After having set up Roon with different endpoints around my apartment, I now want to take the next step. I have already built a passively cooled ROCK and now want to have displays in different rooms to automatically turn on whenever something is playing in the currently selected zone.
I did have a Chromecast connected to a monitor and apart from the fact that it never really turns off, it’s exactly what I’m looking for. However, the never turning off part is a big issue for me because it’d require me to turn off the display manually whenever I stop listening to music and don’t want the display to stay on.
RoPieee Display sadly only works with the small RPi touchscreen via the ribbon cable, so that’s a no go with HDMI monitors from what I’ve read.
What I’m trying to achieve:
Have different TVs / monitors around my apartment that are tied to my several Roon zones and will automatically turn on / off whenever I start / stop playback.
I don’t want the display to do anything other than display album / artist art and the track progression. I have read through the web display option, however I’m not too familiar with the possibilities regarding automated, fullscreen displays.
Anyone with ideas and / or experience able to chime in?
It’s certainly possible, but also unlikely to be plug and play. How confident are you with writing code? And do you have any existing home automation system? (HomeKit/Homebridge, Home Assistant)
I do work in tech, however on the business side of things so while I’d say I have a certain affinity with code - and know my way around an IDE and very basic programming - I’m not a developer myself. I do use HomeKit a lot (all Apple household, apart from a few RPIs, the ROCK NUC and a single windows PC) and have tinkered with HomeBridge in the past, however it’s been a few years.
Any sort of brainstorming is appreciated, do you have a general solution in mind?
Hmm, I have a Fire TV box that will turn my flat screen on/off, among other functions. Don’t know if Amazon has an available SDK for Alexa type devices.
There are all sorts of devices and software to control outlets. The problem there is cutting the power to your TV, when really want you want is to put it in standby.
Maybe something with a Logitech Harmony interface?
Here’s a thread to start from -
I don’t think that you’re going to find anything off the shelf, but maybe some of the more adept tinkers will cook something up.
One approach if you have an always-on machine would be to have a service running that’s either regularly checking with Roon what endpoints are playing, or subscribed to queue changes.
Once that machine sees a zone/output start playing, you then have to work out how to get the screen to turn on. If it’s a relatively modern TV, most have some form of API that you can call (I do this with my Samsung TV to work with Homebridge). Alternatively you could use a smaller screen hooked up to a Pi and tell that Pi to turn the screen on and load up the Roon web view. When the endpoint stops playing - turn the screen off.
If you’re using Homebridge and can already turn your TV on/off and switch it over to the Chromecast, there could be a slightly simpler solution. Create a “switch” in Homebridge that’s on when a zone/endpoint is playing, and off when it’s not. (I’ve built this already, and use it to pause/play endpoints). You could then set an automation in Homekit to turn on your TV and switch it to Chromecast as soon as the relevant Roon “switch” was turned on.
There’s certainly more options as well. I feel like there’s perhaps something even simpler that I’m not thinking of. I’m more than happy to share some of my code - mostly a customised python API service that’s designed to interface with Homebridge and iOS Shortcuts. It’s not pretty but it works.
These are all great ideas. Just as other avenues for Cudifying to play with, if it’s a TV it probably uses CEC and you can use a Pi (maybe a pi running the display!) to talk CEC to it and turn it on/off/switch inputs, if it doesn’t have a way of controlling it over the network. If it’s a monitor rather than a TV, you could use DPMS to turn it off and on.
Using a Logitech harmony remote and the Khazul (sp?) Roon extension for same, one can program one button to 1) turn on all of your AVR equipment and TV; 2) choose a Chromecast input channel; and 3) play tunes. Gets close to what you want.
Any more info on Roon integration into Home Assistant? (I did a Google, but all seems like old stuff). I’ve been resisting the switch from Homebridge, but a solid Roon integration could push me over the edge!
I too am interested in this. The closest I got was with an old iPad, connected to power, display always on and a third party “Full Screen Browser App” for the Roon display (Safari, Chrome, etc. don’t have a way to hide the address bar). The screen doesn’t turn off when the music stops, but it displays a pretty unobtrusive roon on a dark background.
Sounds interesting! Can you elaborate on that “Full Screen Browser App”? Which is it? Also: Did anyone actually try to use a Chromecast dongle on a monitor that does HDMI CEC? Should it not wake from sleep automatically?
