Basic Questions

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 7:58 am
Busta999 offline
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Basic Questions

Have been using the Plex Plugin to control lights in the lounge, ie switch to movie mode, back to TV, TV off that kind of thing, also to pause anything playing if the doorbell is pressed.

I have just added a HomeRunHD Quatro to Plex, so it can now record up to 4 HD streams strength off the air, transcode, remove adverts, add meta data, and put in the right folder structure.

My goal now would be to add an Alexa Command to Indigo to instruct Harmony to Turn on home theatre equipment and switch to AppleTv (assuming I leave it permanently in Plex) then use the Plex Plugin to get Plex to play the BBC1 Live TV Stream through Plex.

Ideally something like 'Alexa, Turn on BBC1 in the Lounge'

Is this possible?

Also, how do I get information out of the Plugin and into variables - ie what is currently playing on the Plex AppleTV in the Lounge?

Any pointers would be helpful.

Thanks

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:23 am
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Busta999 wrote:
My goal now would be to add an Alexa Command to Indigo to instruct Harmony to Turn on home theatre equipment and switch to AppleTv (assuming I leave it permanently in Plex) then use the Plex Plugin to get Plex to play the BBC1 Live TV Stream through Plex.

Ideally something like 'Alexa, Turn on BBC1 in the Lounge'

Is this possible?


Yes. First, you need to create an Action Group in Indigo that does all the commands needed to get BBC1 playing. Test this using a control page or the Indigo UI. Once you have it working the way you want, then you add that Action Group to the Alexa-Hue bridge to enable it for Alexa.

Busta999 wrote:
Also, how do I get information out of the Plugin and into variables - ie what is currently playing on the Plex AppleTV in the Lounge?


What do you want to do with that info, and why does it need to be in variables? It's present in the custom states of the Plex Client device representing Plex on the AppleTV. You could put that info on a control page directly from there.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:25 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Thanks!!!

Trying it now.

I'll return in a few minutes

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:47 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Ok

Now to demonstrate the width and depth of my ignorance on this.....

I cannot see how I can send a command to Plex on an AppleTV in the Lounge the specific command to start playing a specific item.

I can send Playback Command to a Specific Client but limited to :

Play, Pause, Stop etc etc

But not how to play something very specific like a TVShow episode let alone a LiveStream Channel.

Secondly,

How do you access the Custom States of the Plex Client? I have clicked on everything I can find - so far no joy.

I did find custom states on the DomoPad app - but that did not specify what it what playing

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:18 am
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: Basic Questions

I don't actually use the Plex plugin, so I don't know all that much about it.

But I don't think Plex is smart enough to do what you want. If you know exactly where the Live Channel is on the UI, you could probably do the nav commands (left, right, etc) to select what you want.

Are you just trying to see what the states are? It's like the custom states on any device. Select the Plex client in the Indigo UI, then drag the window divider up to see the custom state list. It's the "currentlyPlayingTitle" state you want, I think.
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joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:32 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Thanks

My guess too that I can't get it to play the LiveStream I want.

I have NEVER noticed the Custom Device States window before - WOW would NEVER have thought of finding it that way !!

Fantastic - Many thanks again

Posted on
Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:04 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Basic Questions

I cannot see how I can send a command to Plex on an AppleTV in the Lounge the specific command to start playing a specific item.

I can take a look -- I haven't looked in a long while (definitely not since they came out with the DVR), but when I designed the Plex Client device the only way to play a specific media item was via it's Plex GUID (it had a fancy name for it, but regardless it is just a code). Since we cannot easily provides lists and such on control pages, I never did anything with that option.

If I find anything that might let you play a live stream I'll let you know, but I find it unlikely (at least from a plugin perspective).

Adam

Posted on
Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:23 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Many thanks.


If nothing else, is there a way to take the Plex screen back to the opening screen, or maybe the programme guide?

I’m trying to replicate the Harmony controls of the Tv, when starting Tv put it on channel 1, BBC1.

