Amazon Echo - anyone have one?

Salty22 · 17 Mar 2018 at 12:00

mrbazmondo said:
Controlling Sonos and hue lights. He has a dot in every room. He keeps showing off on his phone how to change the hue on the lights in his house, forgetting it's actually making his whole house light up and change colour. Once while he was out and had a babysitter. She didn't know what the hell was going on.

Sometimes if my wife’s mum stays over and sleeps on the sofa we will go to bed and I’ll change the entire living room to bright red at like 11pm

Flibster · 17 Mar 2018 at 12:03

Salty22 said:
Sometimes if my wife’s mum stays over and sleeps on the sofa we will go to bed and I’ll change the entire living room to bright red at like 11pm

Please say her name is Roxanne....

deuse · 17 Mar 2018 at 12:31

Hey guys, is there an easy way to install USA skills on my alexa show?

Only had it a day but I can't find away around it.

mrbazmondo · 17 Mar 2018 at 13:27

Salty22 said:
Sometimes if my wife’s mum stays over and sleeps on the sofa we will go to bed and I’ll change the entire living room to bright red at like 11pm

His daughters insist on their rooms being flamingo pink. Similar effect.

VincentHanna · 29 Mar 2018 at 11:30

Does anyone know if this update to the Google speakers means I can pair it with my Denon amp?

https://www.whathifi.com/news/google-home-update-allows-pairing-other-bluetooth-speakers

I have decent standalone speakers, but they aren't bluetooth - But the denon AVR is.

ci_newman · 29 Mar 2018 at 15:12

Apparently it should work with your amp now too

VincentHanna · 29 Mar 2018 at 21:52

Yep, I paired it earlier. Awesome stuff.

Volume is a bit low through the AVR unless you have the Google speaker at 100% though and then the Google assistant is too loud.

builder22 · 29 Apr 2018 at 10:00

I have a google mini and amazon echo in the same room (only bought the google mini to control chromecast audio...anyway...). About five times now the google mini's been activated by saying something to the echo. I can't remember what the previous requests were that activated both but this morning all I said was 'Echo, time' and both the echo and google mini responded and told me the time. No TV or any other noise in the background that could have possibly made 'Echo, Time' sound like OK Google

any ideas?

I'm thinking they must use the same technology and getting ermm crossed wires somehow!

NeilF · 29 Apr 2018 at 10:17

Anyone using an Echo to control their LG TV?

NeilF · 1 May 2018 at 15:02

Spotted this article from six months ago about Alexa getting video related skills (eg: to turn TVs on/off) - http://www.aftvnews.com/alexa-in-th...video-devices-possibly-including-the-fire-tv/

Alas, if I go into my Alexa app, the "Video" option isn't there. Instead of "Music, Videos and Book", I only get "Music and Books"?

pokerking · 1 May 2018 at 15:07

I have it controlling my Sony Android TV. The app is on the TV and you need to enable it.

Turns it off/on Volume etc. Cant change channel or source yet.

Had mine a few months only use it to control the free hive equipment I got from British Gas.

J.T · 1 May 2018 at 15:10

pokerking said:
I have it controlling my Sony Android TV. The app is on the TV and you need to enable it.

Turns it off/on Volume etc. Cant change channel or source yet.

We have it controlling our Sony Android TV as well, it can change the cannel but not source.

NeilF · 1 May 2018 at 15:11

pokerking said:
I have it controlling my Sony Android TV. The app is on the TV and you need to enable it.

Turns it off/on Volume etc. Cant change channel or source yet.

Had mine a few months only use it to control the free hive equipment I got from British Gas.

So you need to install an app on your smart TV and then Alexa can see it as a controllable device?

Are you able to explain this?

Thanks!

J.T · 1 May 2018 at 15:14

NeilFawcett said:
So you need to install an app on your smart TV and then Alexa can see it as a controllable device?

Are you able to explain this?

Thanks!

"How to get started

Simply launch the ‘TV Control Set-up with Amazon Alexa’ app on the Home screen of your TV, then follow the instructions.

The app installs automatically on supported TVs – so if it’s missing, your TV may not be supported.

Click here for support: https://www.sony.co.uk/support/alexa"

NeilF · 1 May 2018 at 16:30

J.T said:
"How to get started

Simply launch the ‘TV Control Set-up with Amazon Alexa’ app on the Home screen of your TV, then follow the instructions.

The app installs automatically on supported TVs – so if it’s missing, your TV may not be supported.

Click here for support: https://www.sony.co.uk/support/alexa"

Both my smart TVs are LGs... eg: Main one is a 55" OLED E7.

thedoc46 · 1 May 2018 at 20:12

My neigbour bought me one for xmas. I only use it for radio. Like Alexa play iHeartRadio, when i get home for some dinner... Half the time she can't even get that right. Dumb broad! But it saves me looking for the remote. Other than that, its a complete gimmick !

Kenai · 1 May 2018 at 20:46

Hadn't noticed the TV functionality, added that now, a whole new level of laziness is possible.

NeilF · 2 May 2018 at 14:16

With the Echo Spot why can't you have a default screen that shows the time and weather forecast/temp etc? There's plenty of room to show both!?

Salty22 · 2 May 2018 at 18:46

What is the proper commands to change Hue scenes using a Dot?
I just cant seem to get it to work correctly.
For example in the living room ive got scenes like "movie" and "gaming" that ive made myself, or can you only change scenes that are already pre made?

GreenMint · 3 May 2018 at 10:32

The joys of playing Fifa at 3am and Alexis Sanchez gets the ball, cueing Alexa to tell me all about the word Sanchez and me trying to hush her without waking the 1 year old!

Definitely need to look into some of the other functions though, we currently only use it for weather & spotify.