Hi.
Anyone got any experience using the different Plex apps available? Any thoughts on which one’s the better (and why?)? Got any flows to share for inspiration?
Thanks!
No preferences for any being better.
Plex Notifier
PROS:
- Started playing/stopped trigger cards provide more details as token payload
- Runs locally on the LAN. No cloud involved
CONS:
- Has no dedicated trigger flowcards track, artist… changed
Plex
PROS:
- Homey Cloud compatible
CONS:
- Started playing/stopped triggeer cards provide less details in token payload
- Fully cloud driven
In the end, either app prolly would work for simple automations like dimming the lights when a specific player start playing. So I personally use Plex Notifier (because it was there before the new Plex app) and use the token holding the player name to identify if it is the FireTV device in the livingroom.
So I use the started, stopped and paused trigger cards to adjust the light in the room.
Plex Media Server Playlist Caster
This app really just serves an edge case. It only works in combination with Chromecast compatible devices and enables you to play playlists stored in your plex server to those devices.
I use it mainly for multiroom music.
I know users also used it to play movie playlists for halloween deco purposes for example.
1 Like
Thanks, that more or less sums up what I figured from looking at the apps. I started using the Plex app, and it too seems to give me access to the name of the player, which I use to filter out events from my TV and only change lights when that device is in use. When using plex on my desktop I generally don’t need to set the mood for the whole apartment 
You say the plex app is fully cloud driven - what do you mean by that? I’m running it on my local homey and it seems to work well. Will the Plex Notifier be quicker?
If the cloud connection working well I would not change it. Plex Notifier talks directly to the plex server on your lan. It might be faster therefor but if the cloud thing works fast enough I would not bother to switch.
1 Like
Thanks! The only thing I might be missing is the option to also check for type of media. When watching a movie, I want it dark, but when watching a TV show that’s not important. The logic for the lights are in a flow of their own, so testing out the other one won’t be a major endeavor.
1 Like
@Shakesbeard
I just wanted to say thank you for your input. I have now switched (more or less - I still haven’t cleared out all the Plex cards in the simpler flows) to Plex Notifier, as it gives me a lot more room to differentiate. One of the main factors for me was that I want to run different flows for tv series and movies. For a show, I like to have some lights, but for movies I like to keep my living room as dark as possible.
Thanks a lot for your very detailed answer above. I wish more people (myself included) would have the patience and drive to help other people you obviously have. It was really helpful, and a lot more helpful than references to the search button and links to the homey app store. Cudos to you, sir!
1 Like
Hallo 
I can’t figure out how to add to Plex to run a specific media player and turn on the lights.
it doesn’t give me any tag to add.
How to choose Plex Player?
On Home Assistant, it brings up all Plex Players and you select which one you want specifically and activate the lights.
I don’t know which app you are using in particular to capture the plex events. But you most likely will have a flow token available, which contains the name of the player which raised the event.
So you could AND that with a logic text comparison card.
Well I don’t understand, AND and Logic are not Plex options.
There is a living room TV and lights - I turn on the plex LG TV and the living room lights work. Everything works fine.
There is a child’s room and lights - I turn on the Panasonic TV and how to turn on the lights in the child’s room when the plex is turned on?
It is how Homey is build. You should check on that.
Your when flowcard “A player started streaming” has this little tag symbol showing. This means that this flowcard provides flow tokens to your flow. Those flow tokens contain data provided by the card.
In advanced flows those can also be added to the flow by THEN cards, but this goes slightly off topic here.
However, those flow tokens can be text, numeric values, booleans or images.
To logically compare such a flowtoken with something you can use a logic card in the AND section. Flow tokens can as well be passed on to other cards.
For example, I got a LaMetric in my living room, which would have a scrolling text every time the song title changes.
i feel stupid i bought homey pro to make automation easier. and it turns out that home assistant is easier choose the player you want and start it automatically. Here is my screenshot.
and how to recognize plex player on homey pro. I don’t understand anyway.
Unfortunately the AppleTV Plex app doesn’t supply a Player.name that is any use (It’s quite literally just “AppleTV” regardless of any settings) - it does supply a Player.uuid which is unique per player, but none of the apps support that (and the Plex Notifier app which at least allows IP doesn’t seem to currently work)
