Good afternoon all,

I received a unique request. I’ve been researching and I am coming up short. I am looking for a solution to automatically switch TV inputs. The TVs normally are streaming content from Hulu, etc, but every X amount of time, I’d like for the TV to switch over to Input 2 to play video that I’ve created, then switch back to Hulu. I was thinking that an HDMI Switcher with a built in timer might be a thing, but I’m coming up short. Any suggestions?

  • silasmoeckel@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Any roku smart tv can do this via API, home assistant already has a binding.

    Not sure you will like how it works as the Hulu app would restart.

    • sparky6116@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I am very new to this, so please excuse my ignorance. When you say Home Assistant already has a binding, does that mean I can install Home Assistant on something like a RaspPi and use HA’s native functionality to complete the task? Is that what it means when you say that HA already has a binding?

      • silasmoeckel@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Yes HASS natively supports roku and will let you change inputs (they are apps in its terms). So you can make automations based upon an app starting switch apps etc.

  • TheCarcissist@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    It might be easier to do it externally to the TV. I think some higher end hdmi switches can accommodate something like this and may allow source 1 to continue playing while source 2 pops in. The problem with doing it on the TV itself is that usually if you use smart TV functions you’ll have to start over again at the main menu when it switches back

  • Loves_LV@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have a logitech hub and remote. You can program different “scenes” that will automatically turn on devices and set them to correct settings. I can also activate using Alex. For example, “Alexa, turn on apple TV.” will turn on the TV, set it to the correct input, turn on my audio receiver, turn it to Apple TV (my receiver handles video switching), then hits the home button to wake my apple TV. If I want to turn it off, it will power down everything in reverse. If I want to switch to cable box, it’s set-up to know receiver needs to be set to Cable Box, and then the remote is set-up to control my cable box. It also knows that all my audio goes through a sound bar so the volume button on the remote controls surround sound.