Can anyone help me? For some time I’ve been using shell commands to run ffplay, to play custom .wav files that I’ve made through the audio output of my PC. For instance I had a nice custom messages saying things like “The washing Machine is finished” and “The Coffee is finished brewing.” It was working really well for a long time. Suddenly of late, all my audio messages have stopped. And the linux FFPLAY command (which is a sub component I think of the FFMPEG installation) cannot be found anymore on my system . I cannot seem to be able to re-install FFMPEG either, even from a terminal window. Sudo reports both apt-get and apt commands not found at the command prompt. My configuration.yaml contains one line “ffmpeg:” to configure ffmpeg, just as it always has.
i used to use ffplay to play mp3 signal directly to 3.5mm output on raspberry.
it seems this issue is related to core version 2024.2.1
i tried to debug it and the log shown “ffplay command not found” error code 127
after rollback to core version 2024.1.5, the issue is gone.
i can now play sound through 3.5mm output
I rolled back to core 2024.1.5 and my ffplay shell commands now work again. I wonder how we can approach getting this fixed in the next core update. Those audio notifications via ffplay are really nice to have. Much of my automation stuff, friends just shrug off with a ‘who needs it’ attitude, but those custom audio notifications,… most people see them as really useful.
someone already reported on GitHub and I saw you there too 
let’s see if the team can fix it
Whew - glad to see it’s not just me. Hope this gets some attention soon.
My audio announcements are the core day-to-day function of my setup and I’ve been missing them.
The ffplay-based automations are particularly handy for flagging person-detection on our front path. Delivery people these days don’t bother pushing doorbells, so this at least tells us someone is there and we can collect the package without it sitting out on my front step for many hours unbeknownst to us just metres away in the house.
Hi guys. I observed the same issue. Suddenly (most probabbly related to the latest update = Core: 2024.2.2, Operating System:11.5) stopped to work the shell command ffplay.
In my config I have the line below, will be called from the automation/script.
play_doorbell_sound: ffplay -loglevel quiet -nodisp -vn -autoexit ‘/config/www/doorbell.mp3’
Just realized that I have the same issue!
I suspect the dev team may not be motivated to fix this ffplay issue, as I’m not sure ffplay is even sanctioned at all. So I’ve decided to re-structure my audio messaging to use HA components that appear to be a little more mainstream.
So I’ve moved to using the “VLC” add-on, paired with the “VLC media player via Telnet” integration. Install them in that order for easiest install. Be careful not to install the wrong integration as there are two available. To follow what I did, use the integration “VLC media player via telnet”, NOT the one that just says “VLC Media Player.”
This VLC setup seems even easier to use than shell commands. With it, you can play and select your custom audio messages right in the visual editors without touching yaml.
And now I can move forward upgrading again, and use the new features in 2024.2.4 !
FYI: I’m running HAOS, on a virtual-box VM, hosted on Windows 10-pro, on a refurbished Dell Optiplex mini PC, with i5-6500 CPU, 24GB ram and 256Gib ssd. Same hardware also hosts a second VM for Zoneminder, and connects to my living room TV as my a daily driver PC and for watching netflix youtube etc. It takes a while to boot/load everything, but once running it runs all of this like a champ.
@lornem So with this setup, where you are playing the notifications? in tv set or in pc speaker.
I’m saying that as most of us are ussing ffplay to get notifications sound in sthe speaker of pc running Home Assistant
@Foufoutos It plays through the PC speaker output when I have something plugged in there. If I unplug that, it plays through my TV. Playing out the audio output jack was always my goal. I have it routed into a channel of an audio mixer which in turn drives an inexpensive class-D power amp which drives the speakers in my living room. (I’m old school stereo, not 5.1 or anything) This allows me to mix PC output, TV output, and my digital piano, and almost any other analog audio device to drive the single power amp and speakers.
I did it! it plays from build in speaker or 3.5 mm plug!
Most important thing is to know how You did it?
You can try
aplay /media/test.wav
(mp3 does not work for me, but wav works, you can convert it in some conversion software)