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Alexa - First Thoughts


flakie

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well I finally decided to create an emby connect account and try to get Alexa working with emby on a firestick 4k via an echo.

Its all a little bit hit and miss.

 

To invoke emby you you say: "Alexa, start/begin/open m. b. home".

When I do this it opens a screen with information on Tom Clancys Jack Ryan movie.

 

If I simply say "Alexa, open m. b.", then it starts emby at the logon screen (pictures of local users).

Not figured out how to actually choose one of the local users to login yet (if this is even possible), so I do this with the remote.

 

It will play a movie if I say "Alexa, tell m. b. home to play <movie name>.

 

It will pause and the resume play the movie if I just say "Alexa, Pause" or "Alexa, Play". This is good.

Likewise it will also work if I use "Alexa, tell m. b. home to play/pause".

 

This error also occurs regularly.

"I am having trouble accessing your emby skill right now".

And 

"I cannot find a player" so how do I set a default player again?

 

A question: Does each user that wants to use alexa with emby (local or remote users) have to install the skill and have an emby connect account or will they all use the one I setup? I have tried asking "Alexa, ask m. b. who is the active user" which works. I have tried " Alexa, ask m. b. home to change the user to {Emby username}", which works. But having problems getting another local user to actually successfully issue even one command.

 

All very frustrating and usually ends up with me pulling the mains plug on my echo.

 

Anyway I have decided to keep trying for another day or so but think most likely I will just resort to the remote (or use Amazon Prime Video more).

 

Though this could result in Alexa being smashed to tiny pieces!

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@@flakie it is true the Alexa skill for emby does need attention with regards to Accessibility, intent requests, session objectives, and user account personalization.

 

Your feedback is noted sir.

Edited by chef
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I calmed down and am still playing with voice commands on my Samsung Smart TV and FireTV.

I only have the one TV configured (the other newer Samsung is not supported by smartthings!) so the commands below I do not need to specify the TV name. If you have more than one you just specify the actual TV name.

I have the emby skill installed still but I think most of this is coming from Alexa and the smartthings app and skill?

I am looking at the emby skill again soon, now I have this much working.

Note: to get the TV to turn on I had to connect it to wifi (it did not work on ethernet). Turning the TV off works whatever the connection.

The list below is specific to me.I created it (on a laminated sheet) so house guests can control the TV but I hope it is useful to others.

The 30 seconds rewind and fast forward is the amount of setting I have my emby configure to.

All the below works in Emby, where relevant. I will update when I have some Emby specific commands working.

 

Alexa, turn on the TV.
Alexa, turn off the TV.
 
Alexa, turn the TV volume up (increase volume by 3 steps, or whatever the settings are configure to).
Alexa, turn the TV volume down (decrease volume by 3 steps, or whatever the settings are set to).
 
Alexa turn the TV volume to 50 (to set the volume to 50, valid numbers are from 0 to 100).
 
Alexa play (to play the current movie/show if it is at its title screen).
Alexa play the TV (if the above does not work).
 
Alexa stop (to stop playing the current movie/show and return to its title screen).
Alexa stop the TV (if the above does not work).
 
Alexa, pause (to pause playback if watching a movie/show).
Alexa pause the TV (if the above does not work).
 
Alexa, resume (to resume playback if watching a movie/show).
Alexa resume the TV (if the above does not work).
 
Alexa, rewind (to rewind the movie/show 30 seconds).
Alexa, rewind 2 minutes (or whatever amount of time required. This does not work in emby).
 
Alexa, fast forward (to fast forward the movie/show 30 seconds).
Alexa, fast forward 2 minutes (or whatever amount of time required. This does not work in emby).
 
Alexa, change the TV input to TV (to change to FreeView – no aerial on my TV though).
Alexa, change the TV input to HDMI1 (to change to FireTV and whatever app is currently running).
Edited by flakie
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