Here is an automation to limit the viewing time of Plex for my kids. The idea for this automation is to prevent my kids from watching too much TV during school days. Without this automation, I have to resort to good old fashion parenting style. Now, I don’t have to manually keep track their TV time and ask them to stop. HA will do that for me. Before I get started, let me share the current scenario in my home.
- I have cut the cord and now fully depend on Plex for all TVs in my home.
- I have 2 TVs. 1 in the living room, another one in the bedroom.
- I am using Rasplex (installed in Raspberry Pi 2) for my TVs.
- I have Plex Premium subscription with multiple Home Users.
- All adult users have PIN protection.
- Kids users do not have any PIN.
- I have calendar component that contains all the public holidays and school holidays.
So here it goes…
First create an input booleans to tell HA whether my kid can watch TV or not.
kid_tv_watch:
name: Can Kid Watch TV?
initial: on
Then create a template sensor to keep track when kid is playing something on Plex.
- platform: template
sensors:
plexplay_kid:
friendly_name: 'Kid is Playing Plex'
value_template: >-
{% if (is_state('media_player.plex_rasplexlr', 'playing') and is_state_attr('media_player.plex_rasplexlr', 'session_username', 'USERNAME')) or (is_state('media_player.plex_rasplexmb', 'playing') and is_state_attr('media_player.plex_rasplexmb', 'session_username', 'USERNAME')) %}
on
{% else %}
off
{% endif %}
entity_id:
- media_player.plex_rasplexlr
- media_player.plex_rasplexmb
Then create history_stats sensor to keep track the duration of the above sensor when its state is on
- platform: history_stats
name: Kid Watch Plex Duration Today
entity_id: sensor.plexplay_kid
state: 'on'
type: time
start: '{{ now().replace(hour=0).replace(minute=0).replace(second=0) }}'
end: '{{ now() }}'
Then create the automations to control everything…
# Limit Kid's TV Time to 2 hours on school day
- alias: 'Kid TV Limit - 2 Hours on School Day - Living Room'
initial_state: True
trigger:
platform: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.kid_watch_plex_duration_today
above: 2
condition:
condition: and
conditions:
- condition: state
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexlr
state: 'playing'
- condition: template
value_template: '{{ states.media_player.plex_rasplexlr.attributes.session_username == "USERNAME" }}'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.public_holidays
state: 'off'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.school_holiday
state: 'off'
- condition: time
weekday:
- mon
- tue
- wed
- thu
- fri
action:
# Tell HA Kid cannot watch TV anymore
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
entity_id: input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
# Stop the media
- service: media_player.media_stop
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexlr
# Talk to Kid
- service: tts.google_say
entity_id: media_player.vlc_living_room
data:
message: "You have used up your 2 hours TV time. Don't worry, you still can continue the show tomorrow. Now go do something else."
# Limit Kid's TV Time to 2 hours on school day
- alias: 'Kid TV Limit - 2 Hours on School Day - Master Bedroom'
initial_state: True
trigger:
platform: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.kid_watch_plex_duration_today
above: 2
condition:
condition: and
conditions:
- condition: state
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexmb
state: 'playing'
- condition: template
value_template: '{{ states.media_player.plex_rasplexmb.attributes.session_username == "USERNAME" }}'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.public_holidays
state: 'off'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.school_holiday
state: 'off'
- condition: time
weekday:
- mon
- tue
- wed
- thu
- fri
action:
# Tell HA Kid cannot watch TV anymore
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
entity_id: input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
# Stop the media
- service: media_player.media_stop
data_template:
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexmb
# This will stop the media player when kid tries to play the media after his time limit is over.
- alias: 'Kid TV Limit - Over Limit'
initial_state: True
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexlr
to: 'playing'
- platform: state
entity_id: media_player.plex_rasplexmb
to: 'playing'
condition:
condition: and
conditions:
########################################################################
# The session_username attribute is currently available as custom component of Plex
########################################################################
- condition: template
value_template: '{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.session_username == "USERNAME" }}'
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
state: 'off'
action:
# Stop the media
- service: media_player.media_stop
data_template:
entity_id: '{{trigger.entity_id}}'
# Talk to Kid
- service: tts.google_say
entity_id: media_player.vlc_living_room
data:
message: "You are not allowed to watch the TV right now. Please try again tomorrow."
# Reset the time limit at 9am every morning.
- alias: 'Kid TV Limit - Reset Limit'
initial_state: True
trigger:
platform: time
after: '09:00:00'
action:
# Tell HA Kid can watch TV again
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
entity_id: input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
# Stop the kid from watching TV after 9pm.
- alias: 'Kid TV Limit - Bed Time'
initial_state: True
trigger:
platform: time
after: '21:00:00'
action:
# Tell HA Kid cannot watch TV anymore
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
entity_id: input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
If you want to control the input_booleans from front end, just add them to the group…
kid_tv_limit:
name: Kid TV Limit
entities:
- input_boolean.kid_tv_watch
However, I must inform you that there is only one missing piece to this automation. Currently, the Plex component does not include the User ID (of the Plex user who plays the media) in its attributes. Therefore there is no way to tell who is watching the TV. Good news is the author of the Plex component; @JesseWebDotCom has said that he got the username working. So, hopefully it will be available in the next version. When it is available, I will update the above code.
UPDATE: The session_username attribute is currently available as custom component of Plex.
UPDATE 2: Revised the configuration to make use of History Statistics Sensor as per suggestion by @datamonkey. Now, the time limit is based on actual total time the media player is being played in a day.
