Playlist not loading to HA Voice PE

[msknight]

I'm using HA 2.8.1 and it has merged the players.

With my Squeezelite players, all is good. With my Home Assistant Voice, which is showing "Home Assistant Mediaplayers" and "Sendspin" the most critical thing is that the playlist is no longer loading to the player... whether I select HA Media or Sendspin.

I've long had the issue that shuffle and repeat can't be used, and I accept that although I don't understand why, but failure to load the playlist has me stumped.

I've checked that the input_text.target_media_player is set to "media_player.bedroom_2_media_player" as specified in Settings/Players/PlayerSettings and checked on the traces that this is set and being parsed correctly. Also noted is that the volume level set works, as further proof that the "player" variable is set correctly. AI has been no help on this.

sequence:
  - variables:
      player: "{{ states('input_text.target_media_player') }}"
  - action: media_player.shuffle_set
    continue_on_error: true
    data:
      shuffle: true
    target:
      entity_id: "{{ player }}"
  - action: media_player.repeat_set
    continue_on_error: true
    metadata: {}
    data:
      repeat: all
    target:
      entity_id: "{{ player }}"
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 2
      milliseconds: 0
  - action: media_player.volume_set
    target:
      entity_id: "{{ player }}"
    data:
      volume_level: "{{ states('input_number.speaker_volume_target') }}"
  - target:
      entity_id: "{{ player }}"
    data:
      media_id: Abba
      media_type: playlist
    action: music_assistant.play_media
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 2
      milliseconds: 0
  - action: media_player.media_play
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: "{{ player }}"
alias: Music Playlist - Abba
description: ""

[msknight]

Further info - I settled on Sendspin as the default option for the player, but it still won't load the playlist via script/command, only via the GUI. Also, the repeat and shuffle are available in the GUI but error via script.

[msknight]

It does connect... but when I remove the HA Media provider, I lose the VPE completely. Sendspin doesn't discover it. From what I read, if I want to connect it to MA without having HA, then I have to flash with MA firmware... at which point I lose the voice control functionality... which I don't want to do. And that is the same brick wall we faced a few months ago.

There was a firmware update last week-ish, which I hoped might solve this issue... but it didn't. So I have to keep HA provider enabled in order to use it... and that means I end up with two different "devices" which confuses things... but that's just the way it is.

[OzGav]

It is not the way it is. There is no such thing as “MA firmware”. Looking at one of your screenshots above Sendspin does discover the device as indicated by the Sendspin chip on the player. That is all you should see in a normal setup now

[msknight]

When I disable HA the whole thing vanishes. I wait for sendspin to discover the device on its own, but that never happens.

[OzGav]

Firstly I would not just disable it I would remove it. Then I would restart MA and see if it is discovered then.

[msknight]

Ah. Removal worked. Now I've got a random ID and I've got to work out how to rename it... or change all my scripts again. Still, it's a step forward

[OzGav]

Yeah just go to HA and rename the entity there if you wish