NZBGet backend¶

Current source and next release

The unified Playback backend section and StreamNZB support are not in Stable 1.2.3 or Beta 2.0.0-beta.2. The settings layout described here applies to current source builds and the next release. Released builds configure nzbdav and WebDAV under Connection. Beta 2.0.0-beta.2 uses a separate NZBGet section and the Use NZBGet instead of nzbdav for playback toggle. StreamNZB requires a current source build until a release includes it.

By default, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi downloads and streams through nzbdav. It can use NZBGet as the backend instead. In that mode it submits the NZB to NZBGet and waits for NZBGet to download and post-process it. It then plays the finished file from an SMB share or a local/mounted path.

Beta feature

The NZBGet backend was added in 2.0.0-beta.1 and is available on the Beta channel. Stable 1.2.3 supports nzbdav only.

NZBGet mode replaces the streaming pipeline

In NZBGet mode, the nzbdav-specific features don't apply: live WebDAV streaming, the local stream proxy tiers, and mid-playback stream switching. NZBGet downloads and post-processes the whole file first. You then play it from the completed folder. Use this mode only if NZBGet is your download client. Smart Duplicates failover protects you against broken downloads instead.

Enable and configure¶

Select NZBGet on Playback backend. Its connection and completed-folder settings appear below the dropdown:

Setting	Default	What to enter
Playback backend → NZBGet	nzbdav / InfiniDysk	Select NZBGet to switch to NZBGet mode.
NZBGet URL	`http://localhost:6789`	Your NZBGet address.
NZBGet Username	`nzbget`	NZBGet control username.
NZBGet Password	(empty)	NZBGet control password.
NZBGet Category	(empty)	The category to submit under. NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi also uses it to find the completed file when it can't read NZBGet's own `DestDir`.
Completed Folder (SMB or Local Path)	(empty)	NZBGet's completed-downloads base as Kodi sees it. This can be an SMB URL, for example `smb://server/downloads/completed`, or a local/mounted path such as an NFS mount, for example `/storage/nzbget/downloads`. An NFS hard mount is recommended.

Use Test NZBGet Connection to check the control API. Use Test Completed Folder to check that Kodi can reach the completed folder. Playback fails with "NZBGet not configured" if the URL or the completed folder is empty.

NZBGet mode also uses two settings from the Polling group on the Advanced tab. Poll interval (seconds) sets how often NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi checks NZBGet. Download timeout (seconds) defaults to 3600 and is clamped to 60–86400. If the timeout runs out, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi reports "Download timed out" and leaves the job running in NZBGet, so it can finish for a later play.

Recommended: mount the completed folder over NFS¶

Highly recommended, especially on CoreELEC

For the most reliable playback, have your NAS export NZBGet's download folder over NFS. Mount it on the Kodi device as a hard NFS mount, and point Completed Folder at the local mount path instead of an smb:// URL.

Why not SMB¶

An smb:// completed folder goes through Kodi's built-in SMB client, which keeps a cached session to the server. That cache is a poor fit for NZBGet downloads. NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi looks for the video as soon as NZBGet reports success, and Kodi may probe a file while it is still being unpacked or moved. Kodi can then keep a stale, half-written view of that file. The finished file lists but won't open, often until you restart Kodi. NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi checks that the file is readable before playback and tells you to restart Kodi when this happens, but it can't clear Kodi's SMB cache for you.

A kernel NFS mount avoids that layer. The operating system does the file access, it picks up changes on the server correctly, and Kodi just reads a local path. A hard mount also waits and retries through a brief network or server hiccup instead of returning errors to the player. Kodi's own nfs:// sources are better than SMB but still use Kodi's built-in client, so a system-level hard mount is the best option for streaming NZBGet downloads from another machine.

Use an existing mounted folder¶

Mount the completed-download folder using your operating system or storage provider documentation. In the add-on, set Completed Folder (SMB or Local Path) to that mounted path, then select Test Completed Folder.

The mount must expose NZBGet’s completed files to Kodi. For server setup, use the NZBGet project documentation.

How it works¶

flowchart LR
    A[You pick a source] --> B[Submit NZB to NZBGet<br/>JSON-RPC append]
    B --> C[NZBGet downloads]
    C --> D[Post-processing<br/>par2 repair + unpack]
    D --> E{History status}
    E -->|SUCCESS| F[Locate file in completed folder]
    E -->|WARNING/FAILED| G[Report failure]
    F --> H[Kodi plays from SMB or local path]

