Echo & Alexa Forums

Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Vonda Z

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2016, 03:30:15 pm »
Ok, I need to see if this Amazon Echo is worth keeping for my handicapped son. He is 20 and cannot use a remote control. He has to yell for someone else to come change the channel or switch boxes or apps. We want him to be self sufficient. The idea of him being able to turn on and off his nightstand light is great. But not the primary purpose in his world.

If controlling the FireTV directly was your primary reason for getting an Echo and you have little use for its other functions, then I would advise you to return it because the functionality you want just does not exist yet. You can always purchase later if it does come down the road.

As I and others have mentioned, adding a Harmony Hub to your home theater system may help your son to do some things, but he will not be completely independent. Harmony activities that you configure can be triggered using the Echo, but simple button presses cannot. I have tried creating activities to represent button presses, but that is not without its own problems. That functionality is just not supported and while you may be able to kludge your way around it, it is not an elegant solution. However, that support may come down the road.

Blumoo may be a product that can do more for you. It doesn't work directly with the FireTV because Blumoo uses IR (as I understand it) and FireTV uses Bluetooth (1st gen) or WiFi (2nd gen). There is some sort of USB converter dongle that you can attach to the USB port of a FireTV that will allow it to receive IR signals, however, and I have been told Blumoo will work with the FireTV if you have this dongle. The FireStick does not have any USB ports, so it will not work with the FireStick. Roku uses IR remotes, so it will work with Roku.

Blumoo is a smart phone/tablet controlled universal remote that appears to be compatible with the Echo. It is not for me because I need to have a physical remote in addition to Echo or a smart phone (and I don't have the dongle for my FireTV). But your son has no use for a physical remote, so it may work well for him. I honestly do not know its limitations and I don't know if it would be able to do everything you need, but it could be something for you to look into.

This is the video that I saw that demonstrated its use with the Echo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gef38RoT_JI
This is the product on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blumoo-Universal-Bluetooth-Streaming-Android/dp/B00JEMMD9Q/ref=cm_cd_al_qh_dp_t
I think this may be the dongle that you would need, but check with Blumoo for verification: http://www.amazon.com/FLIRC-FL-09028-Universal-Receiver-Components/dp/B00BB0ETW8/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&srs=12034488011&ie=UTF8&qid=1462302581&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=fire+tv+ir+remote

1. I tried all three names, Echo, Amazon and Alexa. The Echo trigger word has only triggered twice after 200 tries in the last week and we completed the Training Session 5 times now. My son will scream it, whisper it, say it long and slow, say it fast, try a lower voice and a higher pitch voice. Only 2 times did the Echo trigger for my son. The funny thing is, he played the Roleplaying game kinda like ZORK. Called "The Magic Door". Echo described the scene and my son answers it correctly 90% of the time. He beat the game. Its the Trigger words that do not work.

As others have said, this sounds like a defect in your unit. No one in my house has any problems triggering the wake-up word - even kids yelling with their mouths full from across the room. I would definitely talk to Amazon support about this.

2. Since Echo cannot control the the Fire TV box. So what's the point?

Well, if that is all you wanted it for, then for you, there is none. However, that was not what it was marketed for. Everyone uses their Echo differently. I use it to get the weather in the morning, to find out when the Cubs play or what the score is if I am missing the game, to find out how to spell a word correctly or to define a word I don't know, to ask who a certain person is, to Wikipedia things without going to a computer, to turn my lights on and off when my hands are full, to set alarms and timers so I am always on time to pick up my kids from their many events and so I don't burn dinner because I couldn't hear the oven timer from the other room, to remind me what is on my calendar for the day/week and add events to my calendar, to manage my shopping list and create todo lists, among other things. Some people use it as a speaker to play music from Prime or their music library or Pandora or to listen to radio stations on TuneIn. My husband used it to listen to the football draft on ESPN radio (we don't get cable). My kids ask it funny questions hoping for funny answers. Their are skills for ordering an Uber or ordering a pizza or ordering flowers. You can order items from Amazon. You can listen to Audible audio books or have it use text to speech to read ebooks to you. You can use the TVShows skill to find out when a specific show is on and on what channel. You can play trivia games like Jeopardy. You can get news, traffic, and sports updates. You can listen to podcasts.

Basically, there are a ton of things you can do with the device. But if you only need it to control your TV, then it probably doesn't do much for you at this time. But new features get added every week and you never know what it will be doing tomorrow.

3. I was told in this thread that ""Trigger Watch TV" and it will turn on all the needed devices". To us that is of no use. All the devices are on 24/7. We just change Inputs on the Sony Smart TV.
We have:

Sony Smart TV
Fire TV box
Cox Cable Contour box ( its an HD cable box with 6 built in DVR's and 2 TB HD space.)
PlayStation 4 to watch Netflix, Hulu and Youtube and play games for my other son.

