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Media Cover Art ​

Media Cover Art can turn the panel into a now-playing display while a selected Home Assistant media player is playing.

You will find these controls in Settings > Sleep & Schedule > Media Cover Art on the panel web page.

Settings ​

  • Show Cover Art - enables the cover art display and keeps the screen awake while artwork is shown.
  • External Source Media Entity - optionally selects the player connected through a soundbar or speaker's TV, Line-in, or HDMI input. While that input is active and the connected player has current media, its playback state, artwork, details, progress, and filtering attributes drive the cover-art screen.
  • Media Player Entity - chooses the media player entity to watch, such as media_player.living_room.
  • Show After - chooses how long cover art waits before appearing, from 3 seconds to 5 minutes.
  • Show After also controls how long cover art waits before returning after you dismiss it by touch. The countdown restarts after every touch, so cover art returns only after the selected time has passed since your most recent touch.
  • Show Track Details For - controls how long track information is shown over the artwork on the 4-inch square displays.
  • Advanced Options - contains playback, source, and filtering controls you may not need every day.
  • Keep Screen Awake During Playback - is on by default and prevents the display from sleeping while media plays when Show Cover Art is enabled. It does not bypass the Show After delay, and has no effect while cover art is disabled.
  • Hide for external source inputs - hides cover art when the selected media player source is TV, Line-in, or HDMI. A usable External Source Media Entity overrides this setting; if it becomes unavailable, the hide setting applies again.
  • Advanced Filtering - reveals Only Show When, which limits cover art to matching media player attributes, such as app_id=com.apple.TVMusic or app_id=com.apple.TVMusic; media_content_type=music.

Playback time and the progress bar appear only when Home Assistant provides a usable media duration. Live radio streams without a duration continue to show artwork and track details without an empty progress line.

If cover art is shown for TV or Line-in instead of hidden, the artist line shows Source because these inputs normally do not provide artist data.

Cover art is separate from the normal Screensaver mode. Use Screensaver when you want the panel to dim, show a clock, or turn off after inactivity.

By default, the panel builds artwork links from the Home Assistant API connection address. If Home Assistant is behind a reverse proxy, open Settings > System > Home Assistant Settings and set Artwork Base URL (optional) to the full address the panel can reach, such as https://home.example.com. It can include a custom port or path prefix. Leave this field blank to keep automatic detection; in that mode, Home Assistant Protocol and Home Assistant Port control the generated link.