Is there a way to view the state of a media player on my home network?
I know there are custom apps for PLex and Kodi, but thats a bit too limiting for my needs.
I would like to query the play state of several Android TV boxes I have setup, then use the state to alter lighting scripts.
If you take a look at the work done in Home-Assistant.io it is capable of detecting almost any media player on the network, and providing its playstate (playing, paused, stopped, inactive) along with the media info currently being played.
I can view the state of my Nvidia Shield (device and cast), MiBox(device and cast), Chromecast Audio, Chromecast, Google Home, and Cast Groups.
With this I can check on the play state of the device itself, not just an app. I can also query if its video or audio.
I personally feel the play state of a network device is more useful that the playstate of a specific application. While Plex and Kodi are my normal GO-TO media apps, they are not the only ones.
Considering Home-Assistant is OpenSource, would anyone have any interest in porting these features over to Smartthings?