rhodges 37 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 For those that are curious, I have been reading the documentation and playing around with an Alexa video skill. Unfortunately, I find the api very limiting. When you do a search, it only returns back gracenote ids. No imdb ids. There is a method for uploading a catalog, but it is designed for content providers and not really a personal thing. I have posted a question over on their forum, but, as it is currently developed, using the video skill for remote playback does not seem like an option. Using it for remote control however, I think is feasible. One thing that I have seen is that we need better ways to alias or generate a friendly name or location of a device. I have many devices that I don't seem to have much control over the name. When I discover devices, I don't have much to work with. Chrome Emby Mobile 3.2.24.0 Kodi (localhost) (this is an Emby for Kodi) Kodi 2.3.48 Windows Emby Theater 1.1.139.0 Now I guess if I was to implement this as a plugin, I could add configuration to allow me to create an alias for the device, but I can see usefulness of that built into the system. Then expose that property to the web api/server api. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Have you seen this: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/47060-emby-with-amazon-alexa/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodges 37 Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 Have you seen this: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/47060-emby-with-amazon-alexa/ No, but what was I looking at was the Alexa smarthome based video skill. It removes the need to "ask Emby". And you can associate different "Emby" devices with different Alexa devices. Their new video skill would allow you to say "Alexa play Dr Who Season 3, Episode 10" or "Alexa play the movie Intersteller" etc, etc. The problem with this Api is the limitations I mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Our Alexa skill will allow you to associate different Emby devices with different Amazon ones. FYI. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef 3746 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) If you going to build personal skill for Alexa (something that isn't going to be released to the public) then I would just hardcode your device names as slot types and create your own personal intents under the interaction configuration in your Amazon developer account. Does that make sense to you? Edited July 25, 2017 by chef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodges 37 Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 Our Alexa skill will allow you to associate different Emby devices with different Amazon ones. FYI. That's good. I was mainly just posting to show the deficiencies in the Alexa video skill api. Not anything against Emby. The idea they have a nice official skill that is designed to work with media player is nice, however, it seems geared towards content providers that can upload their catalog to Amazon, and not for a Kodi/Emby user, aka personal content provider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodges 37 Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 If you going to build personal intents for Alexa (something that isn't going to be released to the public) then I would just hardcode your device names as slot types under the interaction configuration in your Amazon developer account. Does that make sense to you? The Alexa video skill api does not have intents like the original api does. It is a totally different beast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 That's good. I was mainly just posting to show the deficiencies in the Alexa video skill api. Not anything against Emby. The idea they have a nice official skill that is designed to work with media player is nice, however, it seems geared towards content providers that can upload their catalog to Amazon, and not for a Kodi/Emby user, aka personal content provider. Perhaps @@Angelblue05 can provide you with further information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) Here are the requirements for the video skill: An Amazon developer account. Sign up is free A connected device with a cloud API or cloud-enabled video service <------------------- Oops. An Alexa device such as Amazon Echo An AWS account. You host your skill code as an AWS Lambda function Knowledge of Java, Node.js, Python or C# as Lambda functions can be written in any of these languages An understanding of OAuth 2.0 So this can only be used to play directly on the Alexa device, nothing else as far as Emby is concerned. For your friendly names, you can rename all your devices in your Emby dashboard > devices Edited July 25, 2017 by Angelblue05 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodges 37 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Not sure why this thread progressed this far. I am already past all that. I simply made some observations and thought I'd share what I thought was an Amazon limitation in their API and basically, as I understand it, cannot be used for Emby. It is a shame because it had potential. On the note about renaming devices. Thanks, I never even thought to look there. Kinda silly not to look there, now that I think about it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 What's the difference about what you're looking at (video API) and what @@Angelblue05 has already achieved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 What's the difference about what you're looking at (video API) and what @@Angelblue05 has already achieved? The "Video API" is designed for content providers in order to directly play content on the Echo device. It is designed for services where everyone is getting their content from a single source available over the internet (e.g. Netflix or Hulu). Therefore, it would not ever be practical for use with Emby because everyone is getting their own content from their own server. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 Thanks Eric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodges 37 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 (edited) The "Video API" is designed for content providers in order to directly play content on the Echo device. It is designed for services where everyone is getting their content from a single source available over the internet (e.g. Netflix or Hulu). Therefore, it would not ever be practical for use with Emby because everyone is getting their own content from their own server. Exactly. When I started looking at it, I was hoping I'd find a way "around that" or really hoping it wasn't just for "big single source content providers". I was hoping it could be made to work with us "personal content providers". As the Amazon "Video API" stands now, that is not the case. Maybe that'll change in the future. For now: Edited July 26, 2017 by rhodges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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