The Complete Guide to Seren on Kodi [Dec 2022]

Seren is a popular Kodi addon that allows you to stream movies and TV shows in high quality using premium sources.

This add-on provides a smooth experience while watching content, offering a nice user interface and innovative features like continuously playing episodes, preemptive scrapping of sources, cached torrents support, and more.

A Real Debrid, Premiumize, or All Debrid account is required to use Seren. Debrid services allow you to easily stream high-quality video without buffering.

Seren can also integrate with Trakt.tv to keep track of all your favorite shows and display recommendations based on your preferences. Authorizing your Trakt account will enable the add-on’s Smart Play features like continuous playback, Next Up and Still Watching dialogs.

Seren is compatible with Kodi 19.4 Matrix and Kodi 20 (Beta 1) Nexus. Keep in mind that pre-release versions are unstable and may cause unexpected problems, we recommend using the current version of Kodi.

In this guide, we’re going to install Seren on Kodi using its official source. We will also configure the providers, required accounts, and we’ll check out some of Seren’s extra features. Let’s get started!

1. Seren Overview

2. How to install Seren on Kodi

If this is the first time you’re installing add-ons on Kodi, you’ll have to allow the installation of unofficial add-ons. Please read How to allow 3rd-party add-ons on Kodi and come back here when you’re ready.

2.1. Install Nixgates repository

Let’s add a link to the official Seren source on GitHub to download and install the repository zip file directly on Kodi.

1. Press the cog icon near the top left corner of the Home Screen.

2. Select File Manager.

3. Press Add Source.

4. Enter https://nixgates.github.io/packages/ on the top box and nixrepo on the bottom one. Press OK to add the source.

Now that we added the link, let’s use it to install the repository.

5. Go back to the Settings menu and select Add-ons. 

6. Press Install from zip file. 

On Kodi 19, you’ll see a message about the auto-update feature. Press Yes to proceed.

7. Select nixrepo. 

8. Click the file nixgates.repository-x.x.x.zip to download and install the repository.  

Wait a couple of seconds while the repository is downloaded and installed. You’ll see a notification when the process finishes.

2.2. Install Seren add-on

Now that the repository is installed, let’s use it to download and install Seren and its dependencies.

9. Select Install from repository. 

10. Click on Nixgates Repo to open the repository. 

11. Select Video add-ons. 

12. Now select Seren. 

13. Press the Install button. 

14. You’ll see a list of all the dependencies for Seren, click OK to continue, and wait for the process to finish. 

15. Go back to the Home Screen, highlight the Add-ons tab and select Seren to open the addon. 

Seren is now installed on Kodi, but we still need to set up a couple of things. Next, we’re going to install a providers’ package.

2.3. Install a4kScrapers providers

The providers are used in the scraping process. Without providers, the add-on won’t be able to find sources. Let’s install the a4kScrapers provider package.

16. Select Tools on Seren’s main menu. 

17. Press Open Settings Menu. 

18. Highlight the Providers tab and press Manage Provider Packages. 

19. Now click on Install Package. 

20. Select Web Location…

21. Enter https://bit.ly/a4kScrapers and press OK to continue.

22. Press the Install button.

23. A4kScrapers is now installed. Press Close.  

You can press on A4KScrapers to individually enable/disable the providers inside the package.

We’re almost done. Seren requires a Debrid account to play content. Next, we’re going to set up a Real Debrid account.

3. Set up Seren with Real Debrid

Seren requires a premium account from Real Debrid, Premiumize or All Debrid to function properly.

Debrid services offer unrestricted access to file hosters and cached torrents. When using cached torrents, your device will not connect directly to the p2p network, instead, Real Debrid will fetch the file and allow you to get it as a normal download.

In this example we’re going to use Real Debrid, a popular service to get access to cached torrents and various file hosters for a very low price.

1. Select Tools on Seren’s main menu.  

2. Press Open Settings Menu.  

3. Select the Accounts tab and click on Enable Real Debrid.  

4. Scroll down and press Authorize Real Debrid… 

5. Copy the authorization code.

6. Using a web browser visit https://real-debrid.com/device and enter the authorization code. (You must be logged into your Real Debrid account)

7. Type Seren and press Set that name.

Once Seren is authorized with Real Debrid you can close the browser and go back to Kodi.

8. Re-open the Settings Menu, select the Scraping tab, and set Preferred Cloud Location to Real Debrid. Press OK to continue.

All Done! You can now stream content with Seren and Kodi.

Seren offers many Smart Play features that are only available when you authorize your Trakt account, keep reading for more information.

If you want to use subtitles with Seren please read How to enable subtitles on Kodi.

4. Additional Settings

Let’s take a look at how to set up some popular Seren features. These steps are optional but can improve your user experience.

