PlexMeetsHomeAssistant/README.md

PlexMeetsHomeAssistant

Custom Home Assistant card which integrates plex into Home Assistant and makes it possible to launch movies or tv shows on TV with a simple click.

Supported are ALL Plex clients, some even with enhanced functionality. Kodi with PlexKodiConnect and Google Cast is also supported.

Video of the card:

More images at the end of the readme.

Important notice

If you are using Home Assistant via HTTPS, you need to specify port https for Plex and have Plex available on https connection.

Installation

• Install Plex Meets Home Assistant from HACS.
• Reload browser, clear cache as usual
• Create a new Home Assistant tab, turn on panel mode
• Add a new card, see configuration below.

Configuration

type: 'custom:plex-meets-homeassistant'

token: Enter your Plex Token

ip: Enter ip address of plex server. You can also enter hostname without protocol or port.

libraryName: Name of the library you wish to render.

Available special libraries:

Special Library	Description
Watch Next	Shows Continue Watching feed just like in your new plex interface. Does not work with old servers.
Recently Added	Shows recently added tv show episodes, might use old Plex API. For recently added movies use sort with your movies library.
Continue Watching	Shows movies and tv shows in progress, uses old Plex API.
Deck	Shows tv shows on deck, uses old Plex API.

entity: You need to configure at least one supported media_player entity.

• androidtv: Entity id of your media_player configured via Android TV. See detailed instructions. It is also possible to use short declaration with androidtv.
• kodi: Entity id of your media_player configured via Kodi. See detailed instructions. It is also possible to use short declaration with kodi.
• plexPlayer: Name or machine ID of your plex client. Use this if you do not have devices above. See detailed instructions. It is required to use detailed declaration with "plexPlayer:" property.
• cast: Entity id of your media_player configured via Google Cast. See detailed instructions. It is also possible to use short declaration with cast.

port: Optional Port of your plex sever.

protocol: Optional Protocol to use for Plex. Defaults to "http".

maxCount: Optional Maximum number of items to display in card.

sort: Optional Define sort by. See detailed instructions

runBefore: Optional Specify a script to run before playing. This can be for example a script which turns on your TV and waits 5 seconds. If this is specified and provided entity/script exists, all the other play checks for availability of entity are ignored.

runAfter: Optional Specify a script to run after playing.

showExtras: Optional Specify whether to show extras if any available on movie / episode. Possible values: true, false. Default: true

playTrailer: Optional Specify whether to play trailer if available. Possible values: true, false, muted. Default: true

Example of the simplest possible configuration:

type: 'custom:plex-meets-homeassistant'
token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty
ip: 192.168.13.37
libraryName: Movies
entity: media_player.bedroom_tv # entity provided by cast integration

Example of the simplest possible configuration using multiple entities:

type: 'custom:plex-meets-homeassistant'
token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty
ip: 192.168.13.37
libraryName: Movies
entity:
  - media_player.living_room_nvidia_shield # created by androidtv integration
  - media_player.living_room_tv # created by cast integration
  - media_player.bedroom_tv # created by cast integration
  - media_player.kodi_123456qwe789rty # created by kodi integration

Example of card configuration using detailed definitions:

type: 'custom:plex-meets-homeassistant'
token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty
ip: 192.168.13.37
port: 32400
libraryName: TV Shows
protocol: http
maxCount: 10
sort: title:desc
entity:
  kodi: media_player.kodi_123456qwe789rty
  androidtv: media_player.living_room_nvidia_shield
  plexPlayer: 192.168.13.38
  cast: media_player.bedroom_tv

Complex example using detailed definitions, lists and shared plex server for plexPlayer:

type: 'custom:plex-meets-homeassistant'
token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty
ip: remote.plex.server.com # remote shared plex instance
port: 443
libraryName: Deck
protocol: https
maxCount: 10
sort: title:desc
runBefore: script.turn_on_tv_and_wait
runAfter: script.movie_time
showExtras: true
playTrailer: muted
entity:
  kodi:
    - media_player.kodi_bedroom
    - media_player.kodi_living_room
  androidtv:
    - media_player.living_room_nvidia_shield
    - media_player.bedroom_nvidia_shield
    - media_player.kithen_nvidia_shield
  plexPlayer:
    - identifier: TV 2020 # plex client device located on local plex server network
      server:
        ip: local.plex.server.com # Mandatory
        token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty # Mandatory
        port: 32400
        protocol: http
    - 192.168.13.50 # without definition for server, it will look for device on remote.plex.server.com network
  cast: media_player.bedroom_tv

