Apple TV pause/play set scene

Hi all,

I’m new here, just have my homey pro for a week, and man, I love this device! But…

Ive been searching the forum and the internet but I really could not find the answer. I have an LG tv, Denon receiver and Apple TV 4K newest model.

What I want to accomplish is when I pauze my Apple TV the lights dim to a higher brightness and when I push play the lights dim to lower brightness, by using my Apple TV remote.

My accomplishments so far:
My lights dim when I turn on the tv. But that works via LG’s webos and not via Apple TV.
I can do exactly what I want when I use my iPhone to pause or play Apple TV using Siri Shortcuts that starts a homey pro flow, but thats not working when I use my Apple TV remote.

Is there anyway to do this? In my opinion it could be a really simple thing but maybe because of apple’s closed ecosystem it isn’t? Hope someone can help. Thanks in advance!

You can use the Homey app home-kitty. Make a virtual device in homey (on/off) with 2 flows dimm lights and brighter lights
In siri shortcuts you can make a “home automation” (device independent, for the homekit surrounding): when apple tv paused set virtual device on and when apple tv plays set virtual device off.
Homey gets via home-kitty the state of the virtual device and play the flow.

Thank you!

Ive read them :smiley:

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Hi Wilfred, thanks for your tip. Im trying it but I can’t figure it out yet. Im gonna google more for it, thanks for the pointers :slight_smile:

Hi @Leen_Struuk, i hope this is helping:

  • install the app Homekitty on Homey
  • make a virtual device (button: on/off state)
  • make a flow: when button is set on, set lights bright
  • make a flow: when button is set off, dim lights
  • make sure button is visible in homekit (and you can test button on/off in homekit: homey does the correct flow)
  • make an automation (for every one in the house useable) when Apple-TV paused then set button on
  • make an automation (for every one in the house useable) when Apple-TV starts playing set button off

I think i see your problem: the Apple TV is not visible as an accessoire in homekit, so you have no trigger to start…

Hi @Wilfred_Greven,

Thanks for your patience with me. Im kinda new to all this.
Step 1-4 I figured out now. Thanks.
Step 5 (make sure button is visible in HomeKit, I can’t figure out this one. When I connect HomeKit to Homey Pro HomeKitty app, it’s adding all my homey devices to homekit (86 of them, but what I have been reading is, that it must be possible to select which ones you want to add) but I dont see the virtual device, the only one I want to see. Im I doing something wrong? Sorry for being so dumb!
EDIT
I found out that I can configure the HomeKitty app, and select the devices I want to add to HomeKit but still my virtual device is not showing up…

And see the screenshot, my apple tv is showing up in homekit :wink:


Go in Homey to the apps, go to homekitty and then to the gear (right upper side), app settings there you can see the settings and which acc. is published to homekit.

You can see indeed the Apple TV but in automations (opdrachten) you can not use the Apple TV as a trigger, so we have to think about an other trigger….

Yeah I found that indeed, thanks man!

Well I can see Apple TV in automations (opdrachten). I can select when play or pause and select my Apple TV. The problem there is that it only works if I use the remote app for the Apple TV from my iPhone, not the remote from the Apple TV it self, but I used homey favorite flows. Thats where I stranded last night hahaha.

I was thinking about a more complicated scene, for example use my Denon receiver. Im pretty sure it will use less power if I pause the apple tv and there is no sound, so maybe that can be a trigger, but the downside is that when I mute the receiver it will probably react to that as well…

No that is not necessary. You could have other items you can check in the “and” part of a flow: LG TV is on

But that does not solve anything. LG tv is always on when im using the Apple TV, same for the receiver. So what’s the trigger? The TV is not turning off when I pause the Apple TV. Or do I misunderstand you?

If the power (denon) changes

And - the power is less then … Watt (denon)
- the lg tv is on

Then start flow to brighten the lights

Yeah I get that. But then the same would happen when I mute for example. Besides that I tested the receiver but the power down is not instant or at all.

Everything is hooked up via ARC. So I can turn on all the devices using Apple TV remote. That’s working via hdmi. I also have a Philips hue play between it so maybe that’s picking up the signal is I pause?

When homey sees a difference at the Hue Play then could that maybe a trigger.

I am looking arround in my setup: LG tv, Apple TV, BlueSound but didn’t find anything (yet).

Maybe in future the app homekit controller is an option???

Yeah that’s what I’m saying. I have to figure that out.

Ok cool setup. Also linked via ARC? Bluesound is amazing. I’m little jealous :blush:

I just wanna thank you for your help and time so far! Are you not looking for a similar setup? For me it would be awesome to accomplish this

Yes via ARC.

We need to keep an eye on the app homekit controller, the first development was for the Aqara FP2 but i follow it and the app developer wants to get more homekit acc. to Homey. Maybe thats the way to go….

Ok, thanks we keep an eye out for that, thanks again.

In the meantime I will try to find an other solution

Hello, I’m also interested in making an automation like this. Is there any news?

Thank you.

There is a workaround if you’re running homebridge or home assistant;

I’m already running homebridge so I will try this in the upcoming days;

( Apple TV > Homebridge > Homekit > Homekitty > Homey )

I’ve got this working through the home assistant app. Homey now sees the Apple TV and I have my Govee lights changing scenes depending on play pause and even changing to music mode when I select the Apple Music app.

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Hi Michael,

Thats so amazing. Can you please explain how you did it?