A bit disappointed.
I had an Amazon Fire TV Cube for my new TCL Roku TV and it worked great. It especially could turn the TV on and off via command.
However, I did not like the audio on the TV so I thought I'd move the cube to another TV and get the Beam for this TV. I'm using just a plain Amazon Fire TV with the TV.
The Beam definitely has better sound, but I can no longer turn the TV on or off.
First, yes I have the CEC settings correct. I have connected the Beam to my Alexa account, and set it up as the device to control my Amazon Fire TV. I can search and pull up a movie and control playback. My Bean is attached to the ARC HDMI input.
But I cannot turn the TV on or off.
This is an issue because the Beam is so large, it covers the TV's remote signal detector and I have to stand up to be able to get the signal through to turn the TV on or off.
I've seen other people have problems with turning tvs on or off, but I haven't seen any solution. Is this just not a function that the Beam controls?
Answered
Can't control TCL Roku TV with Sonos Beam and Alexa
Best answer by melvimbe
To shed a little light on this, the firetv cube will 'cheat' in it's voice commands. It's not using CEC to send commands to the TV in most cases, it's using IR commands. You can confirm this by unplugging your cube from the tv and then giving the voice commands. They will still work.
As far as getting the tv to work with CEC, this post is pretty helpful.
https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/enabling-cec-on-your-tv-for-beam-6810049
I would remove the fire tv stick temporarily, power down the TV (maybe even unplug) and then restart and see if the commands work then as a start, but it's worth trying everything that applies for your situation.
One other thing to try is to 'target' your commands by specifying the room name. For example, "Alexa, turn on the game room tv". I have to do this with my setup as alexa always assume I mean the tv connected to the firetv cube without specifying the room.
Lastly, it's possible that your tv just isn't 'listening' and won't accept the commands through CEC no matter what you.
As far as getting the tv to work with CEC, this post is pretty helpful.
https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/enabling-cec-on-your-tv-for-beam-6810049
I would remove the fire tv stick temporarily, power down the TV (maybe even unplug) and then restart and see if the commands work then as a start, but it's worth trying everything that applies for your situation.
One other thing to try is to 'target' your commands by specifying the room name. For example, "Alexa, turn on the game room tv". I have to do this with my setup as alexa always assume I mean the tv connected to the firetv cube without specifying the room.
Lastly, it's possible that your tv just isn't 'listening' and won't accept the commands through CEC no matter what you.
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To shed a little light on this, the firetv cube will 'cheat' in it's voice commands. It's not using CEC to send commands to the TV in most cases, it's using IR commands. You can confirm this by unplugging your cube from the tv and then giving the voice commands. They will still work.
As far as getting the tv to work with CEC, this post is pretty helpful.
https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/enabling-cec-on-your-tv-for-beam-6810049
I would remove the fire tv stick temporarily, power down the TV (maybe even unplug) and then restart and see if the commands work then as a start, but it's worth trying everything that applies for your situation.
One other thing to try is to 'target' your commands by specifying the room name. For example, "Alexa, turn on the game room tv". I have to do this with my setup as alexa always assume I mean the tv connected to the firetv cube without specifying the room.
Lastly, it's possible that your tv just isn't 'listening' and won't accept the commands through CEC no matter what you.
As far as getting the tv to work with CEC, this post is pretty helpful.
https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/enabling-cec-on-your-tv-for-beam-6810049
I would remove the fire tv stick temporarily, power down the TV (maybe even unplug) and then restart and see if the commands work then as a start, but it's worth trying everything that applies for your situation.
One other thing to try is to 'target' your commands by specifying the room name. For example, "Alexa, turn on the game room tv". I have to do this with my setup as alexa always assume I mean the tv connected to the firetv cube without specifying the room.
Lastly, it's possible that your tv just isn't 'listening' and won't accept the commands through CEC no matter what you.
Danny
Thanks for reply.
I did discover that I needed to state the entire TV name. Sonos seems to add it to the Alexa device list. I can turn the device off, but turning it on doesn't seem to work. Or works erratically.
I'll try the turn off, unplug, etc, see if something is off.
