Automated Plex Lighting Control

A webhook application for Plex Media Center to automatically control home theater lighting (i.e. Leviton Decora) triggered by media (movies, episodes, trailer/pre-roll) events, such as play, pause, stop and even media endings.

Features

• Basic mode: detection and actions for play, pause, stop, and end (90%) of movies and shows.
• Advanced mode: detection of basic features plus actions for clips (trailers or pre-roll).
• Automation only runs at specified times of day so lights aren’t controlled in the middle of the day.
• Supports multiple Plex players at a time.
• Only implemented support for Leviton Decora line of light switches, but feel free to request a pull to contribute code for other dimmer switches by implementing a concrete subclass of AbstractPlexHook.py.
• Also has the option to set the volume on select Yamaha receivers on play/stop. Tested on Yamaha RX-A780.

Quick Start

• Define a configuration file (simply make copy of .env_sample as a new .env file.
• Configure the variables in .env as appropriate for your use.
• Define an environment variable: export PL_CONFIG_FILE=<location of configuration .env file.>
• Follow the installation instructions below.
• Run the app: plex_light.py
• Define the full URL as webhook in the Plex configuration. Enjoy!

Caution: if you intend this app to control lights based on trailer/pre-roll events, you need to make sure that pre-rolls are defined in Plex Settings (Extras). That is, if trailers are defined, and you intend to have dim lighting (for example) for trailers and lights-off for the movie, then you are required to have pre-rolls enabled in Plex. But why, you might ask? It is because Plex decided to send a “media.play” event ONLY when playback is invoked right before the trailers and pre-roll. It is therefore impossible to detect when a movie is about to start, unless you have a pre-roll, then this app will detect the end of that, and therefore turn off the lights before the movie starts.

Long story short, if you have trailer/pre-roll enabled, CONTROL_MODE should be set to Advanced, otherwise leave as Basic if you don’t.

Installation

Please note that while the “master” branch is a working version tested with Python 3.7 on CentOS and MacOS, documentation and code clean-up is in-progress.

Stand-alone Installation

• Define required environment variables by creating a copy of .env_sample as a new .env file.
• Install prerequisite packages from requirements.txt using Python 3+:
  pip install -r requirements.txt
• Run the webhook app:
  plex_light.py
• Define webhook on your Plex account as: http://<ip address>:5000/webhook

Docker Installation

• Define required environment variables by creating a copy of .env_sample as a new .env file.
• Run the following command (customize where necessary):
• $> docker run -d -t -v <config dir path>:/plex_light/config -e PL_CONFIG_FILE='/plex_light/config/.env -p 5000:5000 --name=plex_light --restart=unless-stopped randyoyarzabal/plex_light

Known Issues/Solutions

There are no known issues in Basic mode and where no trailers/pre-roll are enabled in Plex. However, in Advanced mode, there are some issues due to Plex’s limitation on playback events when trailers/pre-roll are involved:

Issue #1: Lights turn on (instead of off) when movie starts.
Solution: Make sure pre-roll videos are enabled if trailers are enabled.

Issue #2: There’s a long delay in some/all the actions. Solution: Be sure to set CONTROL_MODE='Basic' when trailers/pre-roll are disabled or the stop/play delays will be in effect.

Issue #3: Lights turn on and off in between trailers.
Solution: Be sure you have CONTROL_MODE='Advanced' and pre-roll enabled in Plex. This could also be a timing issue on how fast trailers load making the app think you stopped/skipped the trailer. If it bothers you, tweak the PLEX_STOP_ACTION_DELAY setting to about 2-5.

Issue #4: Lights turn off then dim right after I play a movie and the trailers start.
Solution: This is a timing issue because Plex sends a ‘media.play’ for a movie, followed by a ‘media.play’ for a trailer. It all depends on how fast Plex can transition from movie play to trailer. If it bothers you, tweak the PLEX_PLAY_ACTION_DELAY setting to about 5-8.

Credits

This is based on the idea and code posted by dwclarknu on the Plex Forums.
The library used for Leviton Decora Smart WiFi Switches & Dimmers is python-decora_wifi.