DISH and Amazon deliver Alexa voice control on Hopper DVR
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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I am already doing this using 3rd party integration - home-seer with an itach box. It works really well. Except when I asked Alexa to turn on me tv. She did not respond as expected, when I innocently said Alexa turn me on. It will be nice to use direct integration, except I expect that it will not control volume or tv on and off as I can now. Wonder if a subscription to something from dish will be needed -a premium integration subscription.
I'm currently using an Xbox One with Kinect to voice control many things on my TV and H3, including turning it on and off, volume changes, and DVR commands like pause, play, rewind, skip forward and backwards. Hopefully Alexa will be another way to do this. I'm enjoying integrating more and more into my smart home.
Alexa can turn on or turn off and any Activity you defined for a Harmony Hub. If you have an activity named Dish TV, simply say "Alexa turn on Dish TV" and your equipment will respond as if you touched the Dish TV Activity screen on your Harmony remote.
It will also tune to specific stations. About the only thing I noticed missing is volume control.
Volume control is already present as well. I simply say, "Alexa tell Harmony to <increase the volume/decrease the volume/mute the volume>
Thinking more about this, I am wondering if this will work off the Alexa API or will be a skill set. The difference is that the API processes what it hears and sends a command to the 3rd party system. The skill set can simply send the utterance to the 3rd party which can parse it there. This is significant for two reasons. One if it uses the Alexa API, then there needs to be vocabulary development. New phrases like "turn to" need to be added. These in turn can be used by other developers to integrate other AV systems. Second, it determines the phraseology. For an API, you could say, Alexa turn on ESPN. For a skill set you need to invoke the name of the skill - Alexa tell Hopper to turn on ESPN. Given that Dish is working on voice recognition, I am thinking this will be a skill set. The positive there is that it will significantly reduce the amount of development time, Dish would just need to set up a secure server and feed the commands into their current development of the voice control.
Well I am looking forward to the hilarious / horrible stories of recursive false commands being sent and heard by this new system. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/san-diego-anchor-accidentally-orders-dollhouses-for-viewers/183798
Unlike in the story, the Hoppers will be responsible for not only hearing false commands, but also issuing false commands to themselves.
Unlike in the story, the Hoppers will be responsible for not only hearing false commands, but also issuing false commands to themselves.
After a little research, there are actually two Harmony skills. The one I have been using takes the command 'Alexa turn on the TV'. That one only supports 'Turn On' and 'Turn Off' commands. The other skill supports other functions but requires 'Alexa tell Harmony to.....'.
Well I am looking forward to the hilarious / horrible stories of recursive false commands being sent and heard by this new system. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/san-diego-anchor-accidentally-orders-dollhouses-for-viewers/183798
Unlike in the story, the Hoppers will be responsible for not only hearing false commands, but also issuing false commands to themselves.
Yes but alexa gives you a price and asks for confirmation before ordering. What I don't u understand is why it ignores commands I alexa commercials.
I know nothing about the harmony integration. However it sounds like the first uses the API, the second a skill, probably using json to process. If Dish is actually integrating into the API , this will result in an increase in the vocabulary of the API . What this means is in the future this could be ported to the harmony interface of the API. This would expand what you could do without invoking the phrase tell harmony to. But my guess is they are working on a skill.
Sorry, I dictated this via my fire and it altered my sentence. It should read: Yes, but Alexa gives you a price and asks for confirmation before ordering. What I don't understand is why it ignores commands in alexa commercials.
As exciting as Amazon Alexa integration is (I'd be more excited for Google Home), I'd be MORE excited if this led to an Amazon Prime Video app on the Hopper.
According to this Dish promotional Youtube video, Joey capability will be "end of the year".
