TL:DR - You can now request a personal music collection by voice from a Plex media server.
well, I'm starting to get somewhere on having non-streaming services work on my Sonos One (and other Alexa devices too of course)
Obviously, up till now, the only way to play music on our Sonos devices has been using many of the paid for streaming services OR playing music from our own music libraries. This is great and allows the best of both worlds BUT we aren't able to play more than a couple of those services with voice alone (Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music).
For ALL other services, we are limited to using the Sonos app/software in order to access this music.
However, I have today (and I may well be a bit behind on this front) discovered that I CAN access music stored on my Plex server (which is streamed from my NAS at home) by enabling and linking the PLEX skill on Alexa and then asking "Alexa, ask Plex to play......"
This can be in many different ways,
Alexa, ask Plex to Play Michael Jackson (any music)
Alexa, ask Plex to Play Black or White by Michael Jackson (specific track)
Alexa, ask Plex to Play Thriller album by Michael Jackson (specific album)
each of the above works flawlessly.
Now I have to assume this relies on everything being correctly tagged in your music collection.
I am quite anal about my music and everything has been correctly ID3 tagged for years now, with the correct artists, years, track names, genres and so on so this works well for me. I can only assume if your collection isnt well tagged this won't work as well or at all.
Now I do currently subscribe to Spotify so I am able to just ask for music anyway without the Plex addition pre-empting the artists. This does, however, mean that I will be able to drop Spotify at some point and be able to use Plex for all my streaming needs, in and out of the home..meaning no monthly payment.
Also, I thought I'd push things a bit and see how many streams I could get from Plex at once and I got to 8 separate streams on different devices before I got bored.
I'm going to try to get my FiL to try this from his house later as well.
All of the above is great and it works well on Sonos Ones or any Sonos devices with Alexa built in, but for now, the grouped Alexa/Sonos speaker isn't playing the Plex stream, it only comes through the Alexa devices...which in my case is a multiple Dots (plus a Spot, Show, and a few Echo's).
So now I just need to work out how to get the Plex streams to also default to any connected/linked Sonos speakers and I will be done....if anyone knows of any tricks to get this to work please let me know.
This will be great for many others like me that have always had large music collections stored on a computer somewhere.
For anyone not totally au fait with Plex...I did a write up a while back which you may find helpful and if anyone would like that into let me know as I'm not sure if I am allowed to post the link directly into the forums
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I have found another little issue apart from the main one listed above.
Whilst I am able to select Plex Playlists via voice and have them start pleyinh....when they play on my Sonos One, it repeats the first track again and again....there is no way for me to deselect a repeat setting. If I play this direct from the Plex app on the Sonos One, it doesn't occur. I can also ask Alexa to skip to the next track but then she just repeats the next one as well
Whilst I am able to select Plex Playlists via voice and have them start pleyinh....when they play on my Sonos One, it repeats the first track again and again....there is no way for me to deselect a repeat setting. If I play this direct from the Plex app on the Sonos One, it doesn't occur. I can also ask Alexa to skip to the next track but then she just repeats the next one as well
Id like a copy of that write up please as fed up of waiting for sonos/napster/amazon to allow voice control. Not sure who is responsible as they all blame each other. Im sure you can post the link here.
In my opinion, alexa on sonos is a waste of space, so much so, its only ever turned on occasionally to say "alexa, DING, youre rubbish. I so wish i hadnt bought it on the release date.
In my opinion, alexa on sonos is a waste of space, so much so, its only ever turned on occasionally to say "alexa, DING, youre rubbish. I so wish i hadnt bought it on the release date.
Here you go.
https://jonnosreviews.wixsite.com/techknowlogy/plex
On e the above has been done its a simple case of enabling the Plex Skill on Alexa
Any questions let me know
https://jonnosreviews.wixsite.com/techknowlogy/plex
On e the above has been done its a simple case of enabling the Plex Skill on Alexa
Any questions let me know
in addition to the above, I've managed to get Playlists working via voice request as well.
Another small issue though...I can request the playlist via Alexa on a Sonos ONe but it repeats the first track again and again until I stop it or manually skip to the next track via voice or app....If I start the same playlist on an Echo device...this glitch doesn't occur
Another small issue though...I can request the playlist via Alexa on a Sonos ONe but it repeats the first track again and again until I stop it or manually skip to the next track via voice or app....If I start the same playlist on an Echo device...this glitch doesn't occur
Plexa voice ontrol was veryborken for a few days and then something I tried today has re eabled it agian. Going into the Autorised devices sections of the RPMS and deleting all instances of Sonos once agian allows playback of Plex music database on a Alexa enabled Sonos device ( in my case, Sonos One), thart said, its still far from working as it should (and nothing like the functionality of an outright Echo device).
Any playback, be it an album, artists, track or playlist, the first track plays for a second, thenrestarts...then when it is playing, it repatedly plays thew first track. It's not posible to skip tracks by voice...there just a "on no someting is wrong" reply from Alexa saying it will let Plex know. Also, any playback on my Sonos One from Plex does not show in the dashboard. So it seems a lot more work is still needed. I've also contacted Plex directly rto report my findings
Any playback, be it an album, artists, track or playlist, the first track plays for a second, thenrestarts...then when it is playing, it repatedly plays thew first track. It's not posible to skip tracks by voice...there just a "on no someting is wrong" reply from Alexa saying it will let Plex know. Also, any playback on my Sonos One from Plex does not show in the dashboard. So it seems a lot more work is still needed. I've also contacted Plex directly rto report my findings
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