I built the Ultimate TV Dashboard in Home Assistant!

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I forgot to mention a REALLY helpful automation that reboots my Apple TV integration. Info on that, plus how to set up everything is written here: smarthomesolver.com/reviews/i-built-a-way-better-smart-tv-remote

[@lackr0073]

Nice work Reed, love the virtual remote on that phone, gorgeous!

[@OmnipotentLife]

Yessss

[@mabrix]

For other apps not listed on the website, you can use Paramount+ or Disney+ or TV (for Apple TV) in the Source value

[@brianadriaanse3058]

What tv you use?

[@mikehernandez-i3m]

Thank you for this! It's awesome! I do have a question for you though... How do you make all of the buttons always have color? I followed everything that you did to the T from your blog post on your site, but all of my buttons are grey unless they are being used and all of yours are in color always. Which is way sicker than mine! Please help! Thanks again!

[@michaelsleen]

Would be interested in a video about your switch from iOS to Android, including the benefits and pain points from a smart home perspective.

[@drewmares145]

I second this! Will probably be switching back to android after my one iPhone

[@OmnipotentLife]

Yesssss

[@massimobaldrighi]

Me too!

[@iPtrck]

Why not have both?

[@Joshpods]

Physical buttons feel better tho. Nevertheless great idea. Love the kid wake up alert lol

[@MarcSpctr]

exactly. I just hope someone makes it possible. A point and control universal remote with physical buttons and small display is what I am just waiting for.

[@mike1627]

+1 for this. I rarely if ever use my iPhone to control my AppleTV. It's just not practical if you have to look down all the time to make sure you are hitting the correct button to scroll menus or TV guides.

[@speedracer9132]

Lack of physical remote is by far my biggest disappointment about this CLICK BAIT (looking at your smart home solver)

[@speedracer9132]

@@MarcSpctr look at the circle remote 3, formerly yio remote 2, they’re shipping in a couple months and it’s a fully local replacement for harmony remotes at the same price with better features

[@Joshpods]

@@speedracer9132 nah but dedicated buttons for each app is great tho

[@DarrenHomme]

I use Firemote to control Roku and Fire devices. I plan to add automations for the TVs themselves and lights. Thank you for this video it was insightful for custom remotes and automations.

[@NightHawkATL]

HACS Firemote Card FTW, FYI. Also, Plex has a commercial skip for DVR recordings like TiVo had.

[@shongomoo]

I came to write this! Firemote is the goat

[@SmartHomeSolver]

Awesome, I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

[@jayjones7425]

Dude! You just made my life so much easier. Thanks

[@rustynutz73]

Great video as always, loved the kids TV automation, l think this is an issue parents experience world wide!

[@spotman13]

Definitely check out the HACS Firemote card!

[@SmartHomeSolver]

Will do, thanks!

[@whereswardlaw]

Done! Pixel 9 Pro Philips 4k Android smart TV's (living room/bedroom) Still tweaking - but have all my buttons on my main page using chips (small) - too lazy to switch to a different view. Thanks Reed! You're alright. I don't care what Aly says about you!😆

[@TheFire1202]

Bruv, first this is amazing and I'm going to try it out on my Jailbroken Apple TV 4K. But I don't need to skip commercials, my instant replay doesn't come with them. Cheers mate. 🎉

[@JoshsSmartHome]

Nice video Reed. I like when you put out unique content ideas!

[@shaggyfilms]

I created a new automation recently in our garage and my wife went out of her way to tell me how great it was. I swear i heard that little “spouse approval factor” sound go off

[@ryanm9318]

This is my first home assistant project besides getting devices in. Got all the buttons in, added cards for my netflix, plex and so forth, everything was working, decided to add the hacs custom icons, well i broke everything, the up down left..etc buttons all lost their set colors and turned gray and stopped working, restored backup fixed it all. Now lets try that pesky hacs install again. I can tell i will enjoy this home assistant adventure. (if i stop breaking it)

[@Bonhomme7h]

Thanks to your inspiration, very short media (KZbin adverts) are now muted. Great content as always!

