Echo Skill

[panteragstk]

Hi. I'm getting an error "there was a problem with the requested skills response" after putting in my locator ID. What should I do next?

I do need to let it know my port is 7070 instead of 8080, but can't get it to recognize that command.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Hi. I'm getting an error "there was a problem with the requested skills response" after putting in my locator ID. What should I do next?

I do need to let it know my port is 7070 instead of 8080, but can't get it to recognize that command.

Try saying "Alexa, ask Sage TV to use port seven zero seven zero". If that doesn't work try variations on 7070 such as "seven thousand seventy" or "seventy seventy".

Also make sure it actually understood the locator ID property by saying " Alexa, ask sage TV the locator ID".

[tmiranda]

I just deployed an update to the skill. It fixes some errors that would cause the skill to not stop. This is still a work in process.

If you ever just want to stop the skill you can say "exit" or "quit" at any time.

[tmiranda]

New version deployed:
- Better navigation.
- Improvements to handling the default TV.

[tmiranda]

Reminder: After installing the UI Mod plugin you must unzip the attached and place the file in the sagex/services directory on your server. You can overwrite the existing file.

[tmiranda]

I deployed a new version this morning that fixes a bug which made some people connect to my server instead of their own

[wayner]

How good is cloud9? My Echo skill has some limitations and complications due to the fact that I deployed it using Lambda, which is a stateless environment.

I don''t know that cloud9 is any different in this regard. The main issue that we are having is figuring out how to do authentication. The way it works with a tesla is that you get an OAUTH token and then use that, but how do you securely have a user enter an OAUTH token to allow many people to use the same Echo Skill? Currently we are just having each user enter the token, or actually the email and password used to retrieve a token, as environment variables.

And apparently Cloud9 will put a process to sleep if it is idle for two hours on its free tier. I haven't seen this myself, perhaps that is because I keep the Cloud9 instance up in an active web browser.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

I don''t know that cloud9 is any different in this regard. The main issue that we are having is figuring out how to do authentication. The way it works with a tesla is that you get an OAUTH token and then use that, but how do you securely have a user enter an OAUTH token to allow many people to use the same Echo Skill? Currently we are just having each user enter the token, or actually the email and password used to retrieve a token, as environment variables.

And apparently Cloud9 will put a process to sleep if it is idle for two hours on its free tier. I haven't seen this myself, perhaps that is because I keep the Cloud9 instance up in an active web browser.

Most skills have you go to a website to log on and get the token, but I'm sure you knew that already. Thanks to the fact that Sage has unique locator IDs I didn't have to worry about building a web interface to log on.

[phareous]

I know it isn't possible really to update the UI screens/lists, etc. but is it possible to just have basic jump commands, like I could tell it to go to main menu, go to recordings, go to videos...like you could do with the remote?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by phareous

I know it isn't possible really to update the UI screens/lists, etc. but is it possible to just have basic jump commands, like I could tell it to go to main menu, go to recordings, go to videos...like you could do with the remote?

Yes, that's already in there.

First, pick what TV you want it to control by saying "use the TV in the <xxx> room" where <xxx> is the name you picked in the UI Mod. (If you don't do this it will choose the first active instance it finds.)

Then say "command <yyy>" where <yyy> is the key press. (for example: "command up", "command home", command videos", "command play")

[NoodleNT]

How do you install the sageTV skill to the Echo? I don't see it in the Skills section in the Alexa app.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

How do you install the sageTV skill to the Echo? I don't see it in the Skills section in the Alexa app.

It's not a published skill. If you want access PM me the email address you used to register the echo and I'll set you up.

[tmiranda]

I just submitted the "Sage For Echo" UI Mod plugin to the repository. You no longer need to search through this thread for the manifest or for the latest echoFunctions file. Instead, just install the UI Mod plugin.

The plugin will work for SageTV version 7 or version 9.

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just submitted the "Sage For Echo" UI Mod plugin to the repository. You no longer need to search through this thread for the manifest or for the latest echoFunctions file. Instead, just install the UI Mod plugin.

The plugin will work for SageTV version 7 or version 9.

Looks like my timing was great on this whole thing. I got my Echo Dot as a Christmas gift. So far I've been able to interface it with some ancient home automation devices (X10) via a bridge on rPi. Last night my wife was playing with voice commands with her parent's Xfinity remote, which got me wondering if there was something for SageTV. Boom! It didn't take long to find this thread.

