Chromecast with Google TV dimming lights

Configuration
1

Hi Everyone,

Almost every room in our house has a chromecast and we always had a automation working in our living room on our old chromecast to dim the lights when a movie started playing, and brighten the lights when we pressed pause, or stopped the movie. This always worked, until I’ve upgraded the chromecast to a chromecast ultra with Google TV. I’ve removed the chromecast and automations several times and adjusted the settings several times to see what caused the issue. I’ve applied the same automation to a chromecast without Google tv and the automation started working like it should.

The main issue with the automation on the chromecast with Google tv is that the automation starts dimming the lights when the Netflix application on the chromecast starts, but then stops working. The play automation doesn’t work after the movie is paused (so the lights stay dimmed due to the start up of the app), the pause button doesn’t brighten the lights as well.

Sometimes it works with YouTube for example. But other applications like Netflix, HBO and Disney plus have different behavior on the automation. I’ve been dealing with this for months now and I’d like to get the automation working like I had before when I didn’t had a chromecast with Google TV.

The traces of the automation show me that the play automation started when I opened up the Netflix app on the Google TV (not yet playing a movie). But it says nothing about upcoming actions like that I’ve paused the movie several times and pressed play again. The automation just didn’t work. It’s driving me crazy. It seems that the states of the chromecast with Google tv are different since opening a app acts like playing a movie

Can someone help me out to tell me what I’m doing wrong? It works perfectly fine on other chromecasts (not Google TV ones) throughout our house.

I’ve added attachments of the simple automation that worked on other chromecasts.

The automation:

alias: Chromecast Huiskamer
description: “”
trigger:

  • platform: device
    device_id: 34603e77a406407fedb4d031c8653427
    domain: media_player
    entity_id: media_player.huiskamer
    type: playing
    id: Play Huiskamer
  • platform: device
    device_id: 34603e77a406407fedb4d031c8653427
    domain: media_player
    entity_id: media_player.huiskamer
    type: paused
    id: Pauze Huiskamer
    condition: []
    action:
  • choose:
    • conditions:
      • condition: trigger
        id: Play Huiskamer
        sequence:
      • service: scene.turn_on
        data:
        transition: 2
        target:
        entity_id: scene.film_kijken
  • choose:
    • conditions:
      • condition: trigger
        id: Pauze Huiskamer
        sequence:
      • service: scene.turn_on
        data:
        transition: 2
        target:
        entity_id: scene.huiskamer_film_drie
        mode: single
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I’ve only used the Chromecast with Google TV HD with Home Assistant and the behavior you describe is what it’s always done for me as well. Unfortunately I think it’s just a limitation of the data Google shares with that device. I do have some automations tied to mine, but they’re a bit simpler and take into account the way it reports states.

3

If you look at the media player in developer tools while using the app in question then you can see what if any attributes change when playing / pausing etc - that way you can get an idea of what if anything can be used.

With Netflix the only entities that appear to be of any use if the volume level and mute status, everything else stays static including the state: playing.

Not super helpful :man_shrugging:

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