Submission: NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi fetches the NZB itself and uploads it through NZBGet's JSON-RPC append method with HTTP Basic auth. Over http:// the username and password travel unencrypted, so use an https:// NZBGet URL unless NZBGet runs on the same machine or a network you trust.
Post-processing: NZBGet handles this itself, with par2 repair and unpack. The progress dialog shows a Post-processing... stage while it runs.
Strict success: a job counts as successful only when NZBGet reports a SUCCESS status. A WARNING result counts as a failure, so you're never handed a corrupt file. That includes repairable or damaged downloads where repair didn't complete.
File discovery: NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi maps the job's completed directory onto your configured completed folder. It uses NZBGet's DestDir option when it can read it, and otherwise works it out from the category. It then scans up to three folder levels deep for a playable video: .mkv, .mp4, .m4v, .avi, .ts, .m2ts, .wmv, or .mov. It keeps retrying for up to 60 seconds while NZBGet's moved files become visible. For movies, the largest video wins. For episode requests, it excludes samples, trailers, featurettes, and other extras, and a file named for the exact requested season and episode wins over larger videos. If the right episode can't be identified, the selection fails rather than playing a different episode.
Readability check: NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi hands the file to Kodi only after reading its first bytes through Kodi's own file layer. A file can still be settling after NZBGet's move, or Kodi's cached SMB session can deny access even though the file is listed. In those cases NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi keeps retrying. If the file never becomes readable, it shows a notification: "Video file is listed but not readable. If this persists, check the share or mount and restart Kodi." This check was added in 2.0.0-beta.2.

Smart Duplicates failover¶

The NZBGet backend downloads the whole release before playback, so it can't switch streams live. It relies on NZBGet's own Smart Duplicates instead. When you pick a release with Enable fallback streams on and a positive Maximum standby fallback streams value, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi also submits other results with the same release name, up to the configured backup count. NZBGet honors counts above five; the five-stream ceiling belongs to the nzbdav / InfiniDysk proxy. These are reposts or mirrors of the same release from other indexers. Every submission gets:

a shared duplicate key for the release: the normalized release name, prefixed with a content ID when one is known (for example imdb=<id>, themoviedb=<id>, or tvdbid=<id>-S<ss>-E<ee>);
its own duplicate score: your pick scores highest, and each backup scores strictly lower;
duplicate mode SCORE.

NZBGet downloads the highest-scored item, which is your pick, so the progress bar and completion behave exactly as before. It parks the rest in its history as duplicate backups (status dupe) without downloading them. The score decides which item plays, not the submission order. That keeps your pick active and lets the backups go in at any time. NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi submits them in a background thread, so they never delay playback.

Your pick can finish unrepairable: par2 repair fails, unpack fails, or health drops below NZBGet's critical threshold. NZBGet then automatically pulls the highest-scored backup out of history and downloads it instead. It doesn't combine recovery blocks across releases. It fails over to a whole alternate copy and repairs that with its own par2. The add-on follows this failover live within the same play. It tracks the promoted backup and plays it when it completes, or plays a backup that already finished, instead of reporting a failed playback. NZBGet may refuse your pick because the same content is already in its history. If nothing else in the set can play, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi re-submits the pick once with FORCE.

If you cancel the play, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi removes everything that play submitted or was following: the pick, any promoted backup, and the parked backups. NZBGet doesn't keep a backup running, and another play of the same release isn't affected.

Besides exact same-name reposts, the backup pool also includes same-content mirrors and NZBHydra's deferred duplicate uploads. NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi submits these as the lowest-priority backups.

NZBGet options that affect failover

For automatic failover, NZBGet's HealthCheck option must be Delete, None, or Park. The modern default is Delete. With Pause, NZBGet pauses a broken download instead of promoting a backup. The add-on shows a notice about this once per Kodi session. If NZBGet's DupeCheck is no, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi skips the backups entirely, because NZBGet would download them all in parallel.

The backups are best-effort. A backup that fails to submit never affects your pick's download or playback. Two fallback settings control them:

Enable fallback streams turns the backups on or off.
Maximum standby fallback streams caps how many NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi submits. Unlike the nzbdav path, NZBGet mode has no built-in ceiling of 5.

Reusing already-downloaded files¶

If NZBGet already downloaded a title successfully, the picker marks it with a green DL tag. A result gets the tag when its name matches a SUCCESS history item, its size is within 15%, and its recorded Usenet post date matches. If you play it, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi reuses the completed file directly instead of resubmitting it. This is deliberate: NZBGet's duplicate check would otherwise delete a resubmission of a SUCCESS item and fail the playback.

NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi also remembers completed folders that hold at least two reliably named episodes from one season as season packs. When the exact episode you want is in such a pack, later episode pickers show an Already downloaded season pack - Episodes … row before the online releases. Each record is tied to the nzbget backend, the exact NZBGet NZBID, and that job's DestDir. Files from another job are never merged in just because its name looks the same. When you select the row, NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi checks that exact successful history item and completed folder again. It then plays the requested episode without a new submission.

NeNeTeePee-Stream-Kodi removes a record when it goes stale: the job is confirmed missing, the folder changed, or the folder is reachable but no longer holds the requested episode. You then see "The downloaded season pack is no longer available. Choose another result." Temporary NZBGet, share/mount, authentication, or network errors fail that reuse attempt but keep the record. Either way, the ordinary online results stay available.

Beta feature

Exact season-pack episode reuse was added in 2.0.0-beta.2 and is available on the Beta channel. It works the same way on the nzbdav backend.

Resume and playback¶

NZBGet mode supports the same resume-or-restart prompt as the nzbdav path. When you replay a release, you can choose Resume from … or Start from beginning. The prompt follows Kodi's own default play action setting. The background service saves your resume point when you stop playback.