Power On Media Player entity when Selected in the Music Assistant UI

[Ltek]

FR>> user option in the UI to power-on and off a media_player entity or an MA event (for automation trigger), or an MA entity that identifies the Player Selected (for automation trigger) when it is 'selected' or deselected in the MA UI

Workarounds = none. While most Media Player entities already have on/off capabilities in Home Assistant, Music Assistant doesnt have an exposed method that can be used as a trigger (an entity state = "player selected", etc); so there is no way to create a home assistant automation to do this.

Use Cases>>

1. AVR and amps take a few seconds to boot and be ready to receive/send audio. In order not to miss the music, the AVR/amp needs to be on prior to the audio stream starting

2. Many people have the audio device hidden in a cabinet or out of reach. Especially automation people since the automation should handle everything and the device should never need to be physically touched or a physical remote ever be used.

MA is extensive and elegantly done but this basic automation feature is missing, and would be a welcome addition to make it a true automated solution. Thank you

[Ltek]

bueller

[OzGav]

The way this works is we now wait for this FR to get votes and we prioritise effort on the basis of what the community wants.

[cociweb]

+1 usecase: WOL (remote machines that have docker based player)

[2sheds]

More use cases: H/K AVR is AirPlay-capable but needs to be woken from standby using CEC or Harmony; Sonos player is plugged into a smart outlet to cut down standby power draw.

[marcelveldt]

You can hook up a power control to a player which can be any HA entity that support toggling.

This is existing functionality

[2sheds]

Could you elaborate? If you mean to create universal media player composites based on exposed MA players to define custom turn_on and turn_off actions, it would support a workflow of initiation from HA side (toggle player on, choose media) but not from MA, as described in the FR.

[OzGav]

We understand the request now. It will be prioritised along with all other requests.

[Ltek]

@2sheds and @cociweb ... what functionality do you need for your use cases?

I'd like to have MA create and update an Entity for each Player so we can create automations that use those entities as triggers. I think that is more universal, and provides the most flexibility, for any/all automations.

[2sheds]

I read up on this and I half-managed to replicate my desired setup by exposing target entities like @marcelveldt suggested - TBH, when I only found "Fake Power Control" option in my player's setting initially, I thought it might be some planned feature that's not implemented yet.

WRT how this could be implemented on HA side, I figure a secondary entity (like a power switch) could be exposed and the two could be then wrapped into a Universal media player?

[TKaluza]

I absolutely support the idea. I accidentally created a duplicate: https://github.com/orgs/music-assistant/discussions/4847.

It would be great to have an easy power-off action that shuts down the streaming device after a delay.