Media Cover Art
Media Cover Art can turn the panel into a now-playing display while a selected Home Assistant media player is playing.
You need a media_player entity that supplies artwork in Home Assistant and a reachable Home Assistant image-download address. First check that artwork appears in Home Assistant, then configure the panel below. The migration guide covers dedicated album-art layouts.
You will find these controls in Settings > Sleep & Schedule > Cover Art Screen Saver on the panel web page.
Play and pause
Tap the round button in the bottom-right corner to pause the displayed player. The artwork stays visible and the button changes to Play, so you can resume without leaving the screensaver. The button stays visible when track details fade away.
The button uses a brighter version of the colour extracted from the artwork and lightens while pressed, with a neutral grey fallback when artwork is unavailable. Its icon switches between black and white to remain readable, including on pale artwork. On 7-inch displays, its shape is adjusted for the panel's pixels so it appears round in either orientation.
Only a pause requested with this button keeps the screensaver open. Pausing from Home Assistant, a phone, or another control still ends cover-art mode. Touch anywhere outside the button to dismiss the screensaver without changing playback: paused music stays paused, and playing music keeps playing. Night schedules and display takeovers still apply. If the Home Assistant connection is lost while paused, the retained screensaver closes.
Track details and layout
Titles expand to fit longer track names, up to these limits on the cover-art screensaver:
| Display | Maximum title lines |
|---|---|
| 4-inch square S3 and P4-86, in any orientation | 3 |
| 4.3-inch, in landscape | 3 |
| 7-inch, in landscape | 4 |
| 10-inch, in landscape | 5 |
Shorter titles use only the space they need. Artist text uses the remaining space, with an ellipsis when it does not fit. The 4.3-inch, 7-inch and 10-inch portrait layouts keep their shorter title limits.
On square displays, Show Track Details For controls how long details stay visible when a track changes. Pausing with the screensaver button brings the details back and keeps them visible until playback resumes, then the fade-out timer starts again. With Never, pausing still reveals the details, but resuming hides them immediately. With Always, they remain visible. Rectangular displays and screens without artwork keep track details visible.
Settings
Turn on Show Cover Art to reveal the settings, then choose the Media Player Entity to watch, such as media_player.living_room.
Screensaver Settings
- Keep Screen Awake During Playback — on by default. While Show Cover Art is enabled, this prevents normal screensaver sleep during playback and lets artwork appear after Show After. It has no effect while Show Cover Art is off.
- Persistent Play/Pause Control — on by default, directly below Keep Screen Awake During Playback on the 4-inch square S3 and P4-86. Turn it off to hide the button and restore the full width for track details, still allowing up to three title lines. Turning it off while paused from the screensaver dismisses it without resuming playback. Larger screens always show the playback button and do not show this setting.
- Show After — choose 3, 5, 10, or 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 5 minutes. The default is 10 seconds. This also controls when cover art returns after you dismiss it; every touch restarts the countdown.
- Show Track Details For — available on the 4-inch square displays. Choose Never, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 seconds, or Always. The default is 5 seconds.
With Keep Screen Awake During Playback off, Timer or Sensor screensaver mode can still show eligible artwork when the normal screensaver activates. With Screensaver mode Disabled, cover art uses Show After. A time-based Night Schedule takes priority over cover art while its night period is active.
External sources
- Show external sources — allows cover art for the player's
TV,Line-in, orHDMIinput. Off by default. - External Source Media Entity — shown when Show external sources is on. Optionally choose the player connected to that input. When it has current media, its playback state, artwork, track details, progress, and filtering attributes drive the cover-art screen.
If you turn off Show external sources, the saved external player remains configured. A usable external player can still supply artwork; if it becomes unavailable, the external-input hide rule applies again.
Advanced Options
Turn on Advanced Filtering to reveal Only Show When. Enter matching media player attributes, such as app_id=com.apple.TVMusic or app_id=com.apple.TVMusic; media_content_type=music. Turning Advanced Filtering off clears the saved conditions.
Playback time and the progress bar appear only when Home Assistant provides a usable media duration. Live radio streams without a duration continue to show artwork and track details without an empty progress line.
If cover art is shown for TV or Line-in instead of hidden, the artist line shows Source because these inputs normally do not provide artist data.
Cover art is separate from the normal Screensaver mode. Use Screensaver when you want the panel to dim, show a clock, or turn off after inactivity.
For artwork downloads, open Settings > System > Home Assistant Settings. Connection > Automatic discovers a local Home Assistant endpoint. Manual lets you choose Home Assistant Host (optional), Home Assistant Protocol (http or https), and Home Assistant Port. Leave Host blank to use the address from the ESPHome connection. Enter a DNS name such as homeassistant.example.com when HTTPS uses a certificate issued to that name. A self-signed certificate still needs to be trusted by the panel; this setting does not disable certificate verification. The card shows the current artwork endpoint. See Home Assistant Settings for discovery and fallback behavior.
Track Details Work but Artwork Is Missing
Playback metadata uses the native ESPHome connection; image downloads use HTTP or HTTPS. One can work while the other fails.
- Confirm the selected player has artwork in Home Assistant.
- Open Settings > System > Home Assistant Settings and check the displayed artwork endpoint.
- If automatic discovery chooses an unreachable endpoint, use Manual and enter the host, protocol, and port that work from the panel's network. Leave the host blank to use the panel's Home Assistant API address. Automatic discovery only trusts an advertised URL on that same IP; use Manual for a hostname-based proxy or a proxy on a different host.
- Retry playback. Confirm both the small Cover Art card and its expanded view load an image.
Artwork availability depends on the source. If only Spotify, radio, Plex, or another source fails, capture USB logs and include the source and firmware version in a report, with private URLs and credentials removed.