Plex Movie Mode Lighting – Home Assistant

This automation suite intelligently controls your living room lighting based on the playback status of your Plex media player (e.g. Plex running on a Samsung TV). It creates a cozy, cinema-like atmosphere by dimming the lights and turning off fans when a movie starts, and restoring full brightness and normal settings when the movie is paused or stopped. Smooth brightness transitions and system log messages keep you informed about the current state.

Use case: Automatically dim lights and turn off fans when a movie starts playing. After 10 minutes, the kitchen hood (exhaust fan) is also turned off to reduce noise. When playback pauses, stops, or becomes idle, all lights return to full brightness for normal living conditions.

🔧 Requirements

A configured media_player entity for your Plex player (e.g., media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020).
Smart lights and fans integrated into Home Assistant.
Optional: Netflix app detection via a sensor like sensor.wohnzimmer_fernsehsender_name to extend functionality.

🎬 Automation: Living Room Light Control Based on Plex Movie Status

How it works:

When a movie starts playing: - Certain bright lights and fans are turned off to minimize distractions. - Other lights are dimmed to low brightness levels (between 10% and 40%) with smooth 3-second transitions to create a relaxing theater ambiance. - A system log entry is written to document the movie start and the lighting change. - After a 10-minute delay (allowing the user to settle in), the kitchen hood (exhaust fan) switch is turned off automatically to reduce background noise.
When the movie is paused, stopped, or idle: - All affected lights are restored to full brightness with smooth transitions. - Another system log entry confirms the lights are back to normal.

YAML

alias: Living Room Light Control Based on Plex Movie Status
description: >
  Controls living room lighting based on Plex playback state.
  - When playing: dims lights, turns off fan, logs event, then after 10 minutes
    turns off kitchen hood.
  - When paused/stopped/idle: restores full brightness and logs event.
triggers:
  # Trigger when Plex player changes state to playing
  - entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020
    to: playing
    trigger: state

  # Trigger when Plex player leaves playing state to paused/off/idle
  - entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020
    from: playing
    to:
      - paused
      - "off"
      - idle
    trigger: state

conditions: []

actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020
            state: playing
        sequence:
          - parallel:
              # Turn off bright ceiling and spotlight lights for cinema feel
              - target:
                  entity_id:
                    - light.a7936d80caa019ec2ce84a2c51c50a02
                    - light.1df39f453fd981ff0576529085067789
                    - light.05d30dfa72978e686a55cadeea7bcc50
                action: light.turn_off
                data: {}

              # Turn off the living room fan to minimize distractions
              - target:
                  entity_id: fan.250e37c9d2d41d709b36e1e775cf99
                action: fan.turn_off
                data: {}

              # Dim ambient lights to 25% brightness with smooth transition (3 seconds)
              - target:
                  entity_id:
                    - light.wohnzimmer_led_2
                    - light.tv_led
                    - light.stehlampe_led_2
                data:
                  brightness_pct: 25
                  transition: 3
                action: light.turn_on

              # Set a fan light to 10% brightness with smooth transition
              - target:
                  entity_id: light.han_fun_1_f1
                data:
                  brightness_pct: 10
                  transition: 3
                action: light.turn_on

              # Set bookshelf or accent light to 40% brightness with smooth transition
              - target:
                  entity_id: light.bcc7cc2e68a4318e8946e6674b617333
                data:
                  brightness_pct: 40
                  transition: 3
                action: light.turn_on

          # Log the lighting change to the Home Assistant system log for transparency
          - data:
              message: >-
                🎬 Movie started – lights dimmed, fan off, kitchen hood will turn off after 10 minutes.
              level: info
            action: system_log.write

          # Wait 10 minutes before turning off the kitchen hood to reduce noise gradually
          - delay: "00:10:00"

          # Turn off kitchen hood (exhaust fan) after delay
          - target:
              entity_id: switch.a77978ab818643c5455ae6563230f92b
            action: switch.turn_off
            data: {}

      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: |
              {{ trigger.to_state.state in ['paused', 'off', 'idle'] and
                 trigger.from_state.state == 'playing' }}
        sequence:
          - parallel:
              # Restore lights affected by movie mode to full brightness with smooth transitions
              - target:
                  entity_id:
                    - light.han_fun_1_f1
                    - light.wohnzimmer_led_2
                    - light.tv_led
                    - light.stehlampe_led_2
                data:
                  brightness_pct: 100
                  transition: 3
                action: light.turn_on

              # Turn on other lights that were turned off during movie mode
              - target:
                  entity_id:
                    - light.1df39f453fd981ff0576529085067789
                    - light.a7936d80caa019ec2ce84a2c51c50a02
                    - light.05d30dfa72978e686a55cadeea7bcc50
                    - light.bcc7cc2e68a4318e8946e6674b617333
                data: {}
                action: light.turn_on

          # Log the restoration to system log
          - data:
              message: ⏸️ Movie paused/stopped – lights set to 100%.
              level: info
            action: system_log.write

mode: restart

📌 Notes

You can customize all entity IDs (entity_id) in the automation to match your exact smart home setup.
The mode: restart ensures the automation restarts cleanly if triggered multiple times quickly.
System log messages help you keep track of lighting changes without checking UI.
Optional: If you use apps like Netflix, you can integrate additional sensors (e.g., sensor.wohnzimmer_fernsehsender_name) to trigger or condition the automation for better coverage.