Build this dashboard in about an hour

• AVR Maestro is linked to Home Assistant and has synced. The setup guide covers that. You should be able to see your controls in Home Assistant before you build anything on top of them.
• Your receiver is added to Home Assistant. Settings › Devices & Services › Add Integration › Denon AVR, then its local IP. This is what gives the dashboard its live state.
• Your receiver is switched on while you build. Half of what you are about to write reads live values, and a receiver in standby publishes almost nothing.

Two things feed this dashboard, and the difference matters at every step below.

All four are in the default HACS store. In Home Assistant: HACS › Frontend › Explore & Download Repositories, search the name, Download, then reload your browser.

Every snippet on this page uses two placeholders. Find yours once and the rest is copy and paste.

• media_player.your_receiver → Settings › Devices & Services › your receiver › the media player entity. Something like media_player.marantz_cinema_30.
• script.avr_maestro_MAC_... → Developer Tools › States, and type avr_maestro in the entity filter. Your whole control list appears.

The middle of every script ID is your receiver's MAC address, twelve lowercase characters, the same on all of them. Copy it once. Everywhere this page writes MAC, put yours.

1. 1. Settings › Dashboards › Add Dashboard › New dashboard from scratch. Call it whatever you like.
2. 2. Open it, then the pencil icon top right to edit.
3. 3. Add a view, and choose the Sections layout. Not Masonry. Sections is what makes it reflow properly on a phone.
4. 4. In the view settings, set Max columns to 3 and turn on Dense section placement.

From here on, every step is: add a section, then paste cards into it. To paste YAML, use the three-dot menu on a card and choose Edit in YAML, or the three-dot menu on the dashboard for Raw configuration editor to paste the whole thing at once.

# The view's own settings, if you prefer to type them
type: sections
title: AVR Maestro
icon: mdi:audio-video
max_columns: 3
dense_section_placement: true

Start with the simplest thing on the board, so you know your entity IDs are right before you build anything complicated. Add a section, add a card, Edit in YAML, paste:

type: button
name: Pure Direct
icon: mdi:speaker
tap_action:
  action: perform-action
  perform_action: script.turn_on
  target:
    entity_id: script.avr_maestro_MAC_mode_pure_direct

Stock Home Assistant. No HACS needed.

Tap it. If the receiver changes, your IDs are right and everything below will work. If nothing happens, go back to step 2.

This is the pattern worth learning, and every source and surround tile on the board is a copy of it. The card sends a script, and colours itself from the receiver entity, so the input you are actually on is lit and the others are not.

type: custom:mushroom-template-card
entity: script.avr_maestro_MAC_input_cd
icon: mdi:disc
primary: CD
icon_color: >-
  {{ 'orange' if (state_attr('media_player.your_receiver','source') or '')|lower
     == 'cd' else 'grey' }}
layout: vertical
fill_container: true
tap_action:
  action: perform-action
  perform_action: script.turn_on
  target:
    entity_id: script.avr_maestro_MAC_input_cd
card_mod:
  style: |
    ha-card {
      border-radius: 14px;
    {% if (state_attr('media_player.your_receiver','source') or '')|lower == 'cd' %}
      background: linear-gradient(160deg, rgba(226,86,10,0.34), rgba(15,15,17,0.88));
      border: 1px solid rgba(255,122,24,0.80);
    {% else %}
      background: rgba(15,15,17,0.72);
      border: 1px solid rgba(255,122,24,0.14);
    {% endif %}
    }

Change three things per input: the script, the icon, and the string it compares against.

Two things to get right, or a tile will never light:

• Compare against what your receiver actually reports. Developer Tools › States, your media player entity, read the source_list and sound_mode_list attributes. Those are the exact strings. Compare lowercase, as above.
• A renamed input reports its new name. Rename GAME1 to "Xbox" on the receiver and it reports Xbox, while the AVR Maestro control is still called input_game1. Match on what the receiver reports, not on the script name.

Surround modes are the same card with sound_mode in place of source.