[@Weeem]

custom:firemote-card is a full digital remote that you can customise and choose a style you like. We have it on a condition so it only shows on out phone if the TV is on

[@technithusiast]

4:06 YESSSSSSSSSS! 💯 I approve this message 🫡

[@ItsFrankyD]

This has been a game changer!

[@ingmeisterk874]

This is fantastic!! Can’t wait to play around with this myself. Thanks!! 🙏

[@RocketBoom1966]

Thanks Reed, quality as always. It'll be interesting to see if you stick with this. I REALLY want a smart remote like this, but I feel that in reality the action of grabbing your phone, unlocking it and opening a HA dashboard is cumbersome. I can see a use-case for dedicating an old phone as a stand-alone remote could be worth trying. I've tried several universal remotes with HA, most come up short for one reason or another. BTW, Mushroom Chip cards could work well to create a more compact group of buttons, especially on phones with smaller screens.

[@cakekomo]

6:32 you skipped a step. what goes in the entity there? Right under config.

[@DavidSkok1]

I have the same question: whenever I put an entity in there, clicking the button shows the current state of that entity. I have tried putting the. Apple TV entity there, but that displays the Apple TV status when I click on the "Left" button that was set up exactly as you showed.

[@DavidSkok1]

OK - I figured out the answer: the entity to select is the Apple TV, and the reason why I was seeing the state, not the left arrow, was two things: I was clicking in the wrong part of the card, and also had typed in "Left" instead of "left". I hope this helps others.

[@MUSICWORLD-rj8sx]

You are a complete genius!🧠

[@Gamen4Bros]

You switched to android?! I'm so proud of you! Welcome to the more accessible/configurable phones

[@samsam21amb]

I’d argue that iPhones are best for accessibility they have been leading with accessibility features for a while, e.g. voice control was introduced before androids and is very good.

[@Joshpods]

@@samsam21amb yes for actual disabilities iphones are better but for tweaking and customisation android is better

[@jasonedwards6562]

I thought you just switched from an Android to the iPhone not long ago ? Now you are going back ?

[@funkylosik]

i was thinking about switching to iPhone, but Android's Home Assistant Companion App is so much feature rich. For example, i can activate the Beacon Monitor whenever i want and search for iBeacons nearby (like one in my Post Box) and do some actions, like opening the front door for me. iPhone does not support Beacon Monitoring :(

[@DavidHyman031]

I hope you are enjoying your pixel 9 pro fold!

[@OlgerdOutlander]

This remote works perfectly, much more handy than the standard one. Except for turning the AppleTV on. Had to make an ESPhome IR blaster to solve the power on issue.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Reed. Looks great.

[@jamesdiman]

I had many years ago the Sony RM-AV2100 and 3100 remote. It would control all the TV devices and peripherals, along with other items in the house. And you could make group functions to turn on multiple items on at once. What you did was the 2024 version of what that Sony remote was doing all those years ago. The Sony remote was far advanced for it's time.

[@stubstub8092]

I had one of those years ago. Was awesome for the time. Old school touch screen in greenish color, set button size and position. Then I replaced it with a Phillips pronto. Was the ultimate and I miss it! I’ve been chasing something as easily programmed and costomazible since it became obsolete. Demo pad comes close but then they became cloud based with a paid service for reprogramming. I still use it but want to replace it. Am also using home assistant but it just isn’t as easy and the dashboard programming and flexibility just isn’t what it should be. The pronto from 20 years ago beats it fair and square. It can’t do alll the automations and such but you could position buttons you create anywhere you want easily. Pronto would also let you learn IR codes and assign to .png files for buttons. Awesome! Someone with better programming skills than Ineeds to make something similar in HACS to replicate either demo pad or Pronto. I’ve been using the Globale cache Itach ir blasters in home assistant and it works but isn’t easy to setup.

[@gazzfoth]

Love all your videos. You mentioned not long ago you were planning a guide on how to set up Home Assistant. Any news on this as I feel your guide would be great for me to set mine up.

[@ItsFrankyD]

Can you show how to set up some of the automations / launching apps on Apple TV via HA?

