Home Assistant Voice PE won't play media

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

I’ve just received the device and it seems to work fine for simple commands such as turning lights on and off. I’m trying a simple automation to play a radio station using voice. The automation script is as follows:

> id: '1737123285380'
> alias: Radio 4 Extra
> description: on HA PE
> trigger:
>   - platform: conversation
>     command:
>       - Play Radio 4 Extra
> condition: []
> action:
>   - action: media_player.volume_set
>     metadata: {}
>     data:
>       volume_level: 0.55
>     target:
>       device_id: ea5a2b3bd5e5cf02f6f56a7ed218cc7a
>   - action: media_player.play_media
>     target:
>       entity_id: media_player.home_assistant_voice_094ef5_media_player
>     data:
>       media_content_id: media-source://radio_browser/bb547f70-f766-43fb-9991-b7773a4993f7
>       media_content_type: audio/aac
>     metadata:
>       title: BBC Radio 4 Extra
>       thumbnail: https://www.bbc.co.uk/favicon.ico
>       media_class: music
>       children_media_class: null
>       navigateIds:
>         - {}
>         - media_content_type: app
>           media_content_id: media-source://radio_browser
>         - media_content_type: music
>           media_content_id: media-source://radio_browser/country/GB
> mode: single

This now shows no errors and I get the voice response “Done”. However, I don’t hear the radio station. I’ve tried changing the station but the result is the same - no radio output, and the player shows idle almost immediately.

My Internet connection is stable to all devices and shows no dropouts. The trace shows:

Triggered by the at 17 January 2025 at 14:27:27
Media Player 'Set volume' on Home Assistant Voice 094ef5
Play BBC Radio 4 Extra on Home Assistant Voice 094ef5 Media Player
(media_player.home_assistant_voice_094ef5_media_player) turned playing
1 second later
(media_player.home_assistant_voice_094ef5_media_player) turned idle
Finished at 17 January 2025 at 14:27:27 (runtime: 0.37 seconds)

I even tried adding a timer of several minutes to the end of this in case the “Done” response was cancelling radio playback: that didn’t help either. Any idea what’s happening? Thanks.

2

I’ve found that the same automation works if I select a different media player. As the HA Voice PE has a speaker and is set up as a Media Player, then surely it should be able to play media?

3

does it play if you manually play it via media>> radio browser

4

@robgough1970 No, it doesn’t play there either - I meant to add that. It I switch to a different media player in the radio browser I can play radio, but every station I’ve tried in the radio browser has failed to play on the HA Voice PE.

5

I’ve tried lots of tinkering with the script and the radio browser. All my speaker devices except the HA Voice PE work in both when playing BBC Radio. I’m now starting to pull out my hair in frustration because clearly this device has potential but this task should be simple and isn’t.

There is some problem with my device as a media player. I’ve found that it will play static media saved on my disc but no radio. Is there a simple way for me to delete and re-add it as a media player device? I’ve hunted through the settings in HA and can’t find this.

If I go to the device under ESPHome I’m told that, if I “take control”, You will lose access to vendor-provided firmware updates and will have to manually compile and update the device in the ESPHome dashboard. Having failed miserably with my previous ESPHome device (an Atom Echo that absolutely refused to communicate) I can’t get into that, so have left the option inactive.

Thanks for any help.

6

I have the same issue, I can’t play local music file either from the media section oh Home Assistant or using the corresponding action. I’m not sure why, I have no error during execution…

Is this supposed to work ?