A plain title is dead space. Put the live value under it and "Sources" becomes "Sources / Now on Nvidia Shield".

type: custom:button-card
name: Sources
icon: mdi:video-input-hdmi
color_type: label-card
entity: media_player.your_receiver
show_label: true
label: >-
  [[[ var v = states["media_player.your_receiver"].attributes.source;
      return v ? ("Now on " + v) : "Receiver in standby"; ]]]
tap_action:
  action: none
styles:
  grid:
    - grid-template-areas: '"i n" "i l"'
    - grid-template-columns: min-content auto
  name:
    - font-size: 13px
    - letter-spacing: 3px
    - text-transform: uppercase
    - justify-self: start
  label:
    - font-size: 11px
    - justify-self: start

The two-line grid is what puts the label under the title instead of beside it.

Swap attributes.source for attributes.sound_mode on the Surround header, and so on.

Home Assistant reports volume as a fraction. Nobody sets a receiver to "0.67". One line of maths fixes it and the whole section starts reading like a receiver.

# The readout
type: custom:mushroom-template-card
entity: media_player.your_receiver
icon: mdi:volume-high
primary: >-
  {% set v = state_attr('media_player.your_receiver','volume_level') %}
  {% if v is not none %}{{ (v * 100 - 80) | round(1) }} dB{% else %}Standby{% endif %}
secondary: Master volume
layout: vertical

# The slider. media_controls must be empty or the bar becomes a power button
type: custom:mushroom-media-player-card
entity: media_player.your_receiver
volume_controls:
  - volume_set
media_controls: []
show_volume_level: true

# A preset. 0.50 is master volume 50, which is -30 dB
type: custom:mushroom-template-card
entity: media_player.your_receiver
icon: mdi:weather-night
primary: Night
secondary: "-30 dB"
tap_action:
  action: perform-action
  perform_action: media_player.volume_set
  target:
    entity_id: media_player.your_receiver
  data:
    volume_level: 0.50

Read the name from the script instead of typing it, and renaming a Scene in AVR Maestro renames the tile with no dashboard edit.

type: custom:mushroom-template-card
entity: script.avr_maestro_MAC_scene_1234567890123
icon: mdi:theater
primary: >-
  {{ state_attr('script.avr_maestro_MAC_scene_1234567890123','friendly_name')
     | replace('AVR Maestro - ', '') | replace(' (Your Receiver)', '') }}
secondary: >-
  {% set t = states.script['avr_maestro_MAC_scene_1234567890123'].attributes.last_triggered %}
  {{ 'recalled ' ~ relative_time(t) ~ ' ago' if t else 'not run yet' }}
multiline_secondary: true
tap_action:
  action: perform-action
  perform_action: script.turn_on
  target:
    entity_id: script.avr_maestro_MAC_scene_1234567890123

The two replace() calls trim the prefix and the receiver name off the friendly name.

A second line is worth the extra minute. A wall of evocatively named buttons tells you nothing at 11pm; a line saying what each one restores tells you which to press.

The receiver's media player entity is recorded by Home Assistant like any other, so you get a listening history for free. Everything below comes from that one entity: no extra sensors, no helpers, nothing to configure first.

The plain state timeline needs no custom cards at all, and is the one most worth having:

type: history-graph
hours_to_show: 168
entities:
  - entity: media_player.your_receiver
    name: Receiver

On, off, and what it was doing, across a week.

Volume in dB uses the same conversion as step 7:

type: custom:apexcharts-card
graph_span: 7d
header:
  show: true
  title: Master volume, last 7 days
series:
  - entity: media_player.your_receiver
    attribute: volume_level
    name: Master volume
    type: line
    curve: smooth
    unit: dB
    float_precision: 1
    transform: "return x == null ? null : Number(x) * 100 - 80;"
    extend_to: now
    group_by:
      duration: 1h
      func: last
      fill: last
apex_config:
  chart:
    height: 240
  yaxis:
    min: -60
    max: 0

group_by with fill: last turns sparse events into a continuous line. The y-axis has to go in apex_config to take effect.

A daily average and peak turns a spiky line into something with a shape:

type: custom:apexcharts-card
graph_span: 7d
span:
  end: day
header:
  show: true
  title: Master volume by day in dB, average and peak
series:
  - entity: media_player.your_receiver
    attribute: volume_level
    name: Day average
    type: column
    float_precision: 1
    transform: "return x == null ? null : Number(x) * 100;"
    group_by: {duration: 1d, func: avg, fill: 'null'}
  - entity: media_player.your_receiver
    attribute: volume_level
    name: Day peak
    type: line
    curve: smooth
    float_precision: 1
    transform: "return x == null ? null : Number(x) * 100;"
    group_by: {duration: 1d, func: max, fill: 'null'}
apex_config:
  yaxis:
    min: 0
    max: 80
    labels:
      formatter: "EVAL:function (v) { return (v - 80).toFixed(0); }"
  tooltip:
    y:
      formatter: "EVAL:function (v) { return v == null ? '' : (v - 80).toFixed(1) + ' dB'; }"

Two series off the same attribute, grouped by day.