Thanks

Posted on
Wed Mar 21, 2018 9:38 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Basic Questions

If nothing else, is there a way to take the Plex screen back to the opening screen, or maybe the programme guide?

Maybe... I'll check the client guide and see. I checked last night and the playing of a specific item does indeed specify the media ID. There is a search, so it technically could be possible to pass in a string and play the first search result, but not sure how reliable that would be.

I'll get back to you on the client Home command (note that not all clients obey all commands, but perhaps I can get you a way to test it on the Apple TV).

Posted on
Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:06 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Sure anything I can do to support you.

Posted on
Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:25 pm
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

On a tangent....

Anyway to get the Genre of a song playing on a Plex Device?

The reason it would be extremely useful is for setting. Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm to match the playing music.

The only way to do it now is to detect a song name being played and send an instruction to Nanoleaf.

If I could link Nanoleaf routines to genre.

Any thoughts?

Posted on
Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:08 am
whmoorejr offline
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Re: Basic Questions

or use two commands....

something like 'Alexa, Turn on PLEX in the Lounge' to power everything on (via virtual device, via hue plugin)

then via PLEX Skill on Alexa, you can drill down to playing specific content. I've only messed around with that skill for a little bit, but I was working on a music thing trying to control plexamp on my indigo server via Alexa.... but plexamp kept crashing on me. :(

Bill
My Plugin: My People

Posted on
Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:48 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

@whmoorejr

Not following.....

How does that cause the Nanoleaf to change Rhythm Scene to match the Genre of the music being played?

Posted on
Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:21 am
whmoorejr offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Busta999 wrote:
How does that cause the Nanoleaf to change Rhythm Scene to match the Genre of the music being played?

I'm not sure about Nanoleaf integration... I was only speaking to getting specific content to play on your TV from Plex using your voice via alexa.

Indigo Plex Plugin can control a client to "play, pause, stop, skip, etc...." for any client.

Alexa Plex Skill (Enable Plex skill on your alexa device) can add deeper commands, allow you to use your alexa to play specific content. https://www.amazon.com/Plex-Inc/dp/B01NBB1INY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523721481&sr=8-1&keywords=plex+skill

So, for your goal at the top of the tread... 'Alexa, Turn on BBC1 in the Lounge' would now be set up like....

"Alexa, Turn on Lounge TV" = Virtual Device added to Alexa Hue Plugin that will Turn on home theatre equipment and switch to AppleTv

"Alexa, Tell Plex to play BBC1" = This will utilize the Alexa Plex Skill (not an indigo function) to play whatever content you want to play... music, any of your movies, etc.

Then use the Plex Manager plugin to have a pretty control page to display cover art and have your basic Plex controls on it.


On your tangent.... nothing comes to mind from Plex... from iTunes, if you select a playlist and setup your playlists by genre.... then you could perhaps create a virtual device that plays that playlist and commands the nanoleaf at the same time. To play a playlist from iTunes, you can add an AppleScript to a command....
Code: Select all
tell application "iTunes"
   play playlist "Rock"
end tell
There is probably script to do the same thing with genre, but I haven't needed it.

Bill
My Plugin: My People

Posted on
Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:47 am
Busta999 offline
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Re: Basic Questions

Ok got it

A couple of different things here:-

1. Getting Indigo or Alexa to control Plex DVR functionality - it seems that the APIs into Plex don't yet support DVR functionality so neither Indigo or Alexa can control it. So no 'Turn on BBC1' until DVR is added to APIs.

2. The second thing was hooking up Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm to Plex so that the Scene was optimised to the song being played. It is possible to drive nanoleaf scenes from Indigo, and Indigo can detect what song is playing on the Plex Player. So it is possible to link song to optimum Nanoleaf scene but has to done for each and every song - a tad long winded. A better way would be to link Nanoleaf Scenes to Genre. But to do that Indigo needs to be able to read the Genre of the current playing song on the Plex Player. Unfortunately it does not look like Plex expose the current playing songs genre to the APIs When it does it will unlock really interesting dynamic lighting plans in Hue and Nanoleaf to be closely aligned to the music playing.

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