Amazon Echo - anyone have one?

NeilF · 25 Jan 2020 at 15:19

darkgen said:
I have the Echo Gen 3 as stereo pair and it sounds pretty good to me. I'm not an audiophile though, so no doubt it's a shocker to proper ears.

No, the BBC decided to prevent access (from the UK only mind) to all of their stations through TuneIN, which worked fine with Echo stereo pairing. As above; BBC Sounds skill does not support the Echo stereo pair feature. What a crock eh. The reason claimed is under the guise of wanting to better understand listening numbers through streaming which was unavailable from TuneIn

Bit of a kicker that anyone outside of the UK can continue to access BBC stations through TuneIn!

Hmm... Fell foul to a similar limitation when trying to move to Spotify instead of Amazon Music. You can't stream to Spotify music to multiple Echo devices at once (ie: all playing their own steams)... So the only option is Amazon Music

darkgen · 26 Jan 2020 at 10:12

NeilFawcett said:
Hmm... Fell foul to a similar limitation when trying to move to Spotify instead of Amazon Music. You can't stream to Spotify music to multiple Echo devices at once (ie: all playing their own steams)... So the only option is Amazon Music

Typical nonsense from these guys eh. Supposedly Amazon, Apple and google are agreeing to a smart speaker standard which will allow their service to be accessible between providers. Believe that when I see it!

Doesn't help me with blimmin BBC though. I may just stop paying the license fee out of spite!

*pram*

Em3bbs · 26 Jan 2020 at 10:53

NeilFawcett said:
Hmm... Fell foul to a similar limitation when trying to move to Spotify instead of Amazon Music. You can't stream to Spotify music to multiple Echo devices at once (ie: all playing their own steams)... So the only option is Amazon Music

That's a Spotify limitation, they are only licensed to serve one stream at a time. Even if you're listening on your phone and start a stream on your PC the stream on the phone will stop, it's nothing Amazon/Alexa related.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/Playback-on-multiple-devices-at-the-same-time/td-p/196158

Street · 26 Jan 2020 at 11:23

I've been trying to work out voice recognition recently, but it seems to be totally pointless. Alexa can recognise who is talking but she still won't access skills from my account unless I switch to it first. I would have thought that this was the sort of thing voice recognition was meant to solve but obviously not.

NeilF · 3 Feb 2020 at 19:20

Anyone else lost their ability to play Prime Video films/episode at a single command? eg: "Alexa, play The Grand Tour"? I get, "I couldn't find any enabled video skills...", across all my units...

This started happening a few days or a week or so ago?

I've reported this to Amazon support.

Street · 3 Feb 2020 at 21:30

I've noticed a few voice commands seem to be failing in the last week or so. For example, playing TalkSport radio has worked flawlessly since the start. Now however, they always try to play TalkSport 2. It fails with both me and the missus saying it.

NeilF · 3 Feb 2020 at 21:38

And if you try "Alexa, play The Grand Tour" (assuming you have a Echo Show)?

Em3bbs · 3 Feb 2020 at 21:45

Street said:
I've noticed a few voice commands seem to be failing in the last week or so. For example, playing TalkSport radio has worked flawlessly since the start. Now however, they always try to play TalkSport 2. It fails with both me and the missus saying it.

Is your Echo device language set to UK English not US? Play talksport works for me (I listen to it loads along with talkradio).

NeilF · 4 Feb 2020 at 09:14

Em3bbs said:
Is your Echo device language set to UK English not US? Play talksport works for me (I listen to it loads along with talkradio).

I'll check, but this was all working something like a week or so ago... for years!

Street · 4 Feb 2020 at 09:46

Em3bbs said:
Is your Echo device language set to UK English not US? Play talksport works for me (I listen to it loads along with talkradio).

I checked and they were all set to UK. Like Neil above, it was working for years then stopped a couple weeks ago for seemingly no reason.

dirtychinchilla · 4 Feb 2020 at 16:07

Street said:
I've noticed a few voice commands seem to be failing in the last week or so. For example, playing TalkSport radio has worked flawlessly since the start. Now however, they always try to play TalkSport 2. It fails with both me and the missus saying it.

I've found her less and less reliable of late. She used to be able to hear whatever I said wherever I was. Now I have to shout a little bit more and I get more confusion from her than I used to.

NeilF · 4 Feb 2020 at 16:08

As of trying again this lunchtime, my voice commands to play Prime Video content are now working again...

glenimp617 · 4 Feb 2020 at 18:53

I bought a couple of amazon show 8s at Christmas and think the video call feature is crap. The quality is abysmal, and both houses are on good fibre broadband.

Facebook portal really puts it to shame.

Em3bbs · 4 Feb 2020 at 21:20

Street said:
I checked and they were all set to UK. Like Neil above, it was working for years then stopped a couple weeks ago for seemingly no reason.

Weird, do you have the talksport skill enabled? If not then try it and it will not go to TuneIn.

NeilF · 5 Feb 2020 at 15:43

My biggest issue with Prime Video through the Echos is relative volume disparity. Alexa's voice is typically far louder than Prime Video audio... There needs to be a way to adjust Prime Video's volume relative to the standard volume level. eg: -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 ,+3

I'd probably set mine Prime Video relative volume to +2.

Street · 7 Feb 2020 at 10:06

Em3bbs said:
Weird, do you have the talksport skill enabled? If not then try it and it will not go to TuneIn.

Weirdly it has started working again. Although I have two of them linked together as a group and if I try to play it on a group it still doesn't work.

NeilF · 20 Feb 2021 at 21:17

Why on earth don't Amazon have their premium Echo speaker combined with a lamp (like Sonos do)? All the benefits of their top sound solution, disguised as a lamp, which obviously would be voice controlled too! I'd buy one immediately if they did

ps: Just offer it in 2-3 colour variations...

deuse · 21 Feb 2021 at 11:36

I am hoping that the new echo show will have Z-Wave and Zigbee built in.

glenimp617 · 21 Feb 2021 at 11:56

Em3bbs said:
That's a Spotify limitation, they are only licensed to serve one stream at a time. Even if you're listening on your phone and start a stream on your PC the stream on the phone will stop, it's nothing Amazon/Alexa related.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/Playback-on-multiple-devices-at-the-same-time/td-p/196158

I only found this out last week when I bought a couple of echos. Luckily Argos took them back.
Google minis and youtube premium it is then.

Em3bbs · 21 Feb 2021 at 15:52

TheOracle said:
I only found this out last week when I bought a couple of echos. Luckily Argos took them back.
Google minis and youtube premium it is then.

I use Amazon Music Unlimited which is another choice. Works out really cheap if you get a family membership for £14.99 a month or £149 for the year then split it. You can have 6 Amazon accounts on the plan and use multiple devices on each of them.