4.1. Authorize Trakt with Seren [Recommended]

Trakt.tv is a free service that helps you organize and keep track of your favorite movies and shows. Seren features full integration with Trakt, taking care of scrobbling (check-in your watched videos) and giving you access to your Collection, lists, and bookmarks.

Authorizing your Trakt account with Seren is highly recommended since it’ll enable Smart Play features like continuous episode playback, Next episode / Still Watching dialogs, and preemptive scraping.

It will also enable two new items on the add-on’s main menu: My Movies, and My TV shows. You can use them to manage your Trakt collection, lists, and personalized suggestions.

To link your Trakt account with Seren, visit the Trakt.tv website, log in with your account and follow these steps:

1. Select Tools on Seren’s main menu. 

2. Press Open Settings Menu. 

3. Select the Accounts tab and click on Authorize Trakt… 

4. Copy the authorization code. 

5. Using a web browser, visit https://trakt.tv/activate and enter the authorization code. (You must be logged into your Trakt.tv account) 

6. Press Yes to link Seren to your Trakt account. 

Back in Kodi, you’ll see a Successfully authenticated with Trakt dialog. Press OK to continue, and wait while Seren synchronizes its database with Trakt.

You can access your collection, lists and other Trakt features using the My Movies and My TV shows categories on Seren’s main menu.

4.2. Select sources manually

By default, Seren will automatically choose a source based on the Source & Filter settings. It is possible to override the automatic selection process and have Seren show a list of all available sources to choose one manually.

To set manual selection of sources on Seren, go to Tools on the add-on’s main menu, select Open Settings Menu, and follow these steps.

1. Make sure the Playback tab is selected and change Movie Play Style and Episode Play Style to Source Select. Press OK to save the settings.

2. You will see a selectable list of available sources before playing a movie or episode.

All listed files are already cached on Real Debrid’s cloud. You can press the View Uncached button if there aren’t many cached sources available. Uncached sources will be downloaded to the Debrid cloud before they can be played, the waiting time depends on the number of peers/seeds in the torrent, but it is usually quite fast. You can see the download status on your Real Debrid admin panel.

If you want to go back to automatic source selection, set the Playback Style back to Auto Play, make sure you adjust the settings on Sort & Filter according to your preferences.

5. Seren Settings Summary

The Settings menu is divided into 10 categories: Interface, Artwork, Scraping, Download, Playback, Accounts, Providers, Sort & Filter, API Keys, and Shortcuts.

To open the Setting menu on Seren, go to the add-on’s main menu, select Tools, and press Open Settings Menu.

5.1. General

Customize Seren’s menus options.

All Menus

Enable Search History: Activate this option to let Seren remember your searches for movies and shows.
Hide Specials: Disable this option to show specials.
Hide Unaired Items: Hide episodes and movies that haven’t been released yet.
Hide Watched Items: Do not show already watched episodes and movies.
Base List Type for Movie Genres: Most Popular / Trending.
Base List Type for TV Genres: Most Popular / Trending.
Hide Next Item in Widgets: Used in custom skins with widget support.

Episodes Menu

Flatten Season Episodes: Show all the episodes in a single list instead of ordering by seasons.
Show Remaining Unwatched Season Episodes in Mixed Lists: On / Off.
General Episode Title Display Style: Select a title style.
Mixed Episode Lists Title Display Style: Select a title style for mixed shows lists.

Trakt Menu

Next Up Sort Style: Sort Trakt’s Next Up list by Release Date or Recently Watched.
Collection Sort Style: Sort collection by Date Collected or Alphabetically.
Paginate Trakt Lists: Break lists into pages (makes navigation faster).
Paginate Trakt Collection: Break collection into pages (makes navigation faster).
List Title Display Style: Set a display type for list’s titles.

Miscelaneous

Delay Releases Date by a Day: Sources and meta-data for new releases are not instantly available. Delaying releases by a day will give enough time for the data and files to be published.
Page Item Limit: Select How many items to show on a single page.
Disable Notification Sound: Do not play sound on notifications.
Download Location: Folder to store downloaded files.

5.2. Themes

Seren supports themes for its custom windows. Using themes, you can match Seren’s style with your Kodi skin. There are themes available for Arctic Zephyr 2, AuraMod, and Arctic Horizon.

Colors

Current Color: Highlight color.
Select Text Highlight Color: Press to select a highlight color.

Themes

Enable Automatic Theme Updates: On / Off.
Active Theme: The current theme.
Install Theme: Press to install a Theme.
Uninstall Theme: Press to uninstall a Theme.
Switch Theme: Press to switch themes.
Check For Updates: Press to update themes.

5.3. Metadata & Artwork

Adjust Metadata and Artwork providers and settings.

The metadata provider supplies the information about movies and TV shows like the title, synopsis, genre, actors, and more.

The Artwork provider supplies background images, banners, and thumbnails shown on screen.

