Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

fionny

Man this plex skill is deffo going to make me get a second dot for the sitting room now. Is there any good skills for launching programs on your PC via Alexa?

Orion

adox wrote: »

Plex now has a skill for Alexa.

Anyone tried it? I've enabled it but not tried yet. I use Plex on my Apple TV with the server running in my Mac so not sure how simple it will be to get it to play something through Apple TV.

Just tried it. It can connect to my plex server but no compatible companion devices on my network. I use the plex app on a WebOS TV. They do say Smart TVs are support at https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/203082707-Supported-Plex-Companion-Apps but it won't find mine.

Orion

Bugger.
"It also doesn’t support playback of media from some Plex devices, including LG Smart TVs, Xbox 360 and Xbox One players, but that’s expected to change in time"
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/02/plex-users-can-now-play-their-movies-tv-shows-and-music-just-by-asking-alexa/

My one is an LG Smart TV.

adox

It's buggy as hell for me at the moment.

Even when it does work it's easier for me to just click on the title with the remote rather than the long winded "Alexa tell Plex to play...."

fionny

Its a positive first step to be fair, first crowd to make a real effort in to and glad it happens to be my media centre option of choice for the last few years thanks to their rather nifty server options. (Remote streaming is awesome too)

daveyjoe

degsie wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jJfUa8Ij4k

Ha, that video kept setting my Echo off!

tipperaryboy

Should this be working with Samsung smart tv? Can't get it to find it only finds iPad. When I try play something it's says video is not supported etc.
Very exciting but left a bit stumped.

Orion

I think support for Smart TV Plex apps is patchy right now. I expect updates soon as they work on it. It's primarily aimed at Fire devices it seems right now.

clintondaly

Logitech Harmony Elite kit with Hub arrived, all in from Amazon.de to my front door was 194 Euro

Set most of it up last night,seemed a bit intermittent in terms of working initially but seemed to settle down after a while.

Hooked it up with Alexa via the skill and Account linking and added devices which all seem to work including my Technics separates purchased in 1996

Next step is to set up activities for movies music etc. Have set up my "news" activity
So by asking Alexa to ask Harmony to turn on news,TV comes on Sky Box on and switches to Sky News

Very impressed with the Harmony so far

Plex/Kodi Integration next

Irish Gunner

Getting Hub this week as a gift so sill set up the skills with Virgin box and Samsung TV. Seen Kodi skill but takes a bit of time to set up
Also anyone seen the below still trying to see what it does
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-ZeroTouch-Control-Android-Phones/dp/B01N2Z568V/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486566059&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+zerotouch+air+vent+car+mount

clintondaly

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Getting Hub this week as a gift so sill set up the skills with Virgin box and Samsung TV. Seen Kodi skill but takes a bit of time to set up
Also anyone seen the below still trying to see what it does
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-ZeroTouch-Control-Android-Phones/dp/B01N2Z568V/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486566059&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+zerotouch+air+vent+car+mount

I have voice control over my phone with Alexa already using a skill called Mastermind(see my previous postings in this thread),currently still in beta mode( I registered for beta access)
With no need to purchase anything

https://www.alexaskillstore.com/Mastermind-SMS-Text-Messaging-and-Phone-Calls/41413

Irish Gunner

clintondaly wrote: »

I have voice control over my phone with Alexa already using a skill called Mastermind(see my previous postings in this thread),currently still in beta mode( I registered for beta access)
With no need to purchase anything

https://www.alexaskillstore.com/Mastermind-SMS-Text-Messaging-and-Phone-Calls/41413

Yeah have that skill and tried some of the below commands

http://www.mastermindbot.com/commands/

So logitech item same thing but how does it work in car need to have dot in car also

clintondaly

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Yeah have that skill and tried some of the below commands

http://www.mastermindbot.com/commands/

So logitech item same thing but how does it work in car need to have dot in car also

From reading the details it seems that when you connect the phone to the mount it prompts the Alexa app on the phone to wake which in turn alerts the mic and basically turns the phone hands free,Only works on Android using 5.0 and above

mrcheez

Anyone know if it's possible to stop Alexa saying "playing blah from blah" whenever you request a song?

Annoying as hell when you want to play songs at a party etc.

clintondaly

mrcheez wrote: »

Anyone know if it's possible to stop Alexa saying "playing blah from blah" whenever you request a song?

Annoying as hell when you want to play songs at a party etc.

You could create a "Party" playlist and just ask for that to be played

Orion

clintondaly wrote: »

You could create a "Party" playlist and just ask for that to be played

While you're at it activate the party time recipe on ifttt to turn on colour loop on the hue lights

mrcheez

clintondaly wrote: »

You could create a "Party" playlist and just ask for that to be played

Not really, the idea is to request songs as required, but then when blasting songs over a louder speaker you'd prefer not to have Alexa announce the song beforehand.

