Can't play media on Plex after opening with Apple TV source change

Configuration
1

Hi folks, I have a strange one here.

If I have Plex open on my Apple TV, I can play media on it fine, like this:

service: media_player.play_media
data:
  media_content_type: EPISODE
  media_content_id: >-
    { "library_name" : "TV Shows", "show_name": "The West Wing",
    "episode.unwatched": true, "episode.inProgress": [true, false], "sort":
    "addedAt:asc", "maxresults": 1 }
target:
  entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_mb_apple_tv

However, if I start with waking up the Apple TV, and then open Plex with the following code, I can never get it to work:

  - service: remote.send_command
    data:
      command: wakeup
    target:
      entity_id: remote.mb_apple_tv
  - service: media_player.select_source
    data:
      source: Plex
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.mb_apple_tv

It opens Plex properly, but then I get errors about HA not being able to contact the IP/port of the Plex client. I’ve tried sleeping a couple seconds, and using a wait template for the client state to be ‘idle’, but nothing is working.

Has anyone setup a script which is simply:
1 wake up Apple TV
1 open plex
1 play media to plex

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

2

You’ll likely need a step which forces a scan for newly available Plex clients. You can do this by using the new Plex button.scan_clients_* entity along with the button.press service.

You may also need to add a step after the scan to wait for the state of the Apple TV Plex client to change to a non-unavailable state before playing media. You may need to add a short delay between switching sources and scanning for the Plex client.

3

Thanks @jjlawren ! I actually had been trying that as well, with little luck. However, since you responded, I tried again, and simplified it. The following script seems to work 100% of the time so far:

sequence:
  - service: remote.send_command
    data:
      command: wakeup
    target:
      entity_id: remote.mb_apple_tv
  - service: media_player.select_source
    data:
      source: Plex
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.mb_apple_tv
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: button.press
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: button.scan_clients_superplex
  - wait_template: >-
      {{ not is_state('media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_mb_apple_tv',
      'unavailable')   }}
    timeout: '45'
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_type: EPISODE
      media_content_id: >-
        { "library_name" : "TV Shows", "show_name": "The West Wing",
        "episode.unwatched": true, "episode.inProgress": [true, false], "sort":
        "addedAt:asc", "maxresults": 1 }
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_mb_apple_tv
mode: single

So fingers crossed that this continues to work properly. Thanks for the response!

4

Great, glad that’s working well. I can imagine a scenario where the Plex app takes longer to launch (after calling select_source) and the Plex client scan finishes before the app is ready to respond. If that happens you can extend the delay or perhaps use a retry loop for the scan/wait steps.

5

Yep, it stopped working reliably last night. I’ll have to figure out where to properly delay things.

6

Did you get this working? My plex client always show unavailable when not playing.

- alias: 'Outhouse Plex Movie Timer'
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: 
      - sensor.dan_iphone
    from: 'outhouse'
    for: 
      minutes: 2
  action:
    - service: media_player.select_source
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.outhouse_appletv
      data:
        source: "Plex"
    - delay:
        hours: 0
        minutes: 0
        seconds: 10
        milliseconds: 0        
    - service: button.press
      data: {}
      target:
        entity_id: button.scan_clients_nas
    - wait_template: >-
        {{ not is_state('media_player.plex_outhouse', 'unavailable') }}
      timeout: '45'
    - service: media_player.play_media
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.plex_outhouse
      data:
        media_content_id: '{"library_name": "Movies", "title": "Joker"}'
        media_content_type: movie
  mode: restart
7

Hi, I haven’t messed with this much since this posting. Recently I’ve run the script below, and it seems to work. But I haven’t tested it a lot to see if it’s super reliable:

alias: "MB: West Wing Watch Next"
sequence:
  - service: remote.send_command
    data:
      command: wakeup
    target:
      entity_id: remote.mb_apple_tv
  - service: media_player.select_source
    data:
      source: Plex
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.mb_apple_tv
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 1
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: button.press
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: button.scan_clients_superplex
  - wait_template: >-
      {{ not is_state('media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_mb_apple_tv',
      'unavailable')   }}
    timeout: "45"
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_type: EPISODE
      media_content_id: >-
        { "library_name" : "TV Shows", "show_name": "The West Wing",
        "episode.unwatched": true, "episode.inProgress": [true, false], "sort":
        "addedAt:asc", "maxresults": 1 }
      enqueue: replace
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_mb_apple_tv
mode: single

Hope this helps some.

1 Like