Note
This integration is strongly inspired by media_player.template.
Unfortunately that integration is missing some features, so I decided to create a new and improved one.
With Template Media Player you can create media player entities in Home Assistant using templates and scripts.
You can define any attribute you want and create custom behaviour for all services supported by the media_player domain.
This allows you to combine your existing media players into a single entity for improved usability and control or to create completely new media players from scratch.
You can install this integration using the custom repository option in HACS.
- Add the repository URL to the list of custom repositories in HACS
- Select and install the integration in HACS
- Restart Home Assistant
- Configure your entities
To create the entities you need to define them in your configuration.yaml file.
For a full example of all available options see examples.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
unique_id: my_media_player
name: My Media Player
device_class: tv
icon: mdi:television
state: "on"All main options and all elements of the attributes object can be defined using Jinja2 templates:
# ...
state: >
{% if states('media_player.something") == "on" %}
idle
{% else %}
off
{% endif %}To define state attributes for your entity use the attributes option.
You can use the variable attribute in your templates to get the current attributes name as a string.
For a full list of attributes commonly used by media player entities see examples.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
attributes:
media_title: >
# `attribute` contains the value "media_title"
{{ state_attr("media_player.something", attribute) }}To define common template code that should be executed before every template, you can use the global_template option.
This template will be prepended to all other templates and recalculated each time the entity is updated.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
global_template: >
{% set tv = "media_player.tv" %}
{% set soundbar = "media_player.soundbar" %}
state: >
{{ states(tv) }}
attributes:
volume_level: >
{{ state_attr(soundbar, "volume_level") }}To reduce code duplication you can also define variables using the variables option.
This is a dictionary of variables that are calculated once on startup and can be used in all templates of the media player entity.
Unlike global_template, variables are only calculated once when the entity is initialized.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
variables:
tv: "media_player.tv"
state: >
{{ states(tv) }}Elements of the service_scripts, source_scripts or sound_mode_scripts options are action sequences like in Home Assistant scripts.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
source_scripts:
Plex:
- service: media_player.turn_on
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.tv
- delay:
seconds: 3
- service: media_player.select_source
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.tv
source: PlexUse the service_scripts option to define services that are supported by the media_player domain.
For a full list of services and their respective variables supported by media player entities see examples.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
service_scripts:
turn_on:
- service: media_player.turn_on
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.tvUse the source_scripts option to define sources for your media_player.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
source_scripts:
Plex:
- service: media_player.select_source
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.tv
source: PlexUse the sound_mode_scripts option to define sound modes for your media_player.
media_player:
- platform: template_media_player
media_players:
my_media_player:
#...
sound_mode_scripts:
Bass Boost:
- service: media_player.select_sound_mode
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.soundbar
source: Bass BoostYou can specify an entity using the base_media_player_entity_id option to inherit all supported behaviour and attributes from, when the behaviour or attribute is not implemented by the template media player.
You can specify an entity to use for the browse media and search media functionalities using the browse_media_entity_id and search_media_entity_id options.
Make sure you also define the play_media service for this to work.