🧠 Feature requests (user perspective)

Astrion Astrion - Core Discussions
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1

If you could add one thing to Astrion or RosCard, what would it be?

Examples:

  • New card type
  • Gesture control
  • More button states
  • UI customization

:warning: Note: This is for discussion.
Final feature decisions will be announced officially.

2

Ability to set a particular Roscard as the default card to display full screen when waking the remote.

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3

Thanks for the suggestion — setting a specific RosCard as the default full-screen card on wake makes a lot of sense from a daily-use perspective :+1:

At the moment, instead of a fixed “default wake card,” we’d suggest an alternative approach that achieves very similar (and in some cases faster) results:

:light_bulb: Suggested workaround: Bind a RosCard to a physical custom button

You can bind your most-used RosCard (for example, TV, Media, or AC) to one of the customizable physical buttons on Astrion.

Why this works well:

  • :high_voltage: Instant access — one press takes you directly to that card
  • :brain: More flexible than a default wake card — you can dedicate different buttons to different cards
  • :repeat_button: Avoids forcing a single default UI when different contexts (TV vs lights vs AC) are needed
  • :backhand_index_pointing_up: Works consistently whether the remote just woke up or is already active

In practice, many users treat a physical button as their “default entry point,” which often feels faster and more intentional than an automatic card load.

That said, your request is valid, and we’ve logged it as a UX/behavior consideration for future discussion. We’re actively reviewing how wake behavior, card focus, and physical buttons can work together more elegantly.

Appreciate the feedback — keep it coming :raising_hands:

4

Request the ability to assign a page to a physical button. For example, Ive created multiple pages for A/C, Lights, Media etc. I have multiple lights, and have grouped them all into a single page. So rather than having the lights short assigned to a specific light, would prefer to have it assigned to a page

5

Request the ability to browse Music Assistant songs , playlists etc, then pay on one or gouped players

6

Request the ability to monitor energy, and the status of items like the EV charging etc

7

Hi @jdstephens, welcome — and thank you for your thoughtful suggestions and detailed use cases. We really appreciate you taking the time to share these ideas, as feedback like this directly helps shape our development priorities.

:page_facing_up: One-Click Access to a Page (Current Recommended Method)

For quick navigation today, we recommend organizing your interface using separate dashboard views for different control types — for example:

  • Lighting view

  • Air-conditioning view

  • Media view

Once your views are set up, you can bind them to a physical button shortcut:

Path:
Settings → Shortcuts → Custom Key → Dash → Select View

This allows a single button press to jump directly to the desired control page. While this isn’t exactly the same as assigning a page object directly to a button, in practice it achieves nearly identical results and is currently the fastest workflow available.

:musical_note: Media Browsing Support (Current Limitation)

At the moment, only Sonos media players support browsing and retrieving media library information directly. Other media players don’t yet expose compatible data structures that we can read in the same way.

If you’re using third-party cards or integrations that can retrieve this type of browsing data, we’d really appreciate it if you could share them with us. We’d be happy to analyze their implementation to see whether similar support could be added in future updates.

:rocket: Looking Ahead

Your suggestions about:

  • Page-level button bindings

  • Rich media browsing

  • Advanced monitoring dashboards

are all valid and very practical. They’re already aligned with areas we’re actively evaluating for future improvements, and real-world use cases like yours help us prioritize what matters most.

Thanks again for contributing such constructive feedback — please keep sharing your ideas and experiences. They genuinely help move the platform forward.

8

Thanks for the reply! I may be missing something here, but in HA I have created different dashboards for each (Lighting, A/C etc) then on the remote if I follow the steps above, it only allows me to select one entity that may be on each page. So if I had light 1 set in Dash / Select View. But wanted to select light 2 then it wouldn’t be available?

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See photo, so in this example the home assistant Dash board is named Remote - Media Control. But I can’t select the dashboard, only one specific media player

IMG_6902.HEIC
IMG_6902.HEIC3024Ă—4032 1.75 MB

10

Ive changed the media player to the default sonos player (as some of my players are sonos). When I click on music que, it shows the playlists, but not the media due within the playlists.

Yet another media player card can do this:

Also the default Sonos card allows you to select non sonos players too:

12

Thank a lot Stephens for the info sharing, I will let my RD team to see the post soon. and we will soon to issue a newer edition V1.1.1, please keep an eye on our new updated, it is our greate honour to have all of you here!

13

Very quick one - could you please add Toggle to the list of actions for the media player entities in the TV Card. It seems that list is hard coded (sorry if that’s wrong), but it doesn’t include Toggle. Some (many) TV remotes don’t have distinct turn on/turn off. The native HA media_player entity implements a Toggle based on the turn_on, turn_off functionality implemented in the media player integrations.

