Home Assistant Plex Beginner's Guide: What You Need to Know

Home Assistant and Plex are two powerful tools that work together seamlessly to create a smart home entertainment experience.

If you're new to Home Assistant and Plex, this guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started.

From setting up your hardware to configuring your software, I'll cover everything you need to know to start using the Home Assistant Plex integration.

Introduction

Home Assistant and Plex are two powerful tools that allow you to control your smart home and entertainment experience in a single interface.

By integrating Plex with Home Assistant, you can create a seamless experience for controlling your media and other smart home devices.

In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know to get started with Home Assistant and Plex, from hardware requirements to software configuration and troubleshooting.

Whether you're new to Home Assistant or Plex, or just looking to get started with using them together, this guide is for you.

What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant is a very popular open-source home automation platform that allows you to control and automate a wide range of smart home devices. With Home Assistant, you can control everything from your lights and thermostat to your security system and media player.

Home Assistant is highly customizable, with a wide range of integrations and add-ons available. It supports a wide range of smart home protocols, including Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth, and can be installed on a wide range of hardware, from Raspberry Pi to dedicated servers.

What is Plex?

Plex is a powerful media server and player that allows you to stream your media to a wide range of devices, including TVs, smartphones, and tablets. With Plex, you can organize your media library, automatically download metadata, and create custom playlists.

Plex supports a wide range of media formats, including video, music, and photos, and can be used to stream both locally stored media and online content. It also supports a wide range of devices, including Chromecast, Smart TVs, and game consoles.

Hardware Requirements

To use Home Assistant and Plex together, you'll need some basic hardware, including a computer or server to run Home Assistant and a device to run Plex. Here are the minimum hardware requirements:

• Home Assistant: Raspberry Pi 3 or later, or a dedicated server with at least 2GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores.

• Plex Server: A device with at least 1GB of RAM and a dual-core CPU, such as a Raspberry Pi or a dedicated server.

Note

Both Home and Assistant and Plex can run from the same hardware if you install Plex Media Server from the Home Assistant add-on store.

Installing Home Assistant

To install Home Assistant, you'll need to download the latest version of the Home Assistant software and write it to a microSD card. Once you've done that, you can insert the microSD card into your Raspberry Pi or other device and boot it up.

Once you've booted up your device, you'll need to configure Home Assistant. This involves setting up your user account, configuring your network settings, and adding any smart home devices that you want to control.

Configuring Home Assistant

Configuring Home Assistant is a multi-step process that involves adding integrations and configuring your devices. Some of the key steps include:

• Adding your smart home devices: You can add your smart home devices to Home Assistant using the Integrations menu.

• Setting up automations: Home Assistant allows you to set up automations that trigger based on various conditions

• Creating dashboards: You can create custom dashboards in Home Assistant to control your smart home devices and view data from your sensors.

• Configuring notifications: Home Assistant can send notifications to your phone or email based on various triggers, such as when a motion sensor is triggered.

Configuring Home Assistant can be time-consuming, but it's worth it to have a fully customized smart home experience.

How to add Plex to Home Assistant

To add Plex to Home Assistant, you'll need to install the Plex integration. This involves adding your Plex account information and configuring the Plex server.

To start, open Home Assistant and go to Settings then Devices & Services. Then you will need to click on the + Add Integration button and type "Plex" in the search box.

Once you've added the Plex integration, you can control your media library from within Home Assistant. You can also use Home Assistant to automate various aspects of your Plex experience, such as turning off your TV when you stop watching a movie.

Configuring Plex in Home Assistant

Configuring Plex in Home Assistant is straightforward. You can customize various aspects of your Plex experience, such as the quality of your video streams and the order in which your media is displayed.

One of the most powerful features of Plex in Home Assistant is the ability to automate your media library. For example, you can create playlists based on the time of day, or automatically download new episodes of your favourite TV show.

Using Home Assistant and Plex Together

Using Home Assistant and Plex together is easy once you've configured both systems. With Home Assistant, you can control your smart home devices and your media library from a single interface. You can also automate various aspects of your smart home and media experience, such as turning off your lights when you start watching a movie.

One of the most powerful features of Home Assistant and Plex together is the ability to create custom dashboards. You can create a dashboard that shows you information about your smart home devices, your media library, and your weather forecast, all in one place.

Home Assistant Plex Automations

Turn off Lights when Plex Starts Playing

An easy and very useful automation you can implement for Plex within Home Assistant is to automatically dim or completely turn off specific lights when Plex starts playing something.

To achieve this we can create an automation using the template below. To implement this on your own setup, simply replace the entities with your own when importing it.

alias: Lights - Turn of when Plex playing
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - media_player.plex_plex_for_xboxonex
    from: idle
    to: playing
action:
  - service: light.turn_off
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: light.living_room

Troubleshooting Common Issues

As with any complex system, Home Assistant and Plex can sometimes experience issues. Some of the most common issues include:

• Network issues: If your devices can't connect to each other, check your network settings.

• Hardware issues: Make sure your hardware meets the minimum requirements for both Home Assistant and Plex.

• Software issues: Keep your software up to date and check for compatibility issues.

If you're experiencing issues with Home Assistant and Plex, the best place to start is the Home Assistant and Plex forums. There, you can find solutions to common issues and get help from other users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Home Assistant and Plex together without a Raspberry Pi?

Do I need a Plex Pass to use Plex with Home Assistant?

Can I control my media library from within Home Assistant?

Can I automate my media library with Home Assistant and Plex?

Is it difficult to set up Home Assistant and Plex?

Conclusion

Home Assistant and Plex are two powerful tools that work together seamlessly to create a smart home entertainment experience.

By integrating Plex with Home Assistant, you can control your media library and your smart home devices from a single interface.

In this guide, I've covered everything you need to know to get started with Home Assistant and Plex, from hardware requirements to software configuration and troubleshooting.