Yeah, the Sonos is definitely not the same caliber of control device as the Cube. I ask it to open Netflix, and it brings up Sling. However, if I ask it to specifically play a movie on Netflix, then it seems to work. I'll have to look at the Sonos supported commands, filter out the ones I was using with the Cube that aren't supported with Sonos.
What it does better than Cube is I can listen to music without TV on, and it doesn't pause a show when I ask it to turn a light on.
But, sure would like to get it to turn the TV on when I ask it to turn on the TV (by device name).
I suppose what's been happening is my TV downstairs controlled by the Cube has been turning on and off...
I did discover that I needed to state the entire TV name. Sonos seems to add it to the Alexa device list. I can turn the device off, but turning it on doesn't seem to work. Or works erratically.
I'll try the turn off, unplug, etc, see if something is off.
Yeah, the Sonos is definitely not the same caliber of control device as the Cube. I ask it to open Netflix, and it brings up Sling. However, if I ask it to specifically play a movie on Netflix, then it seems to work. I'll have to look at the Sonos supported commands, filter out the ones I was using with the Cube that aren't supported with Sonos.
What it does better than Cube is I can listen to music without TV on, and it doesn't pause a show when I ask it to turn a light on.
But, sure would like to get it to turn the TV on when I ask it to turn on the TV (by device name).
I suppose what's been happening is my TV downstairs controlled by the Cube has been turning on and off...
Like I said before, a I lighthearted think of the cube as 'cheating' since it's using IR commands. I haven't really played with the firetv voice functions through the Beam (really with the cube much either), but I'm surprised there'd be any difference. My understanding that the processing of the command is done by Alexa in the cloud regardless of whether it was done by the Beam or the Cube. If I get a chance to play with it over the next few days, I'll see if I get the same results.
I have a somewhat ideal situation as I'm using the Beam on smaller tvs, which tend to be more single use. Thus I don't really need the voice controls as much. The cube is on the larger main tv, where I use firetv, cable, and sometimes bluray and xbox...along with a Playbar.
And yes, I've accidently turned on/off a tv many times over the past few days.
I have a somewhat ideal situation as I'm using the Beam on smaller tvs, which tend to be more single use. Thus I don't really need the voice controls as much. The cube is on the larger main tv, where I use firetv, cable, and sometimes bluray and xbox...along with a Playbar.
And yes, I've accidently turned on/off a tv many times over the past few days.
Danny
OK, I checked out supported commands at both Sonos and Amazon, and I've got the following to work consistently:
When TV is off, giving command of "Alexa, Watch Fire TV" turns TV on and sets the Fire TV input
Giving name of TV as defined by Sonos, such as Main TV, or Livingroom TV, does work when turning off "Alexa, turn off Main TV". (This was the key, particularly since Cube claims "TV" for the TV it controls.)
Unlike the Cube, going "Alexa, open [app]" does not work. It highlights it but does not open it. Neither does using Launch [app]. You have to use the control with the Sonos, compared to being able to use voice with the Cube. Search seems to work with Netflix, but not Hulu. So search is not as well supported with Sonos as it is with Cube.
Pause, stop, play, rewind, fast forward all seem to work equally for both devices.
Raising and lowering the volume on the Sonos works very well. The Sonos night mode and speech enhancement features are worth the device, alone.
When TV is off, giving command of "Alexa, Watch Fire TV" turns TV on and sets the Fire TV input
Giving name of TV as defined by Sonos, such as Main TV, or Livingroom TV, does work when turning off "Alexa, turn off Main TV". (This was the key, particularly since Cube claims "TV" for the TV it controls.)
Unlike the Cube, going "Alexa, open [app]" does not work. It highlights it but does not open it. Neither does using Launch [app]. You have to use the control with the Sonos, compared to being able to use voice with the Cube. Search seems to work with Netflix, but not Hulu. So search is not as well supported with Sonos as it is with Cube.
Pause, stop, play, rewind, fast forward all seem to work equally for both devices.
Raising and lowering the volume on the Sonos works very well. The Sonos night mode and speech enhancement features are worth the device, alone.
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