Alexa and "TV"

I use "Alexa turn on/off Virgin Media"
And “Alexa turn on Pause TV” to pause it.
Had the similar issues to you lot when the activity was “TV”

Perhaps you could call it ‘the telly’ as in ‘Alexa turn on the telly’ :blush:

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This is why GH may in fact dominate Alexa. They better make some changes as google assistant on my pixel phone is already much better then Alexa a GH will be more in depth.

“Dominate” seems unlikely for now. Echo is sold at Amazon, often prominently advertised on the Home page. Google home will be sold at Best Buy–but so are the Echo and the Dot. The echo costs more but the dot is significantly cheaper.

Competition is good, and we’ll see how it goes, but right now I think Google home sales will probably be about a third of Alexa devices for this season.

Next year may be a different story of course. :sunglasses:

I’m telling you I have the pixel and it has a scaled down version of personal assistant and can answer and speak more questions then Alexa. Unless Amazon does something and not ignore the competition. It already pretty equal phone vs Alexa as it is now.

Sure, but many people, myself included, have the echo, really like it, use it every day, and never ask that kind of question. I use my tablet for that. I ask the echo what the weather is, when the Giants play, to play music from Amazon prime, to listen to the news and audiobooks, and to control home automation devices.

If the only advantage google home has is conversational searches, I’d never see the difference.

I’m not saying there isn’t a difference, I’m just saying that’s not what I use the Echo for. So that in itself wouldn’t be enough to get me to changeover.

I will try to google Home once it’s out, I try most voice technology that I can afford, but the fact that it’s better at voice searches wouldn’t replace the echo for me.

But again, we’ll know once it’s out. :sunglasses:

True. Amazon sells things they don’t have their own OS. Google key thing they do is software and have their own OS. It’s just a matter of time I tell you. And google has more then enough money if they wanted this sector.

One other thing. The pixel fist try at google hardware isnt bad first attempt. Nothing spectacular about looks bit so far the smoothest Android I ever had and the pics a d 4k video wow. Better then my kids iPhone 7 and wife’s S7.

If it’s a lot better I can see switching maybe one day. I’m comfortable with Android as I started with the original Android phone and that’s the only smartphone OS I’ve used regularly. So the thing is I’m not the type to switch around a lot and now I have an echo and a few dots and once they’re set up and the family gets used to them switching seems a hassle. Especially since I have a lot of music on Amazon. If GH could play my Amazon music then that would help.

I named the device “Living room TV” and that took care of the problem. :sunglasses:

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Btw, if you use the new official Harmony skill these concerns seem to go away - they did a pretty good job.

I was impressed with the setup - give you a voice command for every activity with the option to choose a “friendly name” you want. And they give you the sentence you would say to Alexa to get it to do that activity - that is right above each activity is the phrase “Alex, turn on ____” so you can see what it woud be. Additionally, they give you an “All off” command which is useful (default is “AV Off”)

i was quite happy to see this release. i love the channel turning capability and hopefully soon muting and volume

Yeah, “Alexa, turn on Netflix” is pretty cool.

BTW, I still kept all of the ST “Devices” the Harmony Connector app sets up because I use them in my routines.

ya i did too. was thinking maybe i do not need but i like to know when the activities were turned on and in some complex rules for lighting

Actually after spending some time with Alexa dots, Alexa can answer more than most are aware. To get more answers you need to go to the Amazon Alexa app. In the app go to the skills section, find the skill set for what you are interested in and enable it. Sure it’s an extra step that should be included like Google has built in but the search features are there. Example, I asked alexa to tell me a random fact. She couldn’t. I enabled the skills crazy facts and strange facts. Now I can get all kinds of weird random facts. there are skill sets for just about anything you can think of, just have to decide what you are interested in.

Can Alexa using harmony turn on Directv or Fire TV stick selectively? Can it change the TV inputs for the different HDMI?

to fix an activity? yes all you havs to do is say the activity again

Yes. I can tell her to turn on fire or fire tv and it works. Changes inputs on my receiver ( where I have the stick plugged in) and fires up the stick.

Thanks.

Now I may have to look into getting a harmony.

But it’s missing the back and forth conversation. If what I’m reading is right you can almost have a two way conversation. Like maybe GH turn off more then one item in Smartthings. Not sure till I get mine but if it does they need to do some work to compete. The assistant on my pixel is much better in my opinion then Alexa and that’s a scaled down version as it cant integrate with Smartthings and all.