[@mradicsh]

Pretty cool, looks great. How are you hiding the names on the tile cards? I cannot figure that part out.

[@markvroman507]

I'm struggling with that as well

[@markvroman507]

But found a work around- Replace name with a space, works. And then hide state and vertical. It is then the same

[@SmartHomeSolver]

Yes I'm putting a space for the name to make it blank. I spoke with the Home Assistant team and updating the Button card is on their list of things to do soon so hopefully sooner than later. That way this will be even easier!

[@Skiman__]

You can also use this blank Unicode character “⠀”. It’s not a space, but is an actual character which is blank. As some apps will complain if there’s only a space as the title, you can use this instead(copy the part between the quotes) to fool it to think it’s got a title. I have it set to a keyboard shortcut so it’s at my fingertips when needed :p

[@LaurentVanDessel]

​@@SmartHomeSolverThe tile keeps taking up 2 rows in my case. Any idea how to solve that? For some reason it still reserves space for the title, that is blank.

[@michaelsleen]

“Make it five and it’s a deal.” 😂

[@DenysIablonskyi-c4p]

You should checkout tv touchpad card, it has a touchpad instead of buttons, this way you can swipe in a direction and the corresponding direction button will be pressed; also it groups different tvs in one card and also looks not too bad.

[@stain0269]

Now that you're using Android I'd love to see a video on programming/using NFC tags with it. I purchased a bunch of NFC stickers to try this months ago and quickly realized it's kind of a PITA with Android.

[@MakeItWorkTech]

Awesome 😂 Need that kid alert automation!

[@rich_greene]

love the idea Reed, tried it myself but had some issues with Chromecast with google tv. Doesn't like to play nice in the sandbox

[@anferliner]

Would love a tutorial about this remote for appletv thru HA

[@pandraus]

the first time in this channel where we heard "Ally loves this automation"

[@OldSkewlMarc]

Love the channel and loved this video. Saving it in my "must do at some point" folder. I do have a question as a newbie to HA. Do you have a video of what you are using as your server for HA? I just picked up a Pi 5, and worried that it will not be enough to handle everything at some point and then i'll have to migrate to something bigger (that seems like a headache just waiting to happen) Thanks!

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Can you make a guide for Firestick?

[@bradw1962]

How do you launch the apps so quickly? The documentation explains to use combinations of left, right, down, select, to launch an app. Is that how you’re doing it?

[@FleshFear]

Hi reed, really epic video thanks for the toturial. but what theme are you using for your home assistant?

[@ojos2653]

Where do I download it think I miss that part can you point me in that direction

[@Juanita-j5c]

Even with tv 📺 I wanted to try it to mirror it to the wall just to try in it works

[@krissgrab]

Great project! I’d love to try creating something similar on iOS. Do you know if there are equivalent tools or apps for iOS that could be used to build a custom TV remote dashboard with similar functionality?

[@rohanadarkar7498]

I can't for the life of me get this to work with a 2021 Apple TV 4K. The basic functions work - but the main functions that would be useful would be picking a source, like Prime Video or Apple TV etc. but this doesn't work with either discrete buttons nor the Fireremote HACS integration. The "Media player: Select source" action doesn't show the Apple TV in the list to be able to do anything. Is this something wrong with my particular setup or are others having this issue too?

[@adventurestudios2121]

can you make a video on how you set up your lights automation in home assistant? Ive been trying but getting confusing

[@roberto.gallegos]

Man this is awesome. Can’t do it though.

[@kevinlocdang]

Would you please show me how to change the stand by mode to idle mode on home assistance for apple tv? I set to send a command to wakeup but it doesn’t work. Much appreciated. Thank you 🙏🏼

[@ThatHz-]

BTW, you can ask Siri to do whatever to the TV if controlled with an AppleTV, even off & on.

