone without an update since 2020.

There’s no need to worry, though. Below, we’ll explain how to optimize Kodi for low-powered Android devices without having to pay anything, install Kodi forks, or mess around on support forums. Best of all, the whole process only takes a few minutes.

Warning: Kodi should only be used for content to which you have the legal right to access. Neither the Kodi Foundation nor Comparitech advocates the use of Kodi for piracy.

Always use a VPN with Kodi

Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are popular amongst Kodi users. After all, there are plenty of ISPs who limit their customers’ speeds when they detect streaming, and others still who sell details of your activities to advertisers. A VPN’s encryption stops both of these things in their tracks, while also protecting against Man-in-the-Middle attacks.

There are hundreds of VPN providers to choose from, though, and more arriving every week. Choosing one gets even more difficult when you consider some are faster, more secure, or better for streaming than their rivals.

We recommend NordVPN. It boasts first-rate speeds, keeps no logs, and works with the vast majority of streaming services we’ve tested. Not only that, NordVPN has its own Amazon Fire TV app and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee. In other words, you can try it risk-free and claim a refund if it fails to meet your expectations.

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How to optimize Kodi for Android devices without SPMC

SPMC is gone, but even if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t really need it anymore. That’s because just about every Kodi maintenance addon includes a feature that’ll automatically adjust the app’s settings to provide better performance on devices with low system resources.

Below, we’ll walk you through the process of installing one such maintenance addon, OpenWizard, and configuring it to get the best possible Kodi experience on Amazon Firestick, Nvidia Shield, or any low-powered Android TV box.

  1. First, download OpenWizard from the developer’s GitHub page
  2. Open Kodi and click the gear icon on the main page
  3. Click System, hover over Add-ons, and make sure Unknown sources is checked
  4. Return to Kodi’s main page and select Add-ons, then click the box icon in the top-left of the following screen
  5. Choose Install from zip file and navigate to OpenWizard’s download location
  6. Click the ZIP file you just downloaded to install OpenWizard
  7. Select Maintenance, then System Tweaks/Fixes
  8. Click on Advanced Settings, then Cache & Network Presets
    Open Wizard Preset
  9. Finally, choose Low-RAM Device Preset. This adjusts Kodi’s cache size to better align with your device’s capabilities, which should result in a smoother, less laggy experience

SPMC and MrMC FAQs

What was SPMC?

SPMC was a Kodi fork. This means that it used Kodi’s code as a base for future improvements. Unlike most forks, which are created by hobbyists, SPMC’s creator Chris Browet was actually part of the official Kodi team at one point.

The main difference between Kodi and SPMC was that the the latter was better optimized for Android devices. There were also several ease of use features that Kodi didn’t have at the time, such as voice searching functionality and the ability to view 3D Bluray files.

Unfortunately, SPMC hasn’t been updated since 2018 and won’t work with any version later than Kodi 16 (Jarvis). Given how few Kodi addons remain from this time, SPMC is effectively dead at the time of writing.

What is MrMC and is it still available?

MrMC is an alternative to Kodi, and while both apps are open-source, there are a couple of major differences. For instance, Kodi is free to use, while MrMC has a small price tag attached. Additionally, Kodi lets users install third-party addons, whereas MrMC has repeatedly said that this feature is never coming back (and asking for it earns you a ban on the forum).

Kodi is frequently updated, and the development team regularly releases blog posts detailing what they’re working on. Meanwhile, the MrMC team went dark for two years in 2020 and only commented after users began questioning whether the project was dead or not. Even then, the creators failed to mention what their plans were moving forward.

Can I use Kodi on an Amazon Firestick?

Kodi works perfectly well on Amazon Fire TV and Firestick. It can be installed in a matter of minutes, easily updated, and you can even transfer custom builds across if you’d like.

However, as Amazon Firesticks tend to have pretty low system resources, you may have to spend some time tweaking settings to get the best performance. Don’t panic: we have beginner-friendly guides to speeding up your Fire Stick, reducing the amount of buffering Kodi does, and resolving any problems you might run into.