Guide · Dashboard Easy

Set up your dashboard cards

Every panel on the Theatrium dashboard is a slot, and any slot can hold any card. The theme decides the shape and position of the panels; you decide what goes in each one. This walks through changing a panel, in about two minutes, entirely on the Apple TV.

Every change can be undone. Every panel has a default card, and one button puts it back. If you change something and don't like it, you have not lost the original arrangement.

1

Open the panel editor

From the dashboard, select the gear icon in the header to open Settings. Then choose Dashboard in the sidebar, and find the Main Screen card.

You get two things side by side: a numbered list of every panel on the left, and a small map of your dashboard on the right, with the same numbers on it. The map is there so you can tell which number is which panel without guessing.

2

Pick the panel you want to change

Each row in the list names the card currently in that panel, with a line underneath saying what it is showing. A row marked Default is one you have not touched yet.

Move focus down the list and the map highlights the matching panel. Select the row to open the card picker.

3

Choose a card

The picker is headed Choose a card, and shows the cards you can put in that panel. The list down the left narrows them by group — All, Home, Energy, Media, Information and Activity — and the Works with boxes beneath it narrow them by smart home. Pick the card you want.

Top right there is a Restore Stock Card button. It clears whatever you set and puts the panel's original card back.

4

Tell it what to show

Most cards need to know what they are pointing at, so choosing one leads straight into its setup. A Light card asks which light or room. A Sensor card asks which sensor. A News card asks for a feed. A Weather Radar card asks for a place and how much of the map to show.

A few cards need nothing at all — Sun & Moon, Global Postcard and Notifications work the moment you pick them.

5

Check the preview, then back out

Most setup screens show a Preview drawn at the panel's real shape, so you can see what it will actually look like in that position rather than imagining it. When it looks right, choose the button at the foot of the screen — Add to Dashboard, or a name that says what it adds, such as Add Calendar Card — and you return to the dashboard with the card in place.

The cards you can choose

This is the catalogue in version 1.9, grouped the way the picker groups it. Cards marked Pro need Theatrium Pro. On a card’s tile, a globe means it needs no smart home at all, a Home Assistant or Apple Home icon means it works only with that one, and no mark means it works with any smart home.

Home

  • Light — control one light or a whole room
  • Thermostat — temperature and mode for one unit
  • Blinds & Covers — open, stop and close, one or many
  • Lock — lock and unlock, one or many
  • Switch — switches and outlets, one or many
  • Scene — activate scenes or scripts
  • Camera — a camera from your smart home
  • Air Quality — a reading from one of your own sensors
  • Sensor — the current value from any sensor
  • Notifications (Pro) — doorbells, motion and alerts from your home; see the Notifications guide
  • Who’s Home (Pro) — who is home right now
  • Storage (Pro) — disk or NAS capacity, used and free
  • System Metrics (Pro) — processor, memory or any other reading
  • Network Speed (Pro) — broadband speed, measured from your Apple TV
  • Apple TV Performance (Pro) — processor, memory, storage and network for your Apple TV

Energy

  • Battery — level for one device or many
  • Solar (Pro) — generation, grid flow and today’s energy
  • Home Battery (Pro) — storage charge, flow and state
  • Electric Car (Pro) — charge, range and charging status

Media

  • Now Playing — your music, from the source set in Settings › Now Playing
  • Cameras & Streams (Pro) — your own streams, with channel and volume controls
  • Global Postcard — public webcams from around the world, changing automatically
  • Music Visualizer (Pro) — the music visualizers, played in a card
  • Art (Pro) — paintings from open museum collections
  • Photo Album (Pro) — your photos from a chosen album
  • Relaxing Scenes (Pro) — calm scenes on a silent loop
  • Plex cards — Plex Player, Plex Server, Plex Now Streaming, Library Stats, Plex Activity and Plex Top Charts; they appear once Plex is connected (see the Plex cards guide)

Information

  • Weather — current conditions and forecast
  • Weather Radar — a live rain-radar map
  • Precipitation (Pro) — hour-by-hour rain chance and rainfall
  • Calendar — month view and upcoming events; see the Calendar guide
  • Appointments (Pro) — upcoming medical appointments, in plain language; see the Medical appointments guide
  • To-Do List (Pro) — a checklist from your Reminders or a Home Assistant list; see the To-Do List guide
  • Countdown — days until Halloween, Christmas, birthdays or a date you choose. One event is free; several events and several Countdown cards are Pro. See the Countdown guide
  • Timers — kitchen and household timers, on their own or from Home Assistant. One of Theatrium’s own timers at a time is free; several at once are Pro. See the Timers guide
  • Meeting Room (Pro) — availability board from a calendar
  • Markets, Stock, Crypto — indices and currencies, one symbol with a chart, one coin’s price
  • News — headlines from an RSS feed you choose
  • Bluesky (Pro) — posts from accounts you pick
  • Outdoor Air Quality — US AQI for your location, no sensor needed
  • Sun & Moon — sunrise, sunset and moon phase
  • Traffic (Pro) — driving time on a saved route

Activity

  • Activity (Pro) — steps, heart rate, sleep and other metrics you choose; see the Apple Health guide
  • Workouts (Pro) — recent rides and runs, and your distance this week

Good to know

  • Card choices belong to the theme. Each theme keeps its own arrangement, so a card you set on one theme will not follow you to another. Switch back and your first arrangement is still there, exactly as you left it.
  • Any panel can hold any card. The numbers are positions, not purposes. Nothing stops you putting a Camera where the weather usually goes.
  • “Default” means untouched, not empty. A row reading Default is showing the card the theme ships with. Restore Stock Card in the picker returns a panel to it.
  • Every card is in the picker, except Plex until it is connected. The Plex cards only appear once Plex is connected. A card your smart home cannot feed is still shown, with a mark for the backend it needs; choosing it explains what to connect. The Works with boxes under the group list narrow the picker to what your setup supports.
  • Typing long text on a remote. Some cards want an address — a news feed, a calendar link. If your iPhone is nearby, tvOS offers to let you type it there instead. Accept, and it arrives on the TV screen.
  • Nothing here changes your smart home. Choosing cards only changes what Theatrium shows you. It does not rename, group or alter anything in Apple Home or Home Assistant.

This guide is general information, provided “as is” with no warranty of any kind. It describes independent third-party software that Theatrium does not control, and the steps involve installing software and changing settings on your own equipment — back up first and proceed at your own risk. Read the full disclaimer.