How do I get Alexa to actually work.

[pvcleave 4]

One of the most frustrating things in the world is to try and use Alexa with Emby. After all the work to get it set up, I have a very difficult time to get it to actually do anything. The biggest issue is the use of MB, it constantly thinks I say NB. So I do an exaggerated M and it understands. The only way I can get some of the commands to work is by having Alexa startEmby and then issuing a command. I cannot get it to work when I say Alexa ask MB Home to Play The Simpsons Movie. I can't get it to work when I say pause and then say play. If I say play, even after pause, it plays some random show. I can't get it to go to the home screen, or do much of anything.

 

It might be nice if you had an alternative to the MB Home cammand. Such as Media Browser. While that would help with everything, it would certainly allow it to understand people a little better.

 

I am using this on a Windows, Roku, and Firestick. All with the same issues.

[Angelblue05 4130]

Alexa doesn't allow to change  or set alternative invocation naming. Are you able to train Alexa? Or if you move closer does she understand you better?

 

m. b. home is pretty simple.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Angelblue05

[Styxywyx 3]

Sorry Angel

I agree with PVCleave. I have just spent a whole evening trying to get Alexa to recognise the term emby home on my Sonos one[ linked to an emby server on my Synology NAS]. You would not believe some of the things alexa did /said in response.

I would get her to be successful about 1 in 20 times. the rest of the time I got drivel back (eg I say Open emby home  alexa says I en be here....) or alexa opened my Emby requests for albums ,artists, music etc in spotify.

It is a particularly bad opening phrase as m and n are often difficult: emby becomes N.B. and Home becomes Hone or alexa's favourite -Ham. The number of times I got N B Ham back....!

I did voice training on Alexa twice, used exaggerated enunciation - tried close up mid distance and far with no background noise, Reconnected the skill, rebooted alexa all to no avail. She just refused to recognise the command.

Then I did it all again using my echo dot in the other end of the house......you guessed it - exactly the same result.

Its a very poor command and if at all possible it needs to be changed! I know you say it isnt possible but surely at a manufacture/ production/ programming level it can and should - I agree the end user is stuck with it at present.

It was a frustrating poorly productive evening as I tried ti get EMBY to work after I used it to replace plex ( which has even more glitches)

 

And I might add I read through the whole wiki on alexa/ emby and tried nearly all of the commands and tips in the process

Edited November 22, 2018 by Styxywyx

[Angelblue05 4130]

Sorry you are having difficulties, have you tried different starting words? Does it behave better if you use begin emby home, etc?

 

I already changed the skill invocation twice and I don't see how I can make it behave any better or simpler. I have an accent and she understands me 100%. "eee-mby home"

 

I understand what you are saying and I've posted several times in the Alexa forums to add a way to allow users to set their own invocation word. There's nothing much I can do, I can only set a single invocation. Otherwise I'd cover all possible scenarios.

 

Using "emby" gave worst results than using "m. b.".

Edited November 23, 2018 by Angelblue05

[Styxywyx 3]

Yes - it must be difficult to get a good invocation phrase that suits all accents and doesnt confuse alexa.

It may work for you but not for PV or me. I tried Start, begin,open. I tried emby short and eemmmbbbeeee long and a distinct M B . I tried everything I could think of.

Just tried her again with "open emby home and got "m b hear --I am listening" as the response. Then Alexa start emby home - alexas response...."m b here - what did I miss". Then begin mb home ....response ... "em be here - Hi There". Tried again - response "m b here ...whats up"...... you get the picture. Then I asked Alexa tell emby home to play some music - response "here is spotify"

I am wondering if Alexa learns it incorrectly in the first few times and then whether further repetition reinforces the 'bad' learning. Whatever it is I am having huge difficulties with the current invocation and from reading the forum it seems I am not alone

The sad thing is the few times I have got it to work it interacts with Alexa far better than Plex so I really would like to solve the issue. The only times I have got emby to connect is Immediately after I remove and reconnect the skill. It works for about 3 to 5 commands and then reverts to the above gibberish.

