RetroPlayer gets more than cheats
Kodi’s official changelog lists RetroAchievements leaderboards, Encore mode and on-screen indicators alongside the new cheat engine. Hardware rendering arrives for game clients using Game API 8.2.0, while savestates and the rewind buffer now preserve disc state. Fixes address major stuttering and game launches that could block the interface. Rewind now defaults to off, a useful detail for existing users comparing behavior after upgrading.
The practical testing priority is continuity: try your existing games, controllers and saves before treating new capabilities as a reason to replace a dependable installation.
Android deep links stay Android-specific
Team Kodi confirms deep-link support under its Android changes, together with fixes for stale VIEW intents replaying after process recreation and predictive-back handling unexpectedly exiting Kodi. The announcement does not document URI syntax or supported destinations, so it is not enough to build a reliable integration recipe. Separately, macOS gains supported JIT execution, and webOS switches audio output from ALSA to PulseAudio.
Windows HDR gains, Linux HDR caveat
The release record specifies FFmpeg 9.0.2 and libass 0.17.5. Crucially for Windows users, the new HDR-to-SDR tone mapping is explicitly listed for PGS subtitles on Windows—not as a universal feature across operating systems. Blu-ray improvements include playlist matching using disc-authoring metadata and better episode matching. Windows also gets a fix for startup crashes with a DVD already inserted.
Linux’s remaining HDR issue concerns GUI and on-screen-display elements becoming excessively transparent, washed out or fuzzy during playback. That is narrower than saying all Linux HDR video is broken. The other caveat is conditional: builds without Kodi’s patched TagLib 2.3.1 fall back to v21-level Matroska tagging. Neither warning establishes that every installation is affected.
Test before making it the living-room default
Kodi directs testers to their platform’s Prerelease download section and explicitly asks them to back up first and report problems. Its detailed RC1 changelog covers changes since Beta 2, rather than every addition throughout Piers development.
Our recommendation: secure a recoverable backup, then test the media and controls you actually use. Prioritize HDR subtitles, disc selection, game saves and interface readability. RC1 is a promising checkpoint—but feature-complete is not the same as fault-free, especially when the family remote control becomes your bug-reporting device.