Streamline Your Media: Integrating Tdarr With Home Assistant

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A digital, abstract illustration of Tdarr nodes connected to each other.

In the age of digital media, managing a large home video collection can be both challenging and resource-intensive. Enter Tdarr, a cutting-edge, distributed transcoding system designed to streamline your media management. This guide delves into the seamless integration of Tdarr with Home Assistant, a powerful tool that transforms your approach to handling media files. By combining Tdarr’s transcoding capabilities with Home Assistant’s automation features, you unlock a new level of efficiency and control. Whether you're looking to optimize your media for different devices, free up disk space, or simply organize your collection more effectively, this integration presents an innovative solution. Read on to discover how you can harness the full potential of Tdarr and Home Assistant.

Contents

Tame Your Growing Video Collection With Tdarr

Struggling with an overflowing video library and unused or underused GPU? Tdarr is your solution. This powerful, distributed transcoding system specializes in converting, cleaning, and organizing media files efficiently. It's compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, and supports both x86 and Arm processors. Tdarr stands out with its use of renowned engines like HandBrake and FFmpeg, and offers a Docker image for convenience.

Why Tdarr and Home Assistant Are a Perfect Pair

Integrating Tdarr with Home Assistant elevates automation to a new level. This pairing brings your transcoding tasks into the realm of smart automation, syncing seamlessly with platforms like Plex Media Server. Imagine having your transcoding pause automatically when streaming begins, or optimizing GPU use during peak solar energy hours. That's the efficiency Tdarr and Home Assistant offer.

How to Install the Tdarr Integration in Home Assistant

As there currently is no official integration, following this guide will require you to install the Tdarr custom integration for Home Assistant. As is always the case when it comes to custom integration and third-party Home Assistant Dashboard cards, the only recommended way of adding them is by using the Home Assistant Community Store (HACS). If you haven't done so yet, you will need to set it up by following the guide on the website.

With HACS set up, you can enter it and search for tdarr, which should bring up the custom integration automatically. Install the integration and restart Home Assistant when prompted, to complete the task.

Adding a Tdarr Server to Home Assistant

Before you start, make sure you have at least one node connected to your Tdarr server. If you don't, the integration won't work properly. After completing this step, head over to the Home Assistant Dashboard and look for the Tdarr integration in the settings section. There, you can add the IP and port of your Tdarr server. Once you hit the submit button, the configured server should automatically show up in your list of integrations. By default, the Tdarr server will be polled every minute, a number which you can adjust in the integration's settings.

A screenshot of the Home Assistant Dashboard showing the Tdarr server located at 192.168.1.10 being added as an integration.
The Tdarr integration requires you to enter the server's IP and port.

Tdarr Sensors in Home Assistant

Integrating Tdarr with Home Assistant unlocks a range of insightful sensors, providing a comprehensive overview of your media transcoding activities:

These sensors enhance your Home Assistant experience by providing essential data, allowing you to manage and optimize your media library more effectively.

A screenshot displaying the sensors added to Home Assistant by the Tdarr integration.

Tdarr switches in Home Assistant

Finally, and most importantly, the Tdarr integration with Home Assistant provides you with access to switches. These can be used to activate and deactivate individual nodes.

A screenshot of the Home Assistant Dashboard showing a switch added by the Tdarr integration
A portrait photo oif Liam Alexander Colman, the author, creator, and owner of Home Assistant Guide wearing a suit.

About Liam Alexander Colman

is an experienced Home Assistant user who has been utilizing the platform for a variety of projects over an extended period. His journey began with a Raspberry Pi, which quickly grew to three Raspberry Pis and eventually a full-fledged server. Liam's current operating system of choice is Unraid, with Home Assistant comfortably running in a Docker container.
With a deep understanding of the intricacies of Home Assistant, Liam has an impressive setup, consisting of various Zigbee devices, and seamless integrations with existing products such as his Android TV box. For those interested in learning more about Liam's experience with Home Assistant, he shares his insights on how he first started using the platform and his subsequent journey.

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