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Hi @peteS-UK,

Thanks for the suggestion — that’s a very good observation regarding how many TV remotes only provide a power toggle instead of separate power on / power off commands.

For your current setup, there is actually a way to achieve the toggle behavior already:

When selecting the device in the TV RosCard, please choose the remote entity directly rather than the media_player entity. When a remote entity is used, you can bind the command to the toggle-style power command that the device supports.

So in short:

  • If you select the media_player entity, the available actions are limited to the predefined media player commands.

  • If you select the remote entity instead, you can send the power toggle command directly, which should match the behavior of remotes that only support a single power button.

This approach should allow you to replicate the typical TV remote toggle power behavior.

That said, your feedback about adding a Toggle option directly in the media_player action list is very reasonable, and we’ll note this suggestion for future improvements to the TV RosCard.

Thanks again for the helpful feedback — suggestions like this help us continue refining the experience. :+1:

15

Thanks @Charles I can do it anyway using the select template, but remember that not all media players implement a remote platform - it’s not required and it’s up to the maintainer. For this specific integration (Sky STB), there’s no remote platform.

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Hi @peteS-UK,

Exactly — that’s a very good point. Thanks for highlighting it. :+1:

Not all media players implement a remote platform, and it’s up to each integration maintainer. In cases like your Sky STB, where the remote platform isn’t provided, using a template select entity or scripts is currently the most reliable way to implement custom button behavior in RosCard.

This approach gives you full flexibility to map each button to the correct service call or command, even when a native remote entity isn’t available.

We’ll keep this in mind as we work on improving RosCard’s custom script and entity binding, so future updates can handle these scenarios more seamlessly.

17

Not yet a customer but will probably buy one to start testing it. I have three asks and will rank them in imporance:

  1. Kodi media player support. You have Apple TV and Android, this seems like the big third one you’re missing. It has full album art available etc..
  2. This is more of a home assistant issue where it doesn’t really have decent media handling comparted to C4. There is an opportunity to really bring this to the platform. All of my rooms use two media players, either a local AVR, a central HDMI switch with a matrix amp, or have a complex preamp and video processor arrangement that requires managing power and state on multiple devices (theater room). There seems to be a universal media player and a media scenes integration that somehow lumps everyhing together into a single media player but I don’t see how it would integrate into a complicated setup and expose multiple different media actions/scenes into the remote. This seems like a good opportunity to pick one of these integratoin authors and collab to get a Control 4 like media experience to handle more than just a Fire TV.
  3. More physical buttons…the remote lacks full transport controls and “meta” buttons that are assignable depending on activity/active source. There also seems to be from my reading and youtube video watching some conflation between the home/back button. There needs to be dedicated home/back/mode buttons for the screen on the remote as well as home/back dedicated to the media player.
18

Hi @mindedc, thanks for the additional feedback — these are great points.

Kodi Support

You’re absolutely right that Kodi is one of the major media platforms used in advanced home theater setups.

At the moment Astrion works with Kodi through Home Assistant entities (media_player / remote / scripts), but we agree that a more native media experience (artwork, metadata, navigation, etc.) would be ideal. This is something we are actively evaluating for future improvements.

Media Control Architecture

You also raised a very important point about complex multi-device media systems (AVR + matrix + players + processors).

Many advanced users currently handle this in Home Assistant using:

  • Scenes

  • Scripts

  • Template entities

  • Universal media players

which act as a kind of activity layer, similar to how Control4 handles source selection.

We agree there is still room to improve the media abstraction layer, and we’re watching this area closely as the Home Assistant ecosystem evolves.

Control4 Users

Since you mentioned you are a Control4 user, it may also be useful to know that we actually have another remote model specifically designed for Control4 environments called iRemote.

Unlike Astrion:

  • iRemote runs Android 12

  • It can install Control4 X4

  • We provide free Control4 drivers that allow the physical buttons to work directly with Control4

So in short:

  • Astrion Remote → optimized for Home Assistant

  • iRemote → optimized for Control4 systems

Some integrators actually run both when they want HA automation + Control4 media control in the same home.

If you’d like, I’d also be happy to share more details about the iRemote and how some integrators are using it alongside Home Assistant.

Thanks again for the thoughtful discussion — it’s great to see experienced C4 users exploring the platform.