[@frankmthompson]

I know this will show my age, but you can pry my physical remote from my cold dead hands. I'm currently using Harmony remotes to provide a consistent experience in all rooms, but with them no longer supported I'm looking into alternatives. A friend is trying to convince me to go RTI, but I would really like HomeAssistant integration and apparently that does not exist (you can actually do almost a full blown Home Automation system in RTI, so I guess that makes sense) That said, a dashboard like this would be nice in those instance where I'm not in the room. I currently open the Harmony app to do it, but this would be faster, IMO>

[@Animizio2024]

Does it work with iOS 18 and the latest Apple TV? Does it also works for power on and power off?

[@Waterbottle365]

Reed- You ever have issues with Apple TV in HA? I have automations set based on the state of one of my Apple TVs, and sometimes it works great, other times, even though there's no reported error in HA, I have to reload the configuration for that device in the ATV integration to get it to properly report the status. I previously thought this was because I had this particular ATV on the beta program (to force it to be the primary Home Hub for HK), but now they're all on the same version (stable, general release) and still have the issue. Great video!

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I'm so mad at myself for not talking about how I fixed this in the video! I made a really simple automation that automatically reloads the configuration in Home Assistant for the Apple TV if it goes unavailable. I added it to the article in the Automation section smarthomesolver.com/reviews/i-built-a-way-better-smart-tv-remote/#Automations I also added a button to quickly reload the configuration on the remote that I didn't talk about in the video but is also in the article. Basically it just manually calls that automation.

[@Waterbottle365]

@@SmartHomeSolver You're the absolute best. Looking forward to more from you!

[@mdnet78]

Wonderful video, just what I was looking for ! Had a question, how did you get the icons to show up ? I get a 2X1 tile for each control with the name of the Apple TV in each small tile

[@charlie951159]

Same here. Did you ever find a workaround?

[@CameronL]

How did you do the presets?

[@larryscaringelli1464]

Reed. I have a pixel fold as well and I used your directions and sections to create a dashboard but it doesn't change layout from front screen to when I open the inside screens. How do I make a change? The view view to go side by side when you open the phone to phablet mode?

[@v0nn_]

Does he have a television made by apple or is it a Television from a different manufacturer with a appletv connected? I want to know what TV that is because I love that picture look.

[@brianadriaanse3058]

have a andoid TV box and install Revanced and never have adds auto skip etc etc

[@sharepick53]

Cool & helpfull video. A while back you integrated a LG Thinq washer into your home automation. How did you do that? I use Hubitat

[@SmartHomeSolver]

Thanks! There is a Thinq integration into Home Assistant but the washer and dryer would go offline way too often for me. I ended up putting a smart outlet that measures power usage on the washer and that notifies us when it's done.

[@DrippinWetDetail]

Did I miss how you did the launching of apps?

[@DrippinWetDetail]

Never mind! Figured it out. Great video thanks!

[@TheStockPrint]

If you have multiple apple tvs in your home do you need to make a remote for each one?

[@johnny5alv]

And how do you get home assistant? Some convoluted piece of hardware?

[@salto1994]

home assistant green or yellow. i have a zimaboard for it, but you can also get a raspberry pi

[@billycrowe4501]

How did you get it to go to specific apps? Trying that out on my iPhone to tell my Sony tv to open them

[@EvanWasHere]

Is there a method to use shortcuts to open Netflix, KZbin, Plex, etc on an Android player such as the Nvidia shield?

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I've never owned a Nvidia shield but it looks like it is possible community.home-assistant.io/t/launch-specific-app-using-intents-for-android-tv-nvidia-shield/150338

[@fredherbert2739]

I want to know this too, will this work for android…..I write this as the video is playing so maybe I will look stupid if this question is answered in the video

[@rendyjansen]

There's a huge post on the Home Assistant community, look for Android TV Remote - App Links / Deep Linking

[@rendyjansen]

Search for Android TV Remote App Links / Deep Linking in the home assistant community

[@spotman13]

Firemote (HACS) does this, and its GitHub explains how!

[@adambishop5852]

Welcome to Fold life. Aren't they great?!

[@mrwest99]

Would you make it a blueprint?

[@ivan-j4l9x]

Does this work with broadlink blaster? Or any other ir bridges like old switchbot hub, harmony hub or yhe sofabaton hub?

