Getting started
Using Theatrium with no smart home
Works with: Any Apple TV2 minute read
No Home Assistant, no Apple Home, no problem. Theatrium still fills your screen with weather, news, a calendar, webcams, markets and your music.
What this is
Choose Apple TV only at setup and Theatrium runs with no smart home at all. Instead of lights and thermostats, it fills the dashboard with cards that fetch their own information from the internet, plus your music.
Cards that work with nothing connected
Every card below is marked with a small globe in the card chooser, which means "needs no smart home".
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Weather, Weather Radar, Sun and Moon, Outdoor Air Quality | Conditions for where you are |
| Calendar, Appointments, Meeting Room | Events from a calendar you share with the TV |
| News | Headlines and pictures from sources you choose |
| Markets, Stock, Crypto | Prices, no account needed |
| Global Postcard, Live Video | Public webcams around the world, or a video link you set |
| Art, Photo Album, Relaxing Scenes | Paintings, your photos, calm video loops |
| Traffic | Driving time on a route you save |
| Now Playing | Your music, from Apple Music, Spotify (through Last.fm), Last.fm, Plex or Sonos |
| Network Speed, Apple TV Performance | How this Apple TV and your internet are doing |
| The six Plex cards | If you have a Plex media server |
The music room, the visualizer and the screensavers all work as well. Room light sync does need lights to control, so it stays off.
Setting it up
- On Choose your backend, choose Apple TV only.
- Theatrium builds a starter dashboard from the cards above. Accept it or change any card.
- Tell Theatrium where you are, so the weather and radar are right: Settings › Connections › Location, then type your town. Without this it guesses from your internet connection, which can be a long way out.
- If you have a calendar you would like on screen, see The Calendar card for how to get its address.
Adding a smart home later
You can connect one at any time. Open Settings › Connections and press Switch…. Setup runs again with the new choice, and your web cards stay.