Metadata

Metadata location: TMDb / TVDB / Trakt. Select a metadata provider.
Show original titles: Show foreign titles in original language.
OMDb API Key: You can also use your OMDb account.

Artwork

Disable Seren fanart fallback on items missing fanart: Off / On.
Preferred Artwork Size: Bigger artwork size can slow down navigation.
Fanart.TV API key: Use your API key to get extra fanart meta-data and better quality images.

Movie Artwork

Prefer Movie artwork from: Select artwork provider for movies.
Show Advanced Movie Artwork Settings: Adjust artwork settings.

TV Show Artwork

Prefer Movie artwork from: Select artwork provider for shows.
Show Advanced TV Artwork Settings: Adjust artwork settings.

5.4. Accounts

Manage your Trakt and Debrid accounts.

General

Enable Account Expiry Notifications: Show a notification when your Debrid account expires.

Trakt

Trakt Username: your Trakt username.
Authorize Trakt: Press to authorize your Trakt.tv account with Seren.
Enable Trakt Scrobbling: Scrobbling is the process of automatically tracking what you’re watching on Trakt. Disable this option if you’re using the official Trakt add-on for scribbling.
– Start scrobble after seconds: 180 is the default value.
– Minimum scrobble percentage before marked: Movies and episodes will be marked as watched if more than X percent is played.
Revoke Trakt Authentication: Press to disconnect Seren from Trakt.

Premiumize

Enable Premiumize: Off / On.
Authorize Premiumize: Press to authorize Seren with Premiumize.
– Premiumize Customer ID: Your customer ID.
– Premiumize Status: Your account status.
– Premiumize Priority: priority for listing Premiumize links.
– Enable Torrents: On / Off.
– Enable Hosters: Off / On.
– Prefer Transcoded File: Off / On.
– Store resolved items in cloud: Off / On.
– Automatic Cloud Removal: On / Off.
– Max Storage Space Used Before Deletion (GB): 750.

Real Debrid

Enable Real-Debrid: Off / On.
Real-Debrid Username: Your Real Debrid username.
– Premium Status: Your account status.
Authorize Real-Debrid: Press to authorize Seren with Real Debrid.
– Enable Torrents: On / Off.
– Enable Hosters: Off / On.
– Auto-Delete Torrents: On / Off.

AllDebrid

Enable AllDebrid: Off / On.
AllDebrid Username: Your AllDebrid username.
– Premium Status: Your account status.
Authorize AllDebrid: Press to authorize Seren with AllDebrid.
– Enable Torrents: On / Off.
– Enable Hosters: Off / On.
– Auto-Delete Torrents: On / Off.

5.5. Providers

Install and manage providers used in the scraping process. The providers supply video sources to the add-on.

General

Enable Automatic Provider Update: On / Off.

Manage Provider Packages

Check For Updates: Press to update providers.
Manage Provider Packages: Press to install provider packages and enable/disable individual providers.

5.6. Scraping

Scraping is the process of searching for sources on the web. Here you can adjust scraping options.

General

Scraper Display Style: Show progress window while scraping, or choose to scrape in the background.
Cache Torrent Info Locally: Store scraping results on cache for faster subsequent scraping.
Timeout: Number of seconds to wait for responses.

Cloud Scraping

Scrape Debrid Cloud: Search sources on your cloud storage. This is specially useful if you add torrents manually to your cloud.

Auto Caching Assistant

Add un-cached sources to the Debrid cloud automatically: On/Off.
– Assist Mode: Automatic / Manual Selection.
– Preferred Cloud Location: Premiumize / Real-Debrid / AllDebrid.

Preemptive Termination

Enable Preemptive Termination: On / Off. Stops the scraping process as soon as the specified conditions are met. This can decrease the scraping time, but it might also skip some sources.
– Minimum Movie Resolution: 4K / 1080p / 720p / SD.
– Minimum TV Show Resolution: 1080p / 720p / SD / 4K.
– Minimum Sources: 5. Minimum amount of source required to terminate the process.
– Terminate on: Torrents Only, Hosters Only, Torrents/Hosters.
– Wait for cloud files: Off / On.
Terminate if cloud sources are found: On / Off.
Terminate if adaptive sources are found: On / Off.

5.7. Sort & Filter

Use Filters to specify the type of sources that you want to ignore during the scraping process.

Some filters to keep in mind are DV (Dolby-Vision), CAM (low quality sources), HC (Hard coded subtitles), 3D (3D Video), HVEC (H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding). Enable/Disable the filters according to your device’s capabilities.

To sort the scraped sources, you can select up to 8 sorting instructions that will be executed sequentially.

