Add play_media service

[dgomes]

This implements the media_play service which enables programatic channel change

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgomes]

IMHO this feature still makes sense

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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgomes]

not stale 😀

[nao-pon]

👍

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgomes]

:(

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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgomes]

😢

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgomes]

Such a shame....

[vassilis-panos]

I will not comment on whether it is a shame or not.
So does this pull request only work if the source keys are "Channel {integer}"?

[dgomes]

Thank you for replying :)

The all point of the PR is support for changing directly to TV channels >9 which require pressing more than 1 key without any need for external scripts/automations.

The PR just de-multiplexes a large Channel (unsupported) into the composing Channel keys (e.g. Channel 51 -> Channel 5 + Channel 1)

[vassilis-panos]

That's why I did not accept this PR. Because it only solves your problem and dictates the name of the sources .
An ideal implementation of play_media service is to try to find and map the correct source key, either the media_id is number or string, so you can change channels from voice controllers. For example Alexa, switch to HDMI or Alexa, tune to Fox.
We also need to take into account that we have an “overriding source names” function.
https://github.com/smartHomeHub/SmartIR/blob/master/docs/MEDIA_PLAYER.md#overriding-source-names

[dgomes]

Thank you for your feedback.

I don't think this is only my problem, as I've seen complicated automations to change channels...

MEDIA_TYPE_CHANNEL is supposed to be used for channels only (not sources), channels can have numbers or names (have a look into existing media_players).

If you look into official media_players such as samsungtv and mediaroom you see that the same pattern I followed (only numbers) this is because that is the only thing the underlying platform actually supports (IR blasters don't expose channel names).

If really necessary I can create an overriding channel names feature:

    channel_names:
      Channel 51: BBC
      Channel 12: RTL
      Channel 1: RAI

[vassilis-panos]

In my opinion, WebOS TV has the right implementation of play_media service.
Ok, I’m going to merge it. It would be great if you could document on how it works.

[dgomes]

Thanks 🎉

[Dilbert66]

Glad it was finally added. I had a pull request for similar functionality a while back and there was no response on it so I forked my own version.
#240