Emby name issues with alexa

[roaddog1088 1]

I think it would be a great idea if alexa would also open emby to the commands of "start media browser"/ "open media browser" etc. I think it would eliminate a lot of unnecessary frustration for lots of people! there would be no reasons for her to be trained or retrained since she already knows the words media and browser because they are real words. 

[Angelblue05 4132]

Unfortunately it's not possible to change the invocation name. But from my understanding, the more people use it, the easier the learning curve will be for new people.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bernado99 5]

+1 to roaddog, I'm having no luck at all with Emby as a command, it's just too ambiguous (I've stupidly just posted this very issue in the Beta forum).

[extensive 20]

I got mine to work 60% of the time (going into alexa app and selecting the card then telling it that alexa didnt hear me correctly).  Now, she can't understand me AT ALL.  This is so frustrating.  I removed my skill then re-added to no avail.  The Emby Alex skill definitely isn't ready for prime-time.

[Angelblue05 4132]

I understand it can be frustrating.

 

I have posted on the Alexa forums, in case I missed something, we will see. For now, my hands are tied because the user to skill process is handled by Alexa. If it never reaches the skill then it's not something I can fix, I hope you understand that.  They don't give us much flexibility at all when it comes to invocation names.

 

And it's not just with Emby, I can pull up over 4000 threads on the Alexa forums regarding not being able to correctly associate the skill name.

 

And to top it off, they don't have voice training except for English US, so I fully get the options are limited to train Alexa to understand you better when you say Emby. I'll get back to you guys if I hear anything or if we are somehow able to do something about it.

 

Again, I will reiterate, this has nothing to do with the Emby skill itself and how it functions. 

 

I've been using the skill since it's inception and never had her reset or forget Emby. Works 100% here, every time I say Emby she opens the Emby skill. I had to mark cards/voice train her a few times, maybe two days max and it's held since.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Angelblue05

[mchahn 22]

I am developing my own alexa skill.  In my dashboard I can set the invocation name to anything I want.  Why can't emby change its invocation?

 

Right now the emby skill is useless for me as it interprets "emby" as "in b" or "nba" most of the time.  After doing voice training it got worse.

 

Surely you understand that this flaw is keeping a lot of users away.

[Angelblue05 4132]

Yes because your skill is not published. Once it's published, it's locked in place.

[mchahn 22]

How hard would it be to make a duplicate skill and deprecate the current one?

[Angelblue05 4132]

We don't really have an alternative name. I was thinking maybe emby home... Google Home doesn't accept one word invocation names.

[mchahn 22]

Emby home would probably be recognized fine.  I'll change my skill to "emby home' and see how it does with my voice.  We already know I'm a good test since it can't recognize my emby.

 

> Google Home doesn't accept one word invocation names.

 

That's the perfect excuse for the skill change in alexa. :-)

[Angelblue05 4132]

I fully agree @@mchahn

 

We were also floating around Emby app or Emby player...

 

I'm going to ask Alexa again, last time, they told me not possible. From reading an older post just now, it showed me that it is possible to ask them to suppress a live skill after the new skill is certified. I was not told that previously.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Angelblue05

[mchahn 22]

Then you would just be left with the problem of notifying users to change. 

 

*Edit:* Maybe you could change the original skill to announce the change on any request?  Surely you can change the behavior or the old skill.

Edited February 27, 2018 by mchahn

[Angelblue05 4132]

I will, any changes that need to be published need to go through certification. Right now I'm focused on Google Home, but once beta is fully going, I'll see what I can do about Alexa.

[chef 3810]

I use: "home theater"

 

"Ask home theater to play the movie {movieName}..." (SessionEnd = false)

 

Alexa: where would you like to watch the movie {movieName} "

 

"On Xbox" or "in the theater", "in the family room" etc

 

I also use the skill name of "tell me"

 

That allows for some integration with the command: "Alexa tell me about new movies" or "...about new tv shows"

Which return the admin list of latest emby library items and stuff.

[Angelblue05 4132]

In google home, it is set as emby home for now. It can be changed and I'm sure we could adapt it for the Alexa skill.

[mchahn 22]

BTW, I have discovered that "begin emby" or "launch emby" always works.  But "tell emby to go home" and other longer intentions rarely work.  I get responses like "I'm sorry, I didn't know that" or just a bong with the lights going off.  I'm assuming it works better with "begin emby" because it knows a skill name comes next.

 

Also, I set my skill invocation to "emby home" and it works well.  But I only have one intention "launch emby home".   Since "launch emby" also works well my test is pretty useless.  I will be adding some real intentions asap.

[Guest asrequested]

I've given up teacher her. Using 'ask emby' stopped working....again.

[extensive 20]

I've given up teacher her. Using 'ask emby' stopped working....again.

Same here...it is absolutely unusable

Edited February 27, 2018 by extensive

[nuttyclarks 1]

Any news on this?  Invocation name change or how to get Alexa working?  I really would like to get this working...  I switched from another unnamed platform for this feature, but right now it is useless (if I have to hear, did you mean NBA again  ).

[Angelblue05 4132]

Yes, we decided to go with Emby home (as MB home). This should hopefully resolve the naming issue in Alexa. I will post here once the change is applied.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Angelblue05

[PrincessClevage 175]

Yes, we decided to go with Emby home (as MB home). This should hopefully resolve the naming issue in Alexa. I will post here once the change is applied.

A lot of Red tape to make this change?

[Angelblue05 4132]

Thank you for your patience. I am going as fast as I can. I am also implementing more features and playback on Alexa devices. This is why it's taking a bit longer. I'll have beta up before the end of the month. My server pooped so I am stalled at the moment, trying to restore it to a working state.

 

This will include all of the english versions of Alexa too. I am redoing the translation strings as well in a format to get them translated to other languages. I promise it is worth the wait.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Angelblue05

[Angelblue05 4132]

Almost done. I have playback working on Alexa for the most part except it's throwing errors in logs. Really close to beta time. Maybe a day or two max. Thanks

[Angelblue05 4132]

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/59558-beta-amazon-alexa/