The "Trigger Watch TV" was just an example of a Harmony Hub activity being triggered by the Echo using IFTTT. Before it can do this, you need a Harmony Hub, you need to create an activity to do what you want, and you need to create an IFTTT recipe to trigger that activity. You can create such activities to switch between all of the devices you have (eg, Watch Cable TV, Watch Fire TV, Play PlayStation), but like I said before, it would be hard to completely control all of these devices by voice alone. The advantage would be that you wouldn't need all these devices to be on all the time and you could probably save a bit of electricity that way. But perhaps the Blumoo remote may get you closer, but you would need to research that more.

Monkey Demon

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2016, 09:38:34 pm »
Have you tried reviewing the posts and maybe posting something on the "For Disabled/Elderly" topic over in the "Echo Development, Hacking, & Technical Discussion" category? There are probably others who share your concerns.

I'm still very new to the Echo. I don't even have one and just joined the forum today to get some pre-purchase information. But I noticed someone suggested that you use Kodi as a way to solve your problem. I can't speak for how well it will meet your son's particular needs, but I can say that if you can get Kodi to work for him, don't view this as second best.

Kodi is truly remarkable. My wife and I have been using it for about a year. It's taken the place of our Chromecast, Roku, and most Smart TV apps. We still use Plex because our A/V collection is stored in Plex, but I think Kodi would probably work as well. If you can get Kodi working for your son, it would be well worth the time to learn how to use Kodi to your full advantage. You won't be sorry.

stylinlp38

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #17 on: May 04, 2016, 01:46:47 pm »
Thank all who have replied with helpful advice on how to use the Echo with other devices. It sounds like it would be worth investigating if I can get past the voice activation part. After my initial support call to Amazon about the Echo not recognizing my sons voice using all three trigger words we ran the Voice Training 5 times and moved the Echo to 3 different positions in the room. We even did a lot of voice therapy training with my son to get him to speak up frankly tone of voice but to no avail. The Echo simply will not trigger. But will answer his questions if someone else activates the Echo. I will say "Echo" then my son will say "what time is it" The echo will give the time. At this point, I am going to call Amazon and initiate a return.

DParker

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #18 on: May 04, 2016, 02:15:21 pm »
Thank all who have replied with helpful advice on how to use the Echo with other devices. It sounds like it would be worth investigating if I can get past the voice activation part. After my initial support call to Amazon about the Echo not recognizing my sons voice using all three trigger words we ran the Voice Training 5 times and moved the Echo to 3 different positions in the room. We even did a lot of voice therapy training with my son to get him to speak up frankly tone of voice but to no avail. The Echo simply will not trigger. But will answer his questions if someone else activates the Echo. I will say "Echo" then my son will say "what time is it" The echo will give the time. At this point, I am going to call Amazon and initiate a return.

So you're saying that the wake word works fine for everyone except your son?

I'm sorry to hear it's not working out for him.  If you could get past the wake word issue the device offers a great deal of potential benefit for him.

Offline jwlv

  • *
  • 1470
Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #19 on: May 04, 2016, 04:33:47 pm »
I have a handicapped son wheelchair bound that cannot use his hands. But he can speak clearly enough except he cannot say the word Alexia.

This might be a moot point, but is your son saying "Alexa" or "Alexia"? In your prior messages, you referred to "Alexia" several times.

Alexa is 3 syllables and Alexia is 4 syllables. When it comes to voice recognition, each syllable makes a huge difference in whether Echo can understand you.

Vonda Z

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2016, 04:41:08 pm »
It sounds like from her last post that they are using "Echo" now as the wake word and there shouldn't be any confusion with that one. And as an aside, I have a sister named Alexia, so we changed the wake word to Echo because Alexa unfortunately does respond to Alexia despite the additional syllable.

DParker

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2016, 04:46:59 pm »
And as an aside, I have a sister named Alexia, so we changed the wake word to Echo because Alexa unfortunately does respond to Alexia despite the additional syllable.

Tell your sister that if she really loved you she'd have her name legally changed.  ;)

Offline jwlv

  • *
  • 1470
Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #22 on: May 04, 2016, 04:50:17 pm »
Oh, one more thing. Because syllables are of the utmost importance to voice recognition, try saying something similar to Alexa. (I'm guessing that your son has trouble pronouncing the "x" part of the word).

I am testing this as I type this message. Saying "Alekka" can trigger the Echo successfully.
Pronounced Ah-Leck-ah.

Using "Echo" as the wake word is not ideal because the word is too short (2 syllables) and too many other words can sound like "Echo."

