LG webOS Smart TV

The webostv platform allows you to control a LG webOS Smart TV.

There is currently support for the following device types within Home Assistant:

• Media player
• Notifications

To begin with enable LG Connect Apps feature in Network settings of the TV.

Configuration

To add the LG webOS Smart TV integration to your Home Assistant instance, use this My button:

LG webOS Smart TV can be auto-discovered by Home Assistant. If an instance was found, it will be shown as Discovered. You can then set it up right away.

Turn on action

If you want to use an automation to turn on an LG webOS Smart TV, install an integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] such as the HDMI-CEC or WakeOnLan. They provide an action that can be used for that.

Common for webOS 3.0 and higher would be to use WakeOnLan feature. To use this feature your TV should be connected to your network via Ethernet rather than Wireless and you should enable the LG Connect Apps feature in Network settings of the TV (or Mobile App in General settings for older models) (*may vary by version).

On newer models (2017+), WakeOnLan may need to be enabled in the TV settings by going to Settings > General > Mobile TV On > Turn On Via WiFi instructions.

You can create an automation from the user interface, from the device create a new automation and select the Device is requested to turn on automation. Automations can also be created using an automation action:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
wake_on_lan: # enables `wake_on_lan` integration

automation:
  - alias: "Turn On Living Room TV with WakeOnLan"
    triggers:
      - trigger: webostv.turn_on
        entity_id: media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
    actions:
      - action: wake_on_lan.send_magic_packet
        data:
          mac: aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

Any other actions to power on the device can be configured.

Sources

It is possible to select which sources will be available to the media player. When the TV is powered on press the CONFIGURE button in the integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] card and select the sources to enable. If you don’t select any source the media player will offer all of the sources of the TV.

Switching source with automation

Imagine you want your LG TV to automatically switch to a specific source when it turns on. Below is a simple automation example that launches YouTube after the TV is switched on. It leverages select_source action from the Media player integration to launch a specific app installed on your LG TV.

To find available sources for your TV

1. Go to Developer Tools > States.
2. Find your TV’s media_player entity.
3. Look for the source_list attribute which contains all available sources.

The automation can be created entirely through the Home Assistant UI. When setting it up, you’ll only need to manually enter the source name (for example, “YouTube”) in the action configuration. Below is the YAML code generated as a result:

alias: Switch TV source to YouTube by Default
description: 'Regardless if started from TV remote or via wake-on-lan, the TV will switch to YouTube right after it is on'
triggers:
  - device_id: <TV DEVICE ID>
    domain: media_player
    entity_id: <TV MEDIA PLAYER ENTITY ID>
    type: turned_on
    trigger: device
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: media_player.select_source
    metadata: {}
    data:
      source: YouTube
    target:
      device_id: <TV DEVICE ID>
mode: single

Change channel through play_media action

The play_media action can be used in a script to switch to the specified TV channel. It selects the best matching channel according to the media_content_id parameter:

1. Channel number (i.e., ‘1’ or ‘6’)
2. Exact channel name (i.e., ‘France 2’ or ‘CNN’)
3. Substring in channel name (i.e., ‘BFM’ in ‘BFM TV’)

# Example action entry in script to switch to channel number 1
action: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
data:
  media_content_id: 1
  media_content_type: "channel"

# Example action entry in script to switch to channel including 'TF1' in its name
action: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
data:
  media_content_id: "TF1"
  media_content_type: "channel"

Next/Previous buttons

The behavior of the next and previous buttons is different depending on the active source:

• if the source is ‘LiveTV’ (television): next/previous buttons act as channel up/down
• otherwise: next/previous buttons act as next/previous track

Sound output

The current sound output of the TV can be found under the state attributes. To change the sound output, the following action is available:

Action webostv.select_sound_output

Generic commands and buttons

Available actions: button, command

Action webostv.button

Action webostv.command

Example

script:
  home_button:
    sequence:
      - action: webostv.button
        target:
          entity_id:  media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
        data:
          button: "HOME"

  open_google_command:
    sequence:
      - action: webostv.command
        target:
          entity_id:  media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
        data:
          command: "system.launcher/open"
          payload:
            target: https://www.google.com

Notifications

The webostv notify platform allows you to send notifications to a LG webOS Smart TV.

The icon can be overridden for individual notifications by providing a path to an alternative icon image to use:

automation:
  - alias: "Front door motion"
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door_motion
        to: "on"
    actions:
      - action: notify.livingroom_tv
        data:
          message: "Movement detected: Front Door"
          data:
            icon: "/home/homeassistant/images/doorbell.png"

Notes

If Home Assistant and your TV are not on the same network, you need to create a firewall rule, which allows a connection on ports 3000 & 3001 with the TCP protocol from Home Assistant to your TV.