Android TV to Standby/Ambient Mode

Configuration
1

Hello HA Community!
After much frustration and lots of clicking around, I finally have my TCL Android TV integrated into HA. Now I’m integrating it into my automations using media_player.turn_on and media_player.turn_off to get it on and off when I come home or leave. Great.
My issue comes from when I’d like the TV to automatically start into ambient mode (to display my Google Photos album) which, whenever the TV automatically goes to ambient mode on it’s own, shows the TV status (on HA) as in Standby.
What I’m trying to get at is: is there a way to force an Android TV to Standby? Tried Developer Tools>set state but no luck.
Thanks for your help!

2

Did you find a solution to this? I’m trying to achieve the same thing.

3

Unfortunately, no. Although since then I purchased a screensaver app that displays my photos instead of the built in ambient mode. I haven’t tried anything to see if I can get that to launch…

4

Try this using android tv adb integration. This command starts the screen saver and in your case ambient mode

am start -n "com.android.systemui/.Somnambulator"
1 Like
5

On the Google Chromecast with Google TV, on the home screen pressing back on the remote once or twice, takes it to ambient mode, it could be worth taking a look at that.

6

I think the idea was for home assistant to activate this without user input

7

found a work around, not the most elegant solution but it does work.
Basically it just like if you hit the home button on your remote once, then held the home button, then navigated to the screensaver.

  - service: remote.send_command
    metadata: {}
    data:
      num_repeats: 1
      delay_secs: 0.4
      hold_secs: 0
      command: HOME
    target:
      entity_id: remote.onn_full_hd_streaming_device
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: remote.send_command
    metadata: {}
    data:
      num_repeats: 1
      delay_secs: 0.4
      hold_secs: 2
      command: HOME
    target:
      entity_id: remote.onn_full_hd_streaming_device
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: remote.send_command
    metadata: {}
    data:
      num_repeats: 1
      delay_secs: 0.4
      hold_secs: 0
      command: DPAD_DOWN
    target:
      entity_id: remote.onn_full_hd_streaming_device
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: remote.send_command
    metadata: {}
    data:
      num_repeats: 1
      delay_secs: 0.4
      hold_secs: 0
      command: DPAD_LEFT
    target:
      entity_id: remote.onn_full_hd_streaming_device
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: remote.send_command
    metadata: {}
    data:
      num_repeats: 1
      delay_secs: 0.4
      hold_secs: 0
      command: DPAD_CENTER
    target:
      entity_id: remote.onn_full_hd_streaming_device