Anyway I take it that's a no. I wonder does Google Home do this as well?

giftgrub

Another Spotify questions

Added my wife under the family plan, she's set up on Alexa and i can switch profiles from mine to hers, but when we ask to play music from her spotify we get told that its only set up for the "primary owner of the device" and we have to switch users.

Any advice?

clintondaly

giftgrub wrote: »

Another Spotify questions

Added my wife under the family plan, she's set up on Alexa and i can switch profiles from mine to hers, but when we ask to play music from her spotify we get told that its only set up for the "primary owner of the device" and we have to switch users.

Any advice?

Seems to be the only way at the moment bar getting another one(echo/dot) with a different amazon account

https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonecho/comments/532n5y/connecting_spotify_family_account/

Zascar

Is it possible to change from the UK store to the USA, or vice versa, from within the app or do you have to get on to support?

I think you can do it by logging into your Amazon account online. There's instructions in this thread. I'll try and find the post.

degsie

degsie wrote: »

Online chat with Amazon UK support

garbeth wrote: »

Or go to Amazon.com log in and select manage devices and change country. Select U.K. Address (parcel motel) and then log back into Alexa app.

You'll have to setup your wifi and smart home again and all skills may be lost

I think this is it.

squonk

One month in and I'm pretty happy with Alexa so far. I don't do as much with her as I should and was surprised messing about with some commands the other night. Really now my routine is wake up, say hi, get a fact. Then get the news and ask her to play Tunein. Then to turn on my bedroom lamps and stop playing music when I leave for work. Once I get home I ask for more music and to set lighting scenes. Then to set an alarm and read an auduiobook. She does all this stuff pretty well. She does fail to hear me at times and, at others, is downright stupid with what she does hear. The key thing though is she does enough right to keep me using her and I find I just snap at her when she gets something wrong, like repeating something to a child. All in all, a pretty good experience so far.

The one big downside I see is that Alexa requires you to remember all the skills you've installed and requires you to reference a particular skill when asking for something. I can't possibly remember all this, especially for casually used skills. I wish Amazon would have something like letting skills register their areas of usefulness, like news, sports scores, cookery, commuter etc. Then either have something else filter requests and pick the closest matching skill or I'd even settle for Alexa saying "I've got X skills matching your criteria. Here's a list. Pick one". Cumbersome but much better than the current "I didn't understand the question" response.

Siri seems better at handing home automation for now but Siri seems harder to use and lacks that X factor that Alexa has. Pretty happy all in all.

bittihuduga

i have uploaded my songs to amazon my music library.
but when i say - alexa play music from my library - it says no music in my library
i logged on to alexa app. when i click my library - i get error message
Error getting Amazon Music playlist information
Please try again later.

any ideas what is happening here?

***Solved*** it was a confusion between my amazon US account and UK account.

dfdream

Im trying to get alexa to set a timer for 1 hour to turn off a device.

I want to control a heater so I can go "Alexa turn on the heater for 1 hour"

I have TP link HS100 sockets.

Also one other question. Anyone using a phone app to send voice commands to alexa that works ?

Bluefoam

dfdream wrote: »

I want to control a heater so I can go "Alexa turn on the heater for 1 hour"

I have TP link HS100 sockets.

The Kasa app has a timer function... Can't get it to work via the echo though.

dfdream

I see that and use it but would be better to control a device or group in Alexa.

Bluefoam wrote: »

The Kasa app has a timer function... Can't get it to work via the echo though.

clintondaly

dfdream wrote: »

Im trying to get alexa to set a timer for 1 hour to turn off a device.

I want to control a heater so I can go "Alexa turn on the heater for 1 hour"

I have TP link HS100 sockets.

Also one other question. Anyone using a phone app to send voice commands to alexa that works ?

I have full voice control over my phone with Alexa,through Mastermind skill,registered for Beta version and got it several weeks back;also have chrome browser extension for it and all notifications go to laptop screen as pop ups too

fionny

iOS and Mac folks might be interested to know there is a free app called Reverb available which gives access to Alexa on Mac or iOS.... 

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/19/reverb-app-amazon-alexa-mac-ios/

googled eyes

fionny wrote: »

iOS and Mac folks might be interested to know there is a free app called Reverb available which gives access to Alexa on Mac or iOS.... 

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/19/reverb-app-amazon-alexa-mac-ios/

Reverb is also available for android. Its handy if you want to do lights, etc. when you're not in the same room but it wont access amazon music, tunein or spotify, probably because of copyrighting