Home Assistant

Media source

The Media source integration platform allows integrations to expose media for use inside Home Assistant through the Media Browser panel or through supported media players like Google Cast.

Configuration

This integration is configured automatically through default_config or if another integration implements a media source.

If your configuration does not contain any of the above, you can add the below to your configuration file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
media_source:

Local media

By default, the integration looks for media in a specified folder. If other media_dirs are not declared you need to use /media/local path for example in companion app notification.

For Home Assistant OS, Supervised and Container users, this folder is by default configured in the path /media.

Home Assistant OS and Supervised users can access this folder by using, for example, the Samba add-on. Users of Home Assistant Container can mount a volume of their choice to /media.

If you are a Home Assistant Core user, the default directory called is called media under the configuration path (where your configuration.yaml is located).

Files served from media are protected by Home Assistant authentication unlike those served from www.

Using custom or additional media folders

It is also possible to set up custom and additional media directories. To do so, you’ll need to adjust the core configuration.

This example makes two different folders available to the integration:

# Example configuration.yaml
homeassistant:
  media_dirs:
    local: /media
    recording: /mnt/recordings

If you want to use media from a network storage, the network storage must be connected first. Refer to these instructions on how to connect network storage.

The media from the network storage is then automatically added to the local media browser.

Playing media from a media source

To play media from a media source via a service call, use the uri scheme media-source://media_source/<media_dir>/<path>. Default media_dir is local.

Web browsers and Google Cast media players have very limited video container and codec support. The media source integration does not do any transcoding of media, meaning media files must be natively supported by your media player or web browser (for playing in the frontend).

If a video file is not supported by your media player or web browser it will fail to play. Please check the documentation of your media player or web browser for lists of supported video formats.

Example:

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.living_room_tv
data:
  media_content_type: "video/mp4"
  media_content_id: "media-source://media_source/local/videos/favourites/Epic Sax Guy 10 Hours.mp4"