"Play the artist <foo>" shows a media screen, but nothing plays. Nothing obvious in traces.

[undrwater]

This on an Echo Show 5. I can play music manually from Music Assistant to the Echo, but the blueprint does not start actual music even though artist name was recognized, display changes to the media player, and "Playing music" is reported by the TTS.

Some of the logs in the service:

4:12:45 PM - 35 seconds ago Current path changed to /view-assist/music
4:12:43 PM - 37 seconds ago VACA changed to Playing Brand X music
changed to Idle

[dinki]

Make sure you have your music player device configured correctly. Music Assistant creates a separate device that it uses to play music to. It will normally be named the same as what you think it should be but will end in '_2'

[undrwater]

I was going about this in the wrong way. I had used snapcast that plays music to the Echo 5. That works well. I assume I can't use voice because it assumes "stream assist" is required in the configuration described here: https://github.com/dinki/View-Assist/wiki/View-Assist-device-configuration#satellite-custom-device-configuration

I'm running HA core in a python venv, so I assume I"ll have to use the following: https://github.com/AlexxIT/StreamAssist

StreamAssist is not a searchable integration, nor available in HACS.

[dinki]

I'm no expert. The blueprint we provide uses Music Assistant and the media_player device it provides is used by the blueprint.

Stream Assist is used for voice input. That was once the preferred method before we moved to preferring Wyoming and then finally VACA.

[undrwater]

OK...i'll look into the blueprint then to see if i can use the snapcast player.

[undrwater]

So it appears the blueprint grabs the music_player from Music Assistant. I have several players defined there, but the Echo is the default. The Echo changes to the media player screen and reports it is playing the requested artist. No music though.

I'll check logs. Any clue where to look? Thanks!

[undrwater]

I think i have a choice. Either dig into VACA, or use another of the satellite services. On the media screen, bottom right is a button to select media sources. Music Assistant is not listed among the sources, so I suspect VACA isn't connected to Music Assistant.

Please let me know if my suspicions here are correct.

Thanks!

[dinki]

Any luck?

[undrwater]

I was able to figure this out with the help of the VACA developer. I had missed adding the Home Assistant player provider.