[@TalOrmanda]

I see you didn't show that you added a space for the name, or changed the buttons to be Vertical. Look into the mushroom card in HACS. It allows way more flexibility.

[@rjbrowning85]

Is this possible with Roku as well? I don't see the same entities in the Roku integration in Home Assistant.

[@stupian7]

well somebody wanted to show off their new pixel fold lol

[@lowellbogard668]

Do you have to have a Home Assistant server ? As you do not say that in the video.

[@3l4we]

Can you do the same thing with Google TV or Amazon Firestick?

[@billycrowe4501]

Can someone explain to me the need for an apple tv to do this if you have a smart TV? honest question because I have a sony bravia TV and I would love to make this for my dashboard to go to apps and use the button controls but I cant seem to figure out how to add apps directly to the dashboard for the TV or do I need an apple tv to do it. Thanks

[@coreyenfield7595]

How did you get your Tile Cards to only be sized 1 by 1 and hide the Entity Name? I followed your steps exactly but got different results. I see the Icon and Entity Name in my cards...

[@stevenlucero9522]

I ran into the same issue. I even read the config for tiles but didn’t see any code that would disable the name or adjust it to a 1 by 1. I found that you can use the “button” card instead of the tile to hide the name and make it a 1x1.

[@GDORastaMan]

type: tile entity: remote.family_room_tv tap_action: action: perform-action perform_action: remote.send_command target: entity_id: remote.family_room_tv data: hold_secs: 0 command: up icon: mdi:arrow-up-bold vertical: true hide_state: true name: ' ' show_entity_picture: false layout_options: grid_columns: 1 grid_rows: 2 icon_tap_action: action: perform-action perform_action: remote.send_command target: entity_id: remote.family_room_tv data: hold_secs: 0 command: up color: accent

[@michaeltryl]

@@GDORastaMan i cant get this to be 1x1 mine is 1x2 has copy you code

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I put a space in the name to make it blank and use the vertical layout. I can only make it a 1x2 layout and at first it slightly bothered me. But I like the bigger buttons since I can press them without looking so I don't mind it now. I spoke with the Home Assistant team about the tile cards only can be a 1x2 or 2x1 minimum. They also said they have plans to update the Button card so that will hopefully be the better option in the future.

[@DrippinWetDetail]

I am using mushroom chip cards and it works pretty great

[@MohammedChowdhry]

No issues with your tesla automations on android?

[@upgradeu2]

What app are you using to do that?

[@RobertLooijmans]

how can i remove the entity name it is visible to me when i use your settings

[@Juanita-j5c]

I barely watch tv but wanted to mirror the tv to the wall awesome the tv watch me but I was watching the mirror wall saucy !!!!!

[@WheelieMan711]

How did you set up the shortcuts for the apps? I can only make a script that does the necessary button pushes to lunch an app.

[@DrippinWetDetail]

Are you using an Apple TV?

[@WheelieMan711]

@@DrippinWetDetail yes I am

[@DrippinWetDetail]

@ so what I did was make a helper button. Then I made an automation where the button is the trigger, and the action is Media Player : Play media then select the app you want to launch.

[@brooksweaver5111]

So I have a galaxy z fold 3. How did you get HA to recognize that your phone being open is a tablet? Or is mine just messing up? Edit: I figured it out. I had to go to "Screen layout and zoom" and turn down the zoom on the system display settings.

[@emilsecker7881]

Now the next challenge, make all this work when you inevitably switch back to the iPhone lol

[@graysonpeddie]

I prefer physical buttons so I don't have to look at the touchscreen, but that is just me. Try operating a touchscreen remote without actually looking at it. To me, it's very similar to looking at my keyboard instead of the screen to know where all the keys are.

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I agree physical buttons are way better. But I made the buttons fairly large on the screen so I don't really have to look down much.

[@methos7208]

I have a Vera Edge that is dying fast. I mainly use Z-Wave and I have a Sony, and Vizio TV, along with a Nvidia Shield and Roku Ultimate. What would you suggest I replace my Vera Edge with? Thanks!

[@bradymckinney1712]

Having an $1,800 phone is crazy.