I am currently on V7 and plan to upgrade to 9 in the very near future. This will probably be in use before that upgrade! Thanks!

[thomaszoo]

Thanks for including me. I've got it up and running. I tested it with my regular recordings and it seems to work great to play them. I would suggest reducing or eliminating having Alexa read out the details of what is playing (I'm guessing it is there primarily for testing purposes?). Also, is there a way to have Alexa pause and stop playing the recording?

I have a lot of imported videos, both movies and series such as Game of Thrones. I can't figure out how to launch one of the movies or an episode from Game of Thrones.

[eagleshot]

Command 'Pause', Command 'Play', Command 'Stop' plus many more remote commands...

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

Thanks for including me. I've got it up and running. I tested it with my regular recordings and it seems to work great to play them. I would suggest reducing or eliminating having Alexa read out the details of what is playing (I'm guessing it is there primarily for testing purposes?). Also, is there a way to have Alexa pause and stop playing the recording?

I have a lot of imported videos, both movies and series such as Game of Thrones. I can't figure out how to launch one of the movies or an episode from Game of Thrones.

I have her say what she is playing for testing purposes as you surmised. Once it's working smoothly I'll either remove that or add it as an option.

To pause you should be able to say "pause the current episode" or "command pause". The same should work for resume and stop. Let me know if not.

I haven't added the code to play a specific movie with a single utterance, that's still on the drawing board. You will need to say:
- "get all movies" which will put all movies in context, then
- "sort them by title", then
- "skip to X" where X is the first letter of the movie title (assuming you have a lot of movies and don't want to say "next" a lot), then
- "next" until you get to the movie you want, then
- "play"

To play an episode in a series you can say "play Game of Thrones" and it will play the first unwatched episode. You can also say "play the newest episode of game of thrones", "play the latest episode of game of thrones", "play the oldest episode of game of thrones", or "play the first episode of game of thrones".

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I have her say what she is playing for testing purposes as you surmised. Once it's working smoothly I'll either remove that or add it as an option.

To pause you should be able to say "pause the current episode" or "command pause". The same should work for resume and stop. Let me know if not.

I haven't added the code to play a specific movie with a single utterance, that's still on the drawing board. You will need to say:
- "get all movies" which will put all movies in context, then
- "sort them by title", then
- "skip to X" where X is the first letter of the movie title (assuming you have a lot of movies and don't want to say "next" a lot), then
- "next" until you get to the movie you want, then
- "play"

To play an episode in a series you can say "play Game of Thrones" and it will play the first unwatched episode. You can also say "play the newest episode of game of thrones", "play the latest episode of game of thrones", "play the oldest episode of game of thrones", or "play the first episode of game of thrones".

OK, I got the command thing down and it works (somehow I missed that in the wiki). One problem I seem to be having now is that it will open the recording in a paused state.

As I tried to explain before, I'm having problems with my imported videos. I assume the "Go to videos" command should bring up the list of imported videos on the tv (it does not). It will say how many are in the current view, but they are not displayed. I also can not save the current view. I have the same problem with recorded airings. Any ideas? Thanks.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

OK, I got the command thing down and it works (somehow I missed that in the wiki). One problem I seem to be having now is that it will open the recording in a paused state.

As I tried to explain before, I'm having problems with my imported videos. I assume the "Go to videos" command should bring up the list of imported videos on the tv (it does not). It will say how many are in the current view, but they are not displayed. I also can not save the current view. I have the same problem with recorded airings. Any ideas? Thanks.

For the first part, are you saying when you say "play XXXX" the video starts but pauses?

For the second part, those utterances will not make anything happen on the TV. That's all in a "virtual view" in Alexa's head The only way to make something happen on the TV is by uttering "play <show name>" (or one of the other "play" utterances mentioned in previous posts) or to say "command <keystroke>".

It's currently not possible to co-ordinate Alexa with what appears on a physical Sage user interface. Many people have asked for it, it's just not possible unless I use a stripped down user interface and prohibit all UI Mod plugins.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I haven't added the code to play a specific movie with a single utterance, that's still on the drawing board.

This is doable though isn't it? From the web UI you can search for a movie by name and then play it in any UI context, so I imagine it is the same for the Echo.

So I would think something like this "Alexa, ask SageTV to play Frozen in the kitchen" should work, assuming that Alexa could parse the movie title.

Would you have to do something to differentiate the voice commands for TV shows from movies?

You would think that there would be Alexa skills for apps like Plex and Kodi but I don't see anything for those when I search the Alexa app.