And the two that answer "what do I actually watch on, and in what": source and surround mode, plotted as a timeline of which one was selected.

type: custom:apexcharts-card
graph_span: 7d
span:
  end: day
header:
  show: true
  title: Source in use, last 7 days
series:
  - entity: media_player.your_receiver
    attribute: source
    name: Source
    type: line
    curve: stepline
    stroke_width: 3
    extend_to: now
    float_precision: 0
    transform: |
      if (x == null) return null;
      var m = ["Phono", "NET", "Xbox", "Nvidia Shield"];
      var i = m.indexOf(x);
      return i < 0 ? 0 : i + 1;
apex_config:
  yaxis:
    min: 0
    max: 4
    tickAmount: 4
    labels:
      formatter: >-
        EVAL:function (v) { return ["Other", "Phono", "HEOS Net", "Xbox",
        "Shield"][Math.round(v)] || ''; }
  tooltip:
    y:
      formatter: >-
        EVAL:function (v) { return v == null ? 'off' : ["Other", "Phono",
        "HEOS Net", "Xbox", "Shield"][Math.round(v)] || 'Other'; }

Put your own sources in the transform array and in both formatter arrays. Keep index 0 as "Other".

A chart axis needs numbers, so the transform maps each source name to a position and the formatters map it back for the labels and the tooltip. Make the mapping total: null (receiver off) stays a gap, and anything not in your list falls to "Other", so the two can never be confused. Same card again with sound_mode gives you surround mode, with the strings in upper case exactly as your receiver reports them.

The complete view, every section and every card, with placeholders instead of entity IDs.

1. 1. Download the view YAML.
2. 2. Open it in any text editor and replace two strings, everywhere they appear: YOUR_RECEIVER with your media player entity's name, and YOURMAC with your receiver's twelve characters from step 2.
3. 3. In Home Assistant, open your dashboard, pencil icon, three-dot menu, Raw configuration editor, and paste it in as a view.

Before assuming you built it wrong: some of them cannot light up, and it is worth knowing which.

A tile can only show its state if Home Assistant can read it. Home Assistant reads your receiver through the Denon AVR integration, and that publishes a specific list.

Everything in the right-hand column is readable from the receiver - it answers when asked, over the same protocol AVR Maestro uses to draw its own screens. It just is not published to Home Assistant, so a dashboard has nowhere to read it from. Those buttons work perfectly; they cannot show you which one is active.

Measured on the receiver this was built on: twenty of sixty controls can show their state, and forty cannot. Publishing the other forty is on the roadmap, and it is the difference between a wall of buttons and a control surface.

icon_color: >-
  {% set d = state_attr('media_player.your_receiver','dynamic_eq') %}
  {{ 'orange' if d is true else 'grey' }}
secondary: >-
  {% set d = state_attr('media_player.your_receiver','dynamic_eq') %}
  {% if d is none %}state not published{% elif d %}on{% else %}off{% endif %}

Three states, not two.

• Tiles come out a third of the width you expect. In a section spanning 3 columns the internal grid is 36 columns, not 12. For four tiles across, set grid_options: {columns: 9}. For six across, 6.
• The volume slider shows a power button instead of a bar. That is media_controls with on_off in it. Set media_controls: [].
• Labels truncate. "Volume Down" becomes "Volume Do...". Shorten to "Vol Down", or widen the tile.
• Scene descriptions get clipped. Add multiline_secondary: true.
• A steady line disappears from an apexcharts graph. That is experimental.color_threshold. It draws the stroke as a vertical gradient, and a perfectly horizontal segment has zero height to gradient across, so it renders invisible. A 43-hour session at one volume vanished entirely. Use a solid color.
• It reflows on a phone by itself. Sections views stack into one column at narrow widths with nothing extra configured.