[Angelblue05 4130]

Ok so it does work?

 

When you say begin m. b. home etc, that locks Alexa into the skill, then you just need to say play {title}, etc.

 

If you are just doing a single action, ask emby home to play some music should work. However I do know of the behavior you described, that it triggers the wrong skill and completely ignores the invocation name when using this shortcut invocation. But again it's an issue with the Alexa internal logic. I have reported that issue on the forums as well. All I can control is the invocation name and the phrases associated with the skill.

 

I don't know if it would help you. In the Alexa app, you can let Alexa know if she understood correctly and did the right thing. You could mark the card as negative and hopefully that will help improve upon that confusion.

Edited November 23, 2018 by Angelblue05

[Styxywyx 3]

Actually Angel I wouldnt call what I described as "working" - If your car only starts 1 out of 20 times when you turn the key you'd have to the mechanic asap saying it was broken!!

When I say MB home anything, as I said, its mostly not happening and DOESN'T lock into the skill. IT CAN'T RECOGNIZE THE COMMAND, single action or complex

If by luck I get it to lock in after I reconnect the skill - it very quickly drops out. ie ( Car starts ,runs for 3 minutes and stops)

And yes I have gone in and edited all those cards over and over. The only command that seems to work and I use the most is "Alexa cancel"

The Invocation name just doesn't register........even though some of the cards show alexa hearing the correct command the response is bizarre........

 

As an aside I restarted my whole Alexa /sonos/ MB system from scratch ( took hours as I have a big library) and disabled my spotify skill - slightly higher success rate. Maybe one in 10.

I think Emby is a good product as a NAS server but its integration with alexa is definitely not good- needs a LOT more work - maybe at the Alexa end - maybe at the Emby end. It certainly works well if used via the emby app

[Angelblue05 4130]

But when she says Emby here, what can I do for you, etc. That means you are locked into the skill. You don't need to reinvoke m b home.

 

Everything that happens before the skill triggers is out of my control and entirely Alexa logic.

 

 

 

 

Just tried her again with "open emby home and got "m b hear --I am listening" as the response. Then Alexa start emby home - alexas response...."m b here - what did I miss". Then begin mb home ....response ... "em be here - Hi There". Tried again - response "m b here ...whats up"...... you get the picture. Then I asked Alexa tell emby home to play some music - response "here is spotify"

 

It's why I'm saying it's working. That is the welcome message to indicate you are locked into the emby skill. Then all you need to say is Play some music. Are you saying that if you say Open emby home, then she says I am listening, then you say "Play some music", it doesn't work? Because in your reply you say "tell emby home to play some music" when you should be saying "Play some music" after saying "Open emby home".

 

Let me know, thanks.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Angelblue05

[Styxywyx 3]

Sorry Angel - I have to apologise profusely ,I think we were talking at cross purposes...... I did not realise the responses that I was getting was emby acknowledging me.

Just tested as per your suggestion with success!!

In fact alexa was too good and I didnt realise the colloquialisms were in fact responses - my bad.

I will keep trying this today and report back to you.

 

Maybe this might help PVCleave as well.

Also this might be something that can be added to the Wiki under the section "open emby home"  - just a thought. It confused me.....and here I was thinking it was alexa that needed training when in fact it was me

Thank you for your patience

 

What I am still getting confused on also, is after emby has been playing for a while and I want to change album - I have to say alexa to get the speaker to respond - then when I say play some music - she asks me for spotify. I find I have to ask alexa to open emby home again and specify the album. Is this the way its meant to work?

 

I would also like to be able to group speakers under EMBY but I believe that is not possible yet is that correct? ie Emby play on all speakers . At present emby runs through all seven of my speakers using their full names and I can only select one.....is multi speaker in the pipeline and if so which topic would I find the discussion under?