Hey there,
I’ve read most of the posts linked to setting up Home Assistant to play audio files to the Raspberry Pi4’s audio (3.5mm) output, but they seem dated. Has anyone recently configured their Home Assistant to do this, and can you kindly help me.
I don’t know much, very new to this, and will need very detailed and step by step instructions on how to get it working please.
Making an assumption that you’re using core and not running HA as a docker add-on… The only thing that worked for me was installing Local Sox Player Add-On. You can find the Sox player under “Settings”, “Add-Ons”, then click on the blue “Add-on Store” button. If you’re looking for a cook-book style how-to, there may be others here who can help. With this add-on installed, I can at least create automations that play alert sounds.
I run HA OS on a Pi4 and have had issues playing audio through the 3.5mm jack using VLC-Telnet.
Found the below post and installed the MPD add-on and it just works.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-play-sound-files-as-alarms-and-notifications-via-raspberry-pi-4-audio-socket/434282/17
Only issue I have is a notification when it plays a file:
Login attempt or request with invalid authentication
I have not found a solution for it yet, but apparently it is just the add-on trying to access album art and other data.
Same for me: MPD works, with the notifications you mention. Also, various errors logged and I get a system repair warning about MPD saying “This stops working in version 2025.1.0. Please address before upgrading.”
So I’d rather use VLC-Telnet, but my issue is that it “stutters,” or hesitates badly, with dropouts for the first 10-30 seconds of playback. It happens with all media – local files, TTS, and radio browser. It doesn’t happen when I play the audio back through web browser or MPD. I guess I’d better start a thread on my VLC issue well before the end of the year!