2026.6.3
Home ▸ Actions

Power on

The Power on action wakes up every device on the HDMI-CEC bus that supports being powered on over CEC. It sends a single command that the connected devices, such as your TV, AV receiver, or media player, act on together.

This is handy as the start of a “movie night” automation, where one tap powers on your screen and sound system at the same time.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To power on your HDMI-CEC devices from an automation or a script:

  1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
  2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
  3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
  4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
  5. From the search box, search for and select HDMI-CEC: Power on.
  6. Select Save.

This action does not support targets. In the UI, you are not prompted to choose an area, device, entity, or label.

Options in the UI

This action has no additional options in the UI.

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as hdmi_cec.power_on. A basic example looks like this:

ActionActions are used in several places in Home Assistant. As part of a script or automation, actions define what is going to happen once a trigger is activated. In scripts, an action is called *sequence*. [Learn more] 
action: hdmi_cec.power_on

This powers on all CEC devices that support the command.

Options in YAML

This action has no additional options in YAML.

Good to know

  • Only devices that support the CEC power-on command respond. Some devices ignore it or only wake when they are the active source.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Tip

You don’t need to edit YAML to use these examples. Copy a YAML snippet from this page, open the automation editor in Home Assistant, and press Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on Mac). Home Assistant automatically converts the pasted YAML into the visual editor format, whether it’s a full automation, a single trigger, a condition, or an action.

Automation: power on the screen and sound for movie night

When you start a movie night, power on every connected CEC device at once.

  • Trigger: A movie-night helper turns on
  • Action: HDMI-CEC: Power on
YAML example for powering on devices at movie night
AutomationAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] 
alias: "Power on for movie night"
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.movie_night
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: hdmi_cec.power_on

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Tip

AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude can also explain actions or suggest the right one when you describe what you want in plain language.

Related actions

These actions work well alongside this one:

  • Standby: Puts all devices on the HDMI-CEC bus that support this function into standby.

  • Select device: Makes an HDMI-CEC device the active source.

  • Update: Updates the state of HDMI-CEC devices from the bus.

  • Send command: Sends a raw CEC command to the HDMI-CEC bus.

  • Volume: Changes the volume or mute state of the HDMI-CEC audio system.