Source Filters

Choose Items to Filter: Press to open the Filter selection screen. Enabled items will be filtered.
Max Resolution: 4K / 1080p / 720p / SD. Set a maximum video resolution.
Min Resolution: SD / 4K / 1080p / 720p. Set minimum video resolution.
Enable File Size Limit: Set different file size restrictions for Movies and Episodes.
– Movie File Size limit (GB): 10.
– Episode File size limit (GB): 10.
– Movie Minimum File Size (GB): 0.0.
– Episode Minimum File Size (GB): 0.0.

Source Sorting

Prioritize the Last Resolved Show Release Name: Try to select episodes from the same pack or release group when continuously playing TV shows.
Sort Level: You can define up to sorting 8 levels. Each level must contain one of the following sorting instructions. Levels are executed sequentially, one after the other.

Each level will be executed one after the other and can contain one of the following sorting instructions.

• Resolution: Sort by resolution, prioritizing higher resolution videos. (Can be reversed for lower first)
• Source Type: Prioritize sources by type. (Cloud, Adaptive, Torrents, Hosters)
• Debrid Provider: Prioritize sources by Debrid Provider (Premiumize, Real-Debrid, AllDebrid)
• Size: Sort by file size, prioritizing higher first. (Can be reversed for lower first)
• Low Cam Sort: Push Low-quality Cam sources to the bottom. (Can be reversed to prioritize low-quality sources)
• HEVC: Prioritize High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265)
• DV/HDR: Prioritize Dolby-Vision and/or High Dynamic Range video.
• Audio Channels: Prioritize sources by audio channels.

5.8. Playback

Adjust playback settings. Smart Play features like Next Up / Still Watching Dialogs, Preemptive Scraping and continuous episodes playback require a Trakt account to properly work.

General

Movie Play Style: Choose between auto-playing or manually selecting Movies.
Episode Play Style: Choose between auto-playing or manually selecting Episodes.

Resume

Auto Resume Shows from Next Unwatched Episode: Off / On.
Watched Progress Resume Style: Ask / Automatic / Do not resume.

Resolving

Auto try next link on resolve failure (Source Select): On / Off.
On failure to resolve torrent file: Ask for manual file selection / Skip Sources.

Smart Play

Enable Smart Play: Smart Play allows you to play episodes continually. You must authorize your Trakt account to use this feature.
Pre-emptive Scraping: Start scraping sources for the next episode before the currently playing episode ends.
Smart Play Display Style: Fancy / Background Task.
Enable Playing Next Dialog: Show a dialog with next episode info at the end of the currently playing episode.
– Minimum Seconds Left Before Showing Dialog: 30.
– Default Action if Nothing Selected: Play / Pause.
Enable Still Watching Dialog: Ask for user interaction every certain number of episodes.
– Episodes Between Dialog Prompts: 3.

5.9. Shortcuts

Utilities for add-on maintenance and test.

Clear Cache

Clear Cache: Clearing the cache can fix some common errors.
Clear Local Torrent Cache: Clearing the local torrent cache can fix some scraping errors.
Clear Search History: Delete search history.
Wipe Addon Data: Erase all settings and accounts. Restore the add-on to its original state.

TraktSync Tools

Clear last sync time: Reset last synchronization time.
Force sync with Trakt: Synchronize Seren’s database with Trakt.
Rebuild Database: Clear database and resynchronize.

Window Tests

Test various custom windows. Usually used with Seren’s Themes.

5.10. Advanced

Advanced menu settings, Optional API keys and Performance settings.

Menu

Enable Kodi Menu Caching: Cache menus for faster navigation.
Force widget refresh after playback ends: Refresh screen to show updated watched status when video ends, but slows down navigation.
Enable Tools menu item for Window Tests.
Force view types on menus: Change the view style for movies and shows.

Optional API Keys
Using your own API keys can speed up navigation.

TMDb API Keys.
TVDB API Keys.
Trakt Client ID.
Trakt Client Secret.

TimeZone

Local Time Zone: Your time-zone is autodetected.

Performance

Threading Scale: Control the number of recurrent threads. More threads can speed up the scraping process but it can also overload the CPU on slow devices.

6. Seren Kodi add-on FAQ

7. Alternatives to Seren

Looking for more add-ons? These are some of our favorite Kodi add-ons for December 2022.

Please visit our list of the best Kodi add-ons for more information.

	Umbrella: Great add-on based on Venom. (Premium sources)
	Fen: Fen is back! This add-on is very fast and offers many features. (Premium sources)
	Seren: Excellent add-on with great user interface and many innovative functions. (Premium sources)
	The Crew: Great all-in-one add-on with many extra features for kids, sports, live TV, and more. (Free and premium sources)
	Scrubs v2: Great add-on specialized in free sources. (Free sources)
	Homelander: Based on The Oath, has all the features from its predecessor. (Free and Premium sources)
	Elementum: An exceptional add-on that offers high-quality streams using torrents. (P2P sources)