I’ve been trying to setup an automation where I can trigger TV shows and Movies to start on the Plex APP on basically any smart tv device that I can get my hands on, and so far none of them seem to work.
The server setup is Plex Server running on an ASUSTOR NAS via their “APP.” The APP appears to be some form of container that I cannot really modify in any way. The best I can do is install new APKs over the previous app. I confirmed that the Android APK for PlexPass Server works for upgrading.
The TV devices are the following:
- Apple TV 2nd Gen
- Apple TV 3rd Gen
- Onn Pro 4k
- Chromecast
- Sony Bravia Smart TV
With Chromecast and Sony TV, I can directly cast without much issue, and it seems to work okay. The problem I have is that neither can exit the video directly to Plex. If I absolutely have to I’ll revert to just casting to the Sony so I can at least control volume, play/pause, etc.
With Apple TV 2nd Gen, I can’t trigger Plex. For some reason, select_source doesn’t exist. Additionally, the plex_plex_app_for_apple_tv media player is only ever not unavailable when it is actually playing. When it is playing the state is playing and any attempt to modify what is playing is met with an error that Plex is not accepting controls at this time. (Paraphrased but should be close)
With Apple TV 3rd Gen, I can trigger Plex or any other app through select_source, but I have the exact same problem with the Plex app. It is completely uncontrollable via automation when something is playing.
Finally, with the Onn player, I can select the source, and can even control the media. However, randomly when not in use, the plex_plex_for_android_tv_onn_4k media player will switch to unavailable. This doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. For example, while I was sleeping it was unavailable all night, but transitioned to idle for 10 minutes while I was in the shower and then back to unavailable. During that time, nothing was using the TV and there are no automations that should have modified the state of the player. Currently, I’m testing an automation that sets the player to something that isn’t unavailable by triggering the remote to click three times in plex, thereby starting a movie, and then pressing the stop button. Is there any other way of handling this? I really dislike that sometimes, randomly, I need plex to start whatever was the previously played movie to simply be able to control it.
I have been searching the forums and scrubbing github issues for a week so far, and I can’t seem to find any reason why any of the players should behave this way. There’s a single ticket about plex clients in github, but if that ticket were completely true, then the Onn wouldn’t behave this way.
I’d really like to be able to use the Apple TV since it actually runs quickly and doesn’t seem to have issues with playback that I seem to get with all other devices. Does anyone out there have a working Apple TV automation that always triggers whatever you tell plex to play?