🎥 Movie Mode Light Control for Home Assistant


This automation suite dims or brightens your smart lights based on the playback state of your media player (e.g. Plex on Samsung TV). It's perfect for creating that cozy home theater experience—automatically!

Use case: Lights dim automatically when a movie starts and return to full brightness when it's paused or stopped.

🔧 Requirements

  • A configured media_player entity (e.g., Plex integration)
  • Smart lights or fans integrated in Home Assistant
  • Optional: Netflix app detection via sensor.wohnzimmer_fernsehsender_name

🎬 Automation 1: Dim Lights When Movie Starts

This automation triggers when the Plex media player switches to playing state. It dims specific lights, turns off ambient lights and fans, and sets others to low brightness for a cinematic feel. After 10 minutes, it powers off a specific switch (optional for ambient light/fan).

alias: Dim Lights When Movie Starts
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020
    to: playing
condition: []
action:
  - parallel:
      - service: light.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id:
            - light.your_ceiling_light
            - light.wall_spotlight
        data: {}
      - service: fan.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: fan.living_room_fan
        data: {}
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id:
            - light.ambient_led_1
            - light.tv_led_strip
            - light.floor_lamp_led
        data:
          brightness_pct: 25
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.han_fun_1_f1
        data:
          brightness_pct: 10
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.bookshelf_light
        data:
          brightness_pct: 40
  - delay:
      minutes: 10
  - service: switch.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: switch.something_optional
mode: single

⏸ Automation 2: Brighten Lights When Paused or Ended

When the movie is paused, stopped or idle, this automation turns the lights back to full brightness and restores your normal living room state.

alias: Brighten Lights When Movie Paused or Ended
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_samsung_tv_2020
    from: playing
    to:
      - paused
      - "off"
      - idle
condition: []
action:
  - parallel:
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id:
            - light.han_fun_1_f1
            - light.wall_spotlight
            - light.your_ceiling_light
        data:
          brightness_pct: 100
mode: single

📌 Notes

  • You can customize the light entities in each automation to match your room setup.
  • Use a lockfile-like logic only if you want to prevent overlap, but in Home Assistant, “mode: single” will do that for you.
  • For app-based triggers (like Netflix), you can enable the optional sensor.wohnzimmer_fernsehsender_name and use it as a trigger or condition.