I use the state of my chromecast to control the lights in the living room via scenes based on the playing state of the media on the TV, and the source app. We just upgraded from a 3rd Gen Chromecast to the new Chromecast With Google TV, which is at its core an Android TV dongle.
Since upgrading, the automation hasn’t triggered with Netflix. It still (mostly) works fine with the other apps it’s configured for, such as Amazon Prime.
On investigating, the media_player’s state switches to ‘Unknown’ when netflix is foregrounded on the CCWGTV.
I suspect this is probably to do with the implementation either by Netflix themselves, or in pychromecast, but I’m interested to know if anyone has a solution.
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Same here. It seems to also work correctly with Spotify, but with not YouTube, where the entity thumbnail is unavailable using the Chromecast with Google TV (and was available on Chromecast Ultra).
Same story here.
Works ok with YouTube and Disney, but state is unavailable when using Netflix.
I have also noticed this, I also turn on the lights when the ccwgtv is paused. When using the built in YouTube app the status changes from playing to paused but when using alternative YouTube apps the status stays as off all the time. Seems the apps play in different ways.
I’ve found that using the android TV integration gives me a more consistent status. Still not completely predictable as it seems to have a number of different “on” states. But it does show which app is running, and “off” means off as you’d expect
I think the concern is that when Netflix is active, the media_player’s state is “unknown” when it’s expected to be “paused” or “playing”. I’m having the same issue with my Sony TV. I read an older Github issue that said this is Netflix’s fault as they don’t report their state. Not sure if someone has found a workaround specifically for Netflix but I’m also looking for one.
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Not sure about it being Netflix’s fault, because it worked fine when I was running Rokus instead.
The Android TV integration displays the correct state with Netflix (and I think it could even be customized to do so if it doesn’t with other apps), however it’s slower than the Google Cast integration. It has a few seconds delay.
I’m currently testing on an Nvidia Shield.
I have the same issue, Which becomes more and more frustrating. I dont think its a HA or integration issue, because the google home app also reports “nothing playing” when using netflix. I hope this will be fixed one day…
Seems like it hasn’t changed… Did someone found an alternative ? I wish to automate the Hue HDMI SyncBox, and it’s very frustrating that Netflix won’t work on Chromecast 
Maybe someone did discover a fix? I use the Android TV integration to monitor what’s playing on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro but when playing Netflix it always shows “unknown”. What’s peculiar is that it works perfectly fine with Plex, Disney+ and even SmartTubeNext (which isn’t even available from the Google Play Store). I also tried the Google Cast integration, but it gives the same “unknown” state when playing Netflix.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Same here guys. Nothing else to add. All other apps work perfectly but Netflix is erratic when reporting the state in GoogleTv. Didnt test with android tv integration it might work. Any chance to solve this?? Plex YT and Prime Video work excellent.
Same here, philips 77oled806 state goes to playing and stays there. All other apps working fine.
Is there anything we can do?
Is there still no resolution to this problem? i am bumping in to this now.