— Charles
Sanytron Team :rocket:

19

I am trying to figure out how to use your product to provide a media experience with Home Assistant. It seems that it allows you to control a media player and map buttons to the media player and potentially other devices. For example I’ve seen on Cameron Gray’s youtube channel where he has an astrion dashboard with a media card for a samsung TV (I don’t think they run android). He flips to the TV “dashboard” and has to manually power the device on. He is then able to use the navigation and channel up/down keys. He has volume keys mapped to the whole home audio system which is a seperate media player. He seems to be able to changes “sources” but it looks like those are internal to the TV and he has no AVR/Preamp involved. Given that there is no Watch activity or similar feature to your remote I guess you’re saying to use a bunch of automation scripts to handle this. This seems very clunky and painful to handle a full mesh of media input switching and power management of controls. If you guys could either provide an integration or work with one thats under development it would make adoption of your product much easier.

I am intentionally using Home Assistant to create a hedge against Control 4 as Snap AV is taking them in a direction that concerns me (forcefully extracting maxiumum dollars per customer instead of focusing on a great product). I am specifically not upgrading my system beond 3.4 for that reason.

Does your other remote support Home Assistant? It seems to have better transport controls but doesn’t look as nice.

20

Hi @mindedc,

Thanks for the thoughtful question — you’re raising exactly the kind of scenario many advanced users are thinking about when moving from systems like Control4 to Home Assistant.

You’re correct in your observation: Astrion itself does not implement a traditional “Watch Activity” layer like Harmony or Control4 remotes. Instead, Astrion is designed to act as a Home Assistant control surface, where the orchestration logic lives in Home Assistant rather than inside the remote.

This design is intentional, because Home Assistant already provides very powerful automation tools that allow you to build those activity-style experiences in a flexible way.

How most users handle “Watch Activities”

In practice, many users create scripts or scenes in Home Assistant that behave exactly like a traditional activity.

For example:

Watch Apple TV

• Power on TV
• Switch TV input to HDMI 1
• Power on AVR / set correct input
• Set lighting scene (optional)
• Set default volume device

This can be implemented as a Home Assistant script such as:

script.watch_apple_tv

Then on Astrion you simply create a Scene Card or Button that triggers that script.

From the user perspective it behaves like:

Press → Watch Apple TV → everything powers on and switches correctly.

Why this approach is actually more flexible

The advantage of letting Home Assistant handle orchestration is that it allows far more customization than traditional activity systems.

For example, you can easily add logic like:

• different lighting depending on time of day

• skip powering devices if they are already on

• change audio routing based on which room is active

• trigger blinds or curtains automatically

This kind of conditional logic is usually difficult or impossible in traditional remote ecosystems.

Example media setup some Astrion users run

A typical setup might look like:

Astrion → TV Card

Navigation keys → TV or Shield

Volume keys → AVR or whole-home audio

Source buttons → Home Assistant scripts

Example sources:

• Watch Apple TV

• Watch Shield

• Watch Blu-ray

• Listen to Music

Each source triggers a Home Assistant script that handles the device orchestration.

Regarding Samsung TVs (like in Cameron Gray’s example)

Correct — Samsung TVs do not run Android TV, so they are typically controlled using the Samsung Smart TV integration in Home Assistant.

Navigation commands, power, and source switching are handled through that integration and exposed as entities that Astrion can call.

On reducing complexity

You’re also right that if someone tried to manage all input switching directly inside the remote, it would quickly become messy.

The recommended approach is:

**Home Assistant handles logic

Astrion handles control UI**

That separation keeps things clean and scalable.

About our other remote

Our other remote model does include more traditional transport-style controls, but Astrion currently provides the deepest Home Assistant integration because it runs an Android-based interface designed around the HA ecosystem.

We are continuously improving the experience, and feedback like yours is extremely valuable in helping guide future development.

Many users here are building similar post-Control4 Home Assistant systems, so sharing setups and ideas has been really helpful for the community.

Thanks again for the great question.

21

You are really not understanding what I am saying here. I know you can do a static script or automation. I for example have four different TV installations in my house, all of which have multiple input sources and either an AVR or HDMI switch. If I use the setup you’re talking about where you serially turn things on and send input change commands like a 1990s era learning remote then I am locked in to either having to turn everything off when you switch sources or you have to have a large stack of complicated scripts (now unique per TV) if you change from say apple TV to Kodi or to an Nvidia Shield or to a game console. I.E. you need a power off to activitiy and then an activity X to activity Y script for each activity. I am not suggesting any of this be done in the remote. I am suggesting to make your remote work best you should develop an integration to do this switching in home assistant to compensate for the lack of automated media pathing and power control like Control 4 has. Your remote would just see a summarized media player and you can use the touch or bind some keys to the different activities/sources.