Echo Skill

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

This sounds awesome - another reason to buy a six pack of the new Echo Dots when they are available in a month or so.

I'm looking for input on what functionality people would be interested in. If you have ideas, let me know.

I'm currently working on adding views for movies.

[tmiranda]

I'll be ready to put something out for testing in a week or so. If you are interested in trying it out PM me your email address. If you have an Amazon account then you must send me the email address associated with the account. (I don't share email address with anybody.)

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by wayner

And the people that have these often have video distribution systems with matrix switches, etc. I don't understand why you would have something like that when something like SageTV, with extenders, is far better and way cheaper.

I guess it depends on how many TVs and sources you have. I use CQC automation system which is DIY friendly. I use an Extron video switcher and can distribute any source to any tv easily. All the source equipment is at the central AV rack which allows for totally clean installs (i.e. No boxes at the TV).

I set a similar system up at my parents house. They have 7 TVs with just the two of them living there. Buying enough source equipment to cover those 7 TVs would have been more expensive than the Extron switcher.

[tmiranda]

Anybody else willing to try this out and make suggestions?

[wayner]

I plan to get some Echo devices but I am waiting for the new Echo Dot and it doesn't ship for a couple of weeks and who knows how long it will take to catch up to the backlog. I also have to figure out a way to get them here in Canada as they don't ship here yet.

But I am game to be a beta testers once I get the hardware.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by wayner

I plan to get some Echo devices but I am waiting for the new Echo Dot and it doesn't ship for a couple of weeks and who knows how long it will take to catch up to the backlog. I also have to figure out a way to get them here in Canada as they don't ship here yet.

But I am game to be a beta testers once I get the hardware.

Same here. The dot looks to be the product I was waiting for.

[Crusadre]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Anybody else willing to try this out and make suggestions?

I just got my Echo Dot and would be excited to try it. Please let me know how to install it. Thx!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Crusadre

I just got my Echo Dot and would be excited to try it. Please let me know how to install it. Thx!

PM me the email address you used to register the Dot.

Then, follow the instructions here: https://github.com/tmiranda1962/Echo/wiki

[Crusadre]

tmiranda - thanks for the rapid response. I cannot email (no icon) or PM you (says I don't have access).

[Skirge01]

I don't know what the minimum post count is before PM's open up, but I'm pretty sure that's your issue. It might be 5.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Crusadre

tmiranda - thanks for the rapid response. I cannot email (no icon) or PM you (says I don't have access).

Ah, you don't have enough posts. Make a few more and it will appear.

[metapath]

Has the SageTV Echo skill been polished beyond Alpha yet? It would be nice if it were available as a plug-in. I don't have the time right now for Alpha or Beta testing, but will when I retire in March. Looking forward to trying this out eventually.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by metapath

Has the SageTV Echo skill been polished beyond Alpha yet? It would be nice if it were available as a plug-in. I don't have the time right now for Alpha or Beta testing, but will when I retire in March. Looking forward to trying this out eventually.

I have the SageTV plugin portion ready to go but I doubt it will ever make it as an official Echo skill because it relies on a back end SageTV server.

[metapath]

Agree it would never make official Echo skill, but want to download via Plugin menu. Don't see it in the list. Guess I'll follow the link above and do it manually. May actually have time to configure it after Xmas...thanks for your work on this.

Oops, that's just instructions, not a download link. I'll PM you after Xmas. Thanks again.

[wayner]

I should be getting my Dots shortly so I will try this out.

@timiranda - One question. You talk about forwarding port 8080 on your router to get to your Sage server. Does this mean that you can therefore only have it working on one Sage server per location? I guess having multiple servers would cause a few issues as you would always be having to specify which server when you issue commands.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by metapath

Agree it would never make official Echo skill, but want to download via Plugin menu. Don't see it in the list. Guess I'll follow the link above and do it manually. May actually have time to configure it after Xmas...thanks for your work on this.

Oops, that's just instructions, not a download link. I'll PM you after Xmas. Thanks again.

PM me the email address to which the Echo is linked. I need that to set things up on the back end.

I'll also have to update the plugin, I've made some changes over the past month.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

I should be getting my Dots shortly so I will try this out.

@timiranda - One question. You talk about forwarding port 8080 on your router to get to your Sage server. Does this mean that you can therefore only have it working on one Sage server per location? I guess having multiple servers would cause a few issues as you would always be having to specify which server when you issue commands.

Yes, it only works on one server at a time. You can de-link it from one server and re-link it to another at will.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Yes, it only works on one server at a time. You can de-link it from one server and re-link it to another at will.

The Harmony skill will only work with one Harmony hub. It seems pretty common for Echo skills.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

The Harmony skill will only work with one Harmony hub. It seems pretty common for Echo skills.

Not quite Sage related but can you change the friendly name for Harmony Activities after you complete the setup? I didn't bother with friendly names when I first added the Harmony Hub and I don't know that Alexa is that good at some of my activity names. Even SageTV - is that "saje tee vee" or "saget-vee" or who knows. It gets it right only part of the time when I say "turn on SageTV".

In terms of Echo skills only working with one hub - I guess that is true but with other devices you will usually only have one hub per household, like Hue lights. But with Harmony remotes it would be common to have one hub per TV and most family households probably have at least three TVs these days, although I admit that I am in the right tail on that one.

edit - I actually received my three Echo Dots today but I won't be able to do the Sage testing as I am about to leave for a trip until Saturday night.

[tmiranda]

Amazon just released an update to the development environment that may allow me to add more functionality to my skill. In the past you could not easily gather open ended responses, you needed to know in advance all of the possible responses the user would utter. Amazon now allows for the recognition of certain categories of responses including actor names, movie names, and TV show names.

I haven't had much time to look at the details but I think this will help me.