Using "Amazon" is only slightly better than "Echo", but still, I can imagine some people having trouble pronouncing the "z" part of the word.

P.S. Vowel sounds are much more important than consonants in voice recognition systems. Any voice recognition system can very easily mistake words that sound similar, such as "grow", "crow", "globe", "robe". The way that most systems figure out what you are actually saying is by using words in close proximity to the word that it cannot identify. If the word "flying" is near the word "crow", the system can probably figure out that you're actually saying "crow" instead of "grow". Why? Because it is more likely that "flying" and "crow" are used in the same sentence, more so than "flying" and "grow".

DParker

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #23 on: May 04, 2016, 04:52:41 pm »
P.S. Vowel sounds are much more important than consonants in voice recognition systems. Any voice recognition system can very easily mistake words that sound similar, such as "grow", "crow", "globe", "robe". The way that most systems figure out what you are actually saying is by using words in close proximity to the word that it cannot identify. If the word "flying" is near the word "crow", the system can probably figure out that you're actually saying "crow" instead of "grow". Why? Because it is more likely that "flying" and "crow" are used in the same sentence, more so than "flying" and "grow".

The Echo must be nigh unusable in Hawaii.

stylinlp38

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #24 on: May 05, 2016, 04:28:51 pm »
Alright, I will give the Echo one more shot. I will see if my son can try saying "Alekka" instead.

mike27oct

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #25 on: May 05, 2016, 06:35:49 pm »
I find Alesso and Alexo to be successful as well.

Vonda Z

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #26 on: May 11, 2016, 07:54:31 pm »
stylinlp38 - I have figured out how to control the FireTV completely by voice with the Echo. You need an app called AnyMote from Google Play for Android devices or iTunes for iOS devices. The free app will work if the only device you need to control is the FireTV. If you need to control more than one device, you will need the paid version ($6.99 I think). You will also need a phone or tablet with an IR blaster if you want to control IR devices (the FireTV can use WiFi so it doesn't need an IR blaster).

The tablet or phone with the app installed must be connected to your network, but it doesn't need to be awake or have the app open to run, and it does not need to be in the same room as the TV if you are not controlling any IR devices. It takes a little time to get it configured and to figure out how it works, but once you have it set up, you can control the FireTV by saying things like, "Echo, tell AnyMote to Play." "Echo, tell AnyMote to Pause." "Echo, tell AnyMote to Forward 5 times." etc. You should get full remote capability by voice using this. You will not be able to use voice search through the Echo, though.

Here is a quick video I threw together after getting it working for the first time to demo how it functions once it is set up: https://youtu.be/n2P9EkRGjfE

Mihinc

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #27 on: November 15, 2016, 10:09:46 am »
I'm hoping by now that you have come up with a solution.    In fear that you didnt, here is a suggestion that I would like to offer.  First off buying a Harmony companion hub, and a roku to add to your many list of things already bought.  Yikes I know.    There is a skill in alexa now that allows you to set up the roku and harmony natively.  However taking it a step further would be best like what this guy did on github
http://reflowster.com/blog/2015/07/21/rokuvoicecontrol.html
Worth looking into. 
Sorry your going through he'll over this.
   I'm also thinking investing in zwave technology would be in your sons best interest as well.   Turning off/on lights is just the beginning to making his world a little less reliant on someone else.  With some google and youtube searching you can find many ways to automate a push on the firestick button with zwave.  You could actually disassemble the remote and connect something to make it work without the actually pushin of the button.  Search..  it's on the internet.  Trust me I did a fast search and found something immediately.  I use ha bridge to automate my home with alexa.  Google also has a voice activated one out as well.  Its called google home.  However it is not as polished as Amazons. 
   I hope this helped and I'm sorry if it has not.  The world is becoming a better place through tech and in time there will be something made that will help your son's disability. 
  Good luck.

egomezcapital

Re: Disappointed Amazon Echo does not control.Amazon Fire TV
« Reply #28 on: November 16, 2016, 12:21:02 am »
After reading through all the feedback and finishing our alpha testing we have just finished launching our kick starter. Our project is called Remotsy and allows you to get remote control of your home by automating your remote control commands. By connectiong with SmartThings it gives you access to bundle activities with your smart home devices. So now when you want to set up a room to watch TV, the lights, TV, Blu-ray and sound system will be controlled simultaneously. We have also added a beta program for Remotsy. This program will give you faster access to our Remotsy Innovator’s Edition months ahead of release to the general public.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1882345838/remotsy-wifi-remote-for-alexa-and-smartthings

If you guys have any question don't hesitate to ask, and thanks a lot for all the support guys.