In this example, it will try to first play via kodi, in bedroom. If that kodi is unavailable or off, it tries in living room kodi. If that fails, it moves on to android tvs, starting with living room, continuing with bedroom and ending with kitchen. Next, if a possible player still has not been found (all kodis and shields are off) it tries to play via plexPlayer, trying TV 2020 on local plex server and if not found, IP 192.168.13.50 on remote plex server. Finally, it tries to cast into media_player.bedroom_tv.

Detailed configuration instructions for end devices

You can combine multiple supported entities, in that case, entity for supported content will be chosen in order how you entered them.

As an example, if content can be played / shown both by kodi and androidtv, and you entered kodi first, it will be shown by kodi. If it cannot be played by kodi but can be played by androidtv, androidtv will be used.

This will also work with play button being shown, it will only show when you can actually play content on your device.

Play button is only visible if all the conditions inside Availability section of end devices below are met.

Android TV or Fire TV

Difficulty to setup: Easy

Steps:

• Install plex application on your Android TV device. Open it and do the default setup so that you can see and navigate your libraries.
• Setup Android TV. You need just a default configuration, no optional parameters needed.
• Use entity_id of media_player provided by Android TV integration in card, example: androidtv: media_player.living_room_nvidia_shield.

Availability:

• Provided entity ID needs to exists
• Provided entity ID needs to have attributes
• Provided entity ID needs to have attribute adb_response

Supported:

✅ Shared Plex servers

✅ Movies

✅ Show

✅ Season

✅ Episodes

Kodi

Difficulty to setup: Moderate

Steps:

• Install and configure PlexKodiConnect on Kodi itself.
• Setup Kodi integration for your device.
• Install and configure integration Kodi Recently Added Media and its sensor kodi_media_sensor_search

Images of installation of Kodi Recently Added Media

• Use entity_id of media_player provided by Kodi integration in card, example: media_player.kodi_123456qwe789rty.

Availability:

• Provided entity ID needs to exists
• Entity 'sensor.kodi_media_sensor_search' needs to exist
• State of both entities cannot be 'unavailable'
• State of kodi cannot be 'off'

Supported:

✅ Shared Plex servers *if content available in kodi

✅ Movies

❌ Show

❌ Season

✅ Episodes

Google Cast

Difficulty to setup: Very easy

Steps:

• Set up Google Cast in Home Assistant.
• Use entity_id of media_player provided by Google Cast integration in card, example: cast: media_player.bedroom_tv.
• Save card configuration and make sure the entity is not unavailable, if you see play buttons on movies or individual episodes configuration was successful.

Availability:

• Media player entity cannot be unavailable

Supported:

✅ Shared Plex servers

✅ Movies

❌ Show

❌ Season

✅ Episodes

All other plex clients

Difficulty to setup: Very Easy to Moderate

Steps:

Easy setup:

Notice: While easy, it might not work if you have multiple devices with the same name, or you buy a second device with the same name in the future. Some plex clients also incorrectly report theirs IP Address, so addition by that might not be working. Take a look at Machine ID setup below if this is a concern for you.

• Open Plex app on the device you wish to add
• Open your Plex web GUI
• Click on cast on the top right corner and note down name of your device

• Add it to card, example:

entity:
  plexPlayer: TV 2020

Instead of device name, you can also enter device IP address or product name.

• Save card configuration, if you see play buttons everywhere configuration was successful.

If you do not see play button, or have multiple devices with the same name, follow Machine ID setup below.

