The home movie theater experience is nothing without automated lighting. This post explains how to automate the lights in your TV room using a script for Plex.

The script integrates Plex with your Philips Hue smart bulbs, so that you never have to manually adjust the lights again when watching a film.

The lights can also be configured to work only when the film is of a certain length, when the lights are already on, or when it’s dark outside.

1. Download and extract the HelloHue plugin to the following path;

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins
• Linux: $PLEX_HOME/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins

2. Restart Plex Media Server

3. Open Plex and navigate to ‘Channels’ / ‘Plugins’ in the left hand navigation window

4. Hover over the ‘Hello Hue; tile and click the settings button (the cog wheel)

5. Configure your Plex.TV login and password, Plex Server Address and Hue Bridge Server Address (make sure that you are connected to the internet as the channel will request a token from plex.tv), press save (all the way down at the bottom of the page).

6. Open the HelloHue plugin from the Channels / Plugins page, press the physical connect button on your Philips Hue Bridge and then select ‘Press button on your bridge and click to connect’

7. Ignoring any error message you may or may not receive, open the HelloHue plugin from the Channels / Plugins page again and test the configuration by opening ‘My Lights’ and switching on one of your lights

8. Hard part done, now you need to configure the preferences for playback. Open the settings page again, configure the following:

• Nearest city from your location Used to calculate to calculate sunrise/sunset hours at your location.
• Preset 1, color (hex): # hexadecimal color value for lights preset 1 (don’t write the #).
• Preset 1, brightness: brightness value for lights preset 1.
• Activate HelloHue in room 1 Tick to activate room 1 (and fill the client, users and lights settings for room 1).
• Name of plex client able to trigger in room 1 You can find the list of users in PMS -> settings -> devices. Only put ONE client per room. If your have two clients in the same room, activate an other room and fill the settings with the other clients name and the same lights names.
• Name of the users able to trigger in room 1 You can find the list of users in PMS -> settings -> users -> myhome. You can put multiple users (comma separated values, case sensitive).
• Name of the lights to trigger in room 1 is the list of lights that will be triggered in room 1. You can put multiple users (comma separated values, case sensitive).
• When a media is playing in room 1 is the action that will fire when a media is playing in room 1.
• When a media is paused in room 1 is the action that will fire when a media is paused in room 1.
• When a media is stopped in room 1 is the action that will fire when a media is stopped in room 1.
• Choose dim value in room 1 is the value your lights will dim to. (20 is the min brightness and 240 is max)
• Randomize hue and saturation on Dim/Turn On in room 1 will randomize your light color each time the action turn on or dim is fired.
• Only trigger lights if it's dark outside in room 1 Tick to only trigger your lights between sunrise and sunset.