I recently tried to link my Alexa to my fire TV stick on my Samsung TV, via Smart Things App and Alexa App, on a android phone. The only thing you can do consistently is shut the TV off. Very sporadically. You can turn the TV on, but no volume up or down, or channels, up and down as well. Has anyone found the same experience, anyway, to correct it, or anything that works better?
Thanks
Are you using the Amazon Fire Stick, which plugs into the HDMI port on your TV? I think you may need a hub. I use the Harmony Hub, that sits between my TV and my Amazon Echo. I know that Amazon sells some Amazon Echoes (Echo Show and Echo Plus) which have the ZigBee radio built-in. See link below.
https://www.pocket-lint.com/smart-ho...our-smart-home
The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom
--General George Patton
Complex problems need to be solved collectively.
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Hi Shamrock. Could you give a little more detail about what you're trying to do? I have tried out both Alexa/Fire TV and Google Home/Chromecast (though I'm not a certified expert in either).
As long as you have your compatible TV set up to accept the CEC commands from Fire TV, it should be able to physically turn on your TV and switch to the correct input when you use Alexa to turn something on. You can also asked to watch any show on the apps that you have installed on Fire TV.
I also recently purchased the Fire TV Recast, which connects to an antenna to act as a receiver/DVR for over the air TV. It's great! Now I can also use Alexa to tune to any of my antenna channels and watch recorded shows. I should note that Alexa doesn't let you use "channel up" or "channel down" commands, just responds to "tune to channel 2" etc.
A big downside of the Alexa/Fire TV, for me is its inability to adjust volume and power off the TV. Chromecast can power on/off the TV through commands to Google Home, and you can also adjust the Chromecast volume (though note that this doesn't adjust your TV volume).
Edit: I also have the Harmony Hub that PN mentioned above. It's crucial for me in my living room because I have a stereo receiver, Blu-ray player, and the TV that all need to turn on and tune to the correct inputs.
I just started using the Fire TV Cube. Voice commands work very well. For example I can say, "Alexa, watch Ozark on Netflix". I can pause, fast-forward, rewind, movies or TV shows. I can control the volume. I can turn the TV off and on. I am noticing some glitches. I have a HBO Go account, but right now it wants me to pay for the content. At first glance, it may not be ready for prime time.
The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom
--General George Patton
Complex problems need to be solved collectively.
––Paul Nussbaum
usc87.blogspot.com
Can the Fire TV Cube control Comcast DVR?
Alan
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Negative ghost rider. The Fire TV devices can only control apps within the Fire TV.Originally Posted by alan
Hello Guys, thank you for the responses. I have Samsung smart TVs, and Amazon Echo. I thought with the Alexa app, and the Samsung Smart Things App, I would be able to at least turn the TV on, shut it off, change channel, and control the volume. Really, all I am able to do consistently is turn the TV off. It takes maybe 3 or 4 tries to sometimes to turn the TV on. I am unable to change the channels on (antenna) television, or control the volume, which is disappointing. I have seen several articles on (Smart Things) and Amazon website that says that should be possible.
On the fire TV, I can say (play Goliath), and it brings up a random episode, but to say "play Goliath, season 1 episode 6" that does not work. Nor can I control the volume, although on the new 4K fire stick, it does have volume buttons. All in all it is disappointing. What can be controlled, unless of course I am doing something incorrectly. Which may very well be the case. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again!
You're right, unless you purchase the Fire Recast, you won't be able to change TV channels. The Recast takes a signal from your over the air antenna and acts as a DVR. The Recast live and recorded TV is available to any of your Fire TV devices.
I agree that it's disappointing that you can't use Alexa to tell the Fire TV which episode to play. In fact, I can't even get mine to go to the previous/next episode. Alexa is also very poor at skipping/backward in your show; I can only get her to skip 30 seconds at a time (side note: Google Home/Chromecast both skips episodes and skips around in episodes very well). I'm hoping that this will be updated in the future.
As I mentioned above, I have never been able to control the volume of my TV with Alexa. When I search for it now, I still see that it's not supported. If you purchase a "Amazon Fire TV Addition TV", you can power the TV on and off and control inputs/volume/etc. But this is a whole TV, not just the Fire stick or box. See below.
https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/a...oshiba-hd-2018
I don't know much about the Samsung Smart Things app, though. That gives a little more hope that you could control the TV with Alexa.
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