Machine ID setup:

• Open Plex app on the device you wish to add
• Open your Plex web GUI
• Modify URL so that just after the port, just after the first slash, you enter clients?X-Plex-Token=PLEX_TOKEN. Replace PLEX_TOKEN with your plex token. Example final URL http://192.168.13.37:32400/clients?X-Plex-Token=qweRTY123456.
• You will get a list of all currently connected Plex clients.
• Find the client you wish to add, and copy machineIdentifier key without quotes.
• Add machineIdentifier into card, for example:

entity:
  plexPlayer: mYaweS0meMacHin3Id3ntiFI3r

• Save card configuration, if you see play buttons everywhere configuration was successful.

Availability:

• Plex needs to run on the defined device

Supported:

✅ Shared Plex servers *requires additional configuration, see below

✅ Movies

✅ Show

✅ Season

✅ Episodes

Shared Plex servers configuration

plexPlayer can be configured in multiple ways, achieving the same thing:

entity:
  plexPlayer: TV 2020

entity:
  plexPlayer:
    - TV 2020

entity:
  plexPlayer:
    identifier: TV 2020

entity:
  plexPlayer:
    - identifier: TV 2020

As can be seen from the last two examples, it is possible to configure it as an object having key "identifier".

That is useful, if you want to stream media from shared or remote Plex server. Add information about your local Plex server which sees your device on which you wish to play content. This is done by including a new key, "server" having additional keys:

Example 1:

entity:
  plexPlayer:
    - identifier: TV 2020
      server:
        ip: 192.168.13.37 # Mandatory
        token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty # Mandatory
        port: 32400
        protocol: http

Example 2:

entity:
  plexPlayer:
    identifier: TV 2020
    server:
      ip: 192.168.13.37 # Mandatory
      token: QWdsqEXAMPLETOKENqwerty # Mandatory
      port: 32400
      protocol: http

Sorting

You can use :desc or :asc after every value to change the order from ascending to descending. For example, titlesort would become titleSort:asc, or titleSort:desc.

TV Shows

Sort Value	Description
titleSort	Sorts by title, removing words like "the"
title	Sorts by title, without removing words like "the"
year	Sorts by year
originallyAvailableAt	Sorts by release date
rating	Sorts by critic rating
audienceRating	Sorts by audience rating
userRating	Sorts by user rating
contentRating	Sorts by content rating
unviewedLeafCount	Sorts by unplayed count
episode.addedAt	Sorts by last episode date added
addedAt	Sorts by date added
lastViewedAt	Sorts by date viewed

Movies

Sort Value	Description
titleSort	Sorts by title, removing words like "the"
title	Sorts by title, without removing words like "the"
originallyAvailableAt	Sorts by release date
rating	Sorts by critic rating
audienceRating	Sorts by audience rating
userRating	Sorts by user rating
duration	Sorts by duration
viewOffset	Sorts by progress
viewCount	Sorts by plays
addedAt	Sorts by date added
lastViewedAt	Sorts by date viewed
mediaHeight	Sorts by resolution
mediaBitrate	Sorts by bitrate

FAQ

I am using plexPlayer and nothing happens when play button is pressed

• Make sure that your device is turned on, and has Plex running
• Reload tab
• Try hitting play button again

If it still doesn't work and everything else works, you are probably encountering CORS issue. You can check this by opening developer tools and looking into console log or network tab.

The reason why this is happening only for this call is right now unknown, but there is a workaround.

Edit configuration.yaml of your Home Assistant and add following rest_command:

rest_command:
  pmha_playmedia:
    url: "{{ url }}"
    headers:
      X-Plex-Target-Client-Identifier: "{{ target_client_identifier }}"
      X-Plex-Client-Identifier: "{{ client_identifier }}"

Restart Home Assistant, clear browser cache and try hitting play again. It should now work.

Ask for help or help development

Join Discord or Home Assistant Community.

Images

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Disclaimer

Author is in no way affiliated with Kodi, Plex, Roku, Android TV, Google or any other companies mentioned above.

Author does not guarantee functionality of this card and is not responsible for any damage.

All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks in this repository, are property of their respective owners.

This card provides user interface for navigating plex library and playing plex content on users devices. It does not host any content on its own and does not provide any plex server.