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Keithmac
Virtuoso
April 9, 2019

Alexa Echo Dot with Playbar functions.

  • April 9, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 548 views
Hello all, after using my new Sonos One in the Kitchen I'm a convert to voice control!.

I have dug my Echo Dot out of it's slumber and set it up as a "Group" in the Living Room with my Playbar 5:1 system as preferred speaker.

It works great, if the TV is on and I ask "Alexa, play Prodigy" the Playbar goes into music mode and streams Prodigy from Deezer. Excellent!.

There are a couple of things though, first of all I can't work out how to switch back to TV input via voice control?, maybe this is a skill that needs to be added?. "Alexa, Play TV"?.

Next up if I ask "Alexa, play Absolute Radio 90's", it will play out of the Echo Dot, rather than my preferred speaker. Am I asking the wrong thing or is it because the Dot doesn't class it as music?.

At any rate it seems to be an improving system and I'll be buying a few more Ones, my daughter thinks it's ace!, "Alexa, play One Direction" is all she says now in the Kitchen!.

Good work so far Sonos!.
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    3 replies

    melvimbe
    melvimbe
    April 9, 2019

    There are a couple of things though, first of all I can't work out how to switch back to TV input via voice control?, maybe this is a skill that needs to be added?. "Alexa, Play TV"?.


    I don't think you can do that with an echo dot/playbar combination currently. You can do that when speaking directly to a Beam though as I understand it.


    Next up if I ask "Alexa, play Absolute Radio 90's", it will play out of the Echo Dot, rather than my preferred speaker. Am I asking the wrong thing or is it because the Dot doesn't class it as music?.


    is Absolute Radio 90s coming from a music service that Amazon supports (like Deezer) or is it coming for a skill? Audio from skills won't play on the preferred speaker. That said, I have notice that sometime the setup seems to glitch and not play music on the preferred speaker as it should. I've had to stop the music and then repeat the request and it goes to the preferred speaker.


    At any rate it seems to be an improving system and I'll be buying a few more Ones, my daughter thinks it's ace!, "Alexa, play One Direction" is all she says now in the Kitchen!.


    Yep, get her her own One so you don't have to hear that in your kitchen. :D

    Seriously though, I've found Sonos to be a good bonding experience with the kids. With mine, we will some times take turns on who picks the next song, so I get to hear what they are listening to (what they will admit to anyway), while they hear what Dad likes.
    Danny
      KeithmacAuthor
      Virtuoso
      April 9, 2019
      Hello Danny, my lot complain about my 90's music but saying that I've heard them singing along to it when they think I'm not listening!.

      My 7 year old daughter was singing Seal's "Kiss from a rose" in the summer house last week (had the DAB radio going). Nice to see them appreciating good music (both are Prodigy fans!)..

      I think the DOT has tuneinradio skill where it gets AR90's from, my Sonos has tuneinradio as well but the Echo may not be able to command Sonos to use this skill?.

      The other thing is I can't work out how to play my own music Library via Alexa (all on my NAS drive), maybe this is because it isn't a music service as such?.

      Plenty of learning to do!.

      We have a Play:3 on the landing and my daughter likes to listen to a song while she's getting ready for bed, can just tell our Echo Dot to sort that out now, no more fumbling for my phone!.
      trymph
      Trending Lyricist I
      April 16, 2019
      [quote=melvimbe]
      There are a couple of things though, first of all I can't work out how to switch back to TV input via voice control?, maybe this is a skill that needs to be added?. "Alexa, Play TV"?.

      I don't think you can do that with an echo dot/playbar combination currently. You can do that when speaking directly to a Beam though as I understand it.


      @Keithmac.....New OLED 55C8 LG w/Playbar & Sub combo in great room "open concept" home. Are you saying I cant activate my TV output via Alexa voice to my Sonos ONE? Is there no way to make my Kitchen ONE play whats on the Playbar via Alexa voice and that only Beam has a TV named output? Currently I listen to my TV on my Kitchen ONE by manually click/enabling it in the Sonos app while in the Playbar1 device. I would love to be able to share my TV Playbar output with either my Kitchen ONE or my Den Play1/Echo (the TV is visible from either) by voice command; just learning Alexa/Sonos language now. I do have both an Alexa group Kitchen and separate Alexa Playbar1 group with both devices added to each group havent been able to get TV output to the Kitchen ONE by voice.

      Thanks
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