[@jayk7310]

now you need to create it where it’s motion activated

[@Tencentsboys]

I have to have a server to use Home Assistant?

[@markvroman507]

just a raspberry PI, will do at least a PI 4, and best if you use an SSD to put HA on, instead of a SSD card

[@SmartHomeSolver]

Yes what markvroman507 said! There is also Home Assistant Green that has everything already installed and is available on Amazon.

[@markvroman507]

I have a lot of questions. I followed the film and document correctly but nothing works anyone has some advices?

[@harisjaved1379]

Nice man! I dislike the Apple TV remote a lot!

[@AquaStevae]

Congratulations on upgrading your phone!!!

[@mytechdude]

Anyone confirm this works with Android TV? I’ve got a Sony Bravia and used the code from the link, swapped out the entity info and can’t get it to work. I also don’t see “perform action” as an option in the picklist but tried to force it via the code editor. Honestly I wish a bit more time was spent explaining the setup in addition to all the advantages as I’m not sure if this only really works with Apple TV.

[@mark_da_it_guy]

I see you are using the Frame TV.. how do you turn on and off the picture art mode? I find having the AppleTV use CEC to be very unreliable.

[@Bowtyracr88]

It’s that Samsung that doesn’t play nice with CEC.

[@mark_da_it_guy]

@@Bowtyracr88 So true. Samsung is the underlying cause of the problems. Such bad software is a crime.

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I have these two settings enabled. On the Apple TV under Remotes and Devices, I have "Control TVs and Receivers" turned on. On the Frame TV settings under "General", "External Device Manager" the "Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC)" is turned on. Not sure if something else is turned on that is making it work well but that's all I could find that is turned on.

[@mark_da_it_guy]

@@SmartHomeSolver in the end I created an automation that will switch the Frame tv between Art mode and power off based on the state of the Apple TV. I left the CEC enabled on the AppleTv as this works well with the connected receiver. But then disabled CEC on the Frame. After a day I don’t see the different devices competing for control.

[@carlossap]

AppleTV will hate you with all those apps staying open in the background

[@nicholassimmons9227]

I’m just curious, but why did you switch to android?

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I've switched between iOS and Android every 2 years for the last 10 years. I enjoy trying something new and I don't like getting locked into one platform.

[@iliketodostuff123]

wait till ur kids are old enought to figure out all they have to do is flip the motion senseor lol

[@Delyn]

But HOW do you keep Apple TV working in home assistant?! It’s so undependable for me

[@roussell]

Just buy a second Apple Remote, pair it and leave it in the kitchen… Touchscreen remotes -no matter how ‘cute’ to flex with- are horrible in practice. Physical tactile buttons that you can navigate without looking at the remote will always be better. The shortcut buttons are nice, but you could also make a routine do that with Siri/Alexa/Google/Assist

[@slimtimmy13]

What made you switch? I'm looking at going from Android to iPhone!

[@SmartHomeSolver]

About every 2 years I switch. I've been doing that for the last 10 years or so. For me it's fun to try something different and I also don't want to be locked in on a specific platform. iPhones are great though and I saw Linus is switching to an iPhone.

[@slimtimmy13]

@@SmartHomeSolver well I made the switch today. I'm happy to try out home kit with home assistant and get it all going. We will see how I like it vs being on android as long as I have. I've been on android for 10 plus years.

[@BadgerBob]

Love your channel and content, but this is hard nope from me. No way would I prefer that over the Apple TV remote.

[@christophergarcia010]

Home Tour?

[@SmartHomeSolver]

I need to! It's been a while and there's been a lot of changes lately.

[@sharkfinn6469]

pro tip. ditch the apple tv for android.

[@DannerBanks]

Folding phones FTW!!!! I got a Fold 6 and had a Fold 4 before that. I liked the Pixel 9 Fold a ton but Samsung had a better trade in deal

[@SmartHomeSolver]

The Fold 6 is an amazing phone and I hear multitasking is amazing on it!

[@godofbiscuitssf]

Clickbait headline and you have to lie about it. Not even a mention of Siri voice input.