How to turn on tv with Alexa?

Zascar

I'd really like to be able to operate the tv via Amazon Alexa. There does not seem to be anything simple and cheap on the market - but the Logitech Harmony Hub gets great reviews. It does a lot more than just turn it on and off though I think. Does anyone know exactly what it can do, like changing to Sky news etc for example?

Or are there any alternatives worth looking at?

bk

Zascar wrote: »

I'd really like to be able to operate the tv via Amazon Alexa. There does not seem to be anything simple and cheap on the market - but the Logitech Harmony Hub gets great reviews. It does a lot more than just turn it on and off though I think. Does anyone know exactly what it can do, like changing to Sky news etc for example?

Or are there any alternatives worth looking at?

Other then using a smart plug to simply turn on and off the power to the TV, then their is no alternative to Harmony Hub.

Note that the Harmony Hub's are often reduced in the various Amazon sales.

I haven't tried it yet, as support was just added to Alexa but seemingly you can:
- Turn on/off Harmony activites
- mute/unmute and increase/decrease the volume
- play/pause/skip forward/skip backwards
- Change to favourite channels * and even launch apps like Netflix/youtube on some devices.

* I don't think you can change to just any channel, you have to set certain channels as favourites.

wexfordman2

In theory though, with smart tvs and net connected sky boxes etc, controlling these devices should be acheiveable without additional hardware. There are apps to control these devices, so I assume that Alexia and gh should be able to control them direct also.

setanta1984

bk wrote: »

Other then using a smart plug to simply turn on and off the power to the TV, then their is no alternative to Harmony Hub.

Note that the Harmony Hub's are often reduced in the various Amazon sales.

I haven't tried it yet, as support was just added to Alexa but seemingly you can:
- Turn on/off Harmony activites
- mute/unmute and increase/decrease the volume
- play/pause/skip forward/skip backwards
- Change to favourite channels * and even launch apps like Netflix/youtube on some devices.

* I don't think you can change to just any channel, you have to set certain channels as favourites.

I can confirm all the above functions work perfectly with Alexa and Harmony hub.
Changing channels by their name (which you can set yourself) works only for your favourited channels in Harmony (it's easy to set loads of these up). You can customise what word(s) to use to change to what channel. However if you know the channel number, you can ask it to change that way too - "Alexa, tell Harmony to tune to channel number 29".

What I find really cool is that Harmony (with the remote or Alexa) can even play/pause/stop my Chromecast - no more needing to use a phone

bk

wexfordman2 wrote: »

In theory though, with smart tvs and net connected sky boxes etc, controlling these devices should be acheiveable without additional hardware. There are apps to control these devices, so I assume that Alexia and gh should be able to control them direct also.

In theory absolutely, in reality, not a hope in hell!

I've been following Harmony for years, actually 10 years now and the reality is it has been an up hill battle for them to convince companies to move away from IR and move to bluetooth or IP control and get them to agree on a standard for Bluetooth and IP Control. Just look at the mess that is bluetooth control on PS4, a very recent device.

Roku (NowTV) leads the way with it's awesome IP Control set up. But unfortunately there is still no standard at all for control over IP or Bluetooth. That means companies like Harmony (or Alexa) have to write a different interfaces to access every single different device! It is complete madness.

Actually this is a perfect example of this disjointed thinking. Sky actually partly owns Roku, yet the new Sky Q boxes, which are newer then Roku, don't use IP Control, instead using either IR and Bluetooth and they haven't even opened up the Bluetooth control to harmony, they have to use flaky IR instead.

Look at the PS3, it had amazing, full featured, open Bluetooth control, which pretty much lead the development of Bluetooth control and many companies followed. Then Sony decided to release the PS4 with completely broken Bluetooth control and still haven't fixed it!

Google looks like it is trying to tackle this issue with Google Weave, a standard for controlling smart devices, including TV's, see here:

https://developers.google.com/weave/guides/dev-guides/television?hl=ja

But I really wouldn't hold my breath unfortunately. For now I'd buy a Harmony hub, enjoy it and come back to see if things have finally changed in 10 years.

witnessmenow

Zascar wrote: »

I'd really like to be able to operate the tv via Amazon Alexa. There does not seem to be anything simple and cheap on the market - but the Logitech Harmony Hub gets great reviews. It does a lot more than just turn it on and off though I think. Does anyone know exactly what it can do, like changing to Sky news etc for example?

Or are there any alternatives worth looking at?

Its possible to do with a cheap wireless arduino and an emitting ir LED (plus a receiver ir LED to learn your remotes commands). Total cost would be less than $10 if ordering from China , maybe £10 from the UK or something.

Its something I plan to do over Christmas. Ive already made a device that runs a webpage with some basic remote inputs options that I had learned from their respective remotes. When user pressed the volume up button it would make a request back to the arduino which would then blast out the volume up remote command that I learnt from my receivers remote.

Using the belkin wemo emulator library i posted in the FAQ I can register up to 14 devices on the one arduino. So I should be able to register the device as several names, each hooked up to sending a different command(or multiple commands)

So for example if I regestired on device as "PlayStation", I should be able to ask Alexa to turn PlayStation on, and when I receive that command on my arduino I could turn on the TV, set channel to hdmi 1, turn on reciever and set channel to the Bd/DVD channel

I could also ask it to turn "sky sports" on. And get it to type in 401 or whatever the channel is,

ED E

WoL is an ancient protocol. Would be interesting to see if any TV OEMs included it. Would be very easy to have a Pi Controller issuing magic packets on an IFTTT basis.

Using a Chromecast powered via TVs USB in conjunction would mean a completely automated setup. Other STBs it'd be less useful unless they could be similarly activated.

bk

ED E wrote: »

WoL is an ancient protocol. Would be interesting to see if any TV OEMs included it. Would be very easy to have a Pi Controller issuing magic packets on an IFTTT basis.

Using a Chromecast powered via TVs USB in conjunction would mean a completely automated setup. Other STBs it'd be less useful unless they could be similarly activated.

I'm not aware of a TV that supports Wake-On-Lan, but most TV's and STB's have supported HDMI-CEC for many years now. It is a protocol that allows control signals, including TV on/off and change input to be sent over the HDMI cable.

It is how you could have a BluRay player and just use it's remote to also control the TV.

You could also have a STB that would then have WoL. For instance I've a Mac Mini hooked up to my TV. The Mac obviously has WoL and then it can also turn on the TV over HDMI-CEC.

However there are a bunch of problems with CEC, first of all, each company created their own slightly different version, with their own brand name, (e.g. Sony BraviaLink) and while they were supposed to work between brands, in reality there was always weird incompatibilities between devices and manufactures. It was never quiet stable enough or reliable enough IME.

It also came with the silly assumption that there was only the TV and one other box (DVD/BluRay player). You could use one remote to control both. However the TV remote would often lack many of the buttons on the BluRay remote and vice versa. And then what if you had multiple STB's, in reality, most people have a DVD/Bluray player and some sort of Sky/Virgin box. More advanced users might also have a Android TV/FireTV/Now TV streaming box and one or multiple game consoles. Yes CEC allowed you to eliminate the TV remote, but now you still had 2 to many remotes, one for each STB!

Oh and god help you if you stick an AV into the mix between the TV and the STB's. Then CEC completely falls apart.

Oh and then every manufacturer thinks they are brilliant and comes up with some weird remote design. Ones that work over Bluetooth, ones with full qwerty keyboards, ones with D-sticks, one's with touch panels, ones that you can wave about like a wand, etc. All just complicating things and creating a big mess.

As you can see, I've spent WAY too much time messing around with all of this nonsense. Non of it works well or reliably.

That is why I'm so happy with the Harmony remote. It takes a little bit of initial set up. But once it is done, it works brilliantly to control all your devices you may have.

Just one remote to control them all!

It can control almost every device in the world that uses IR, Bluetooth or open IP control. The physical remote is well designed and laid out (particularly the Elite model) with a sensible selection of the main buttons that most devices are likely to need and then a touch screen at the top for all the other esoteric buttons a particular device might have.

Then you have the Harmony app for iOS/Android. It works ok, but it would be a pain to use all the time (unlock phone, find app, etc.). Mostly I just use the app for the setup or adding new devices and the odd time the remote has gone missing! Of course now we have Echo voice control and that is awesome. No need to go searching for the remote when it goes missing. Though I'd still have the remote for day to day channel surfing, etc.

Harmony might be a little bit expensive, but if you have a complicated AV setup with multiple devices, surround sound, etc. then it is well worth it. And if you step back and think about it Harmony is probably a fraction of the cost of what you've spent on a good TV, AV, surround speakers, etc. and it really