ESPHome Media Player

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Source Inputs ​

TV Source

If your speaker has a source input — such as a TV (soundbars like Sonos Beam or Arc with HDMI) or Line-in (speakers and amps like Sonos Five, Play:5, Port, or Amp with a 3.5mm/RCA input) — the controller can display now-playing info from the media player connected to that input. This feature is entirely optional — the controller works without it.

WARNING

This feature is in beta. If you encounter any issues, please open an issue on GitHub.

How it works ​

  • Automatic switching — when the speaker's active source changes to "TV" or "Line-in", the UI switches to show title, artist, artwork, and progress from the media player connected to that input. When the source changes back, the UI reverts to the primary player.
  • Idle state — when the source input's media player is idle, off, or on standby, the screen displays the source name ("TV" or "Line-in") on a black background with playback controls hidden. Controls reappear when playback starts again.
  • Routed controls — play/pause, next, and previous are automatically sent to whichever player is active (music or source input).

Setup ​

On the device page in Home Assistant (Settings → Devices & Services → ESPHome → your device), set the Source Input Media Player field to the entity ID of the media player connected to your input (e.g. media_player.apple_tv).

Leave this field empty to disable the feature.

Compatibility ​

This feature works with any speaker that exposes a "TV" or "Line-in" source attribute and any media player entity in Home Assistant.

Tested with:

  • TV (soundbars): Sonos Beam, Sonos Arc
  • Line-in (speakers/amps): Sonos Five, Sonos Play:5, Sonos Amp, Sonos Port
  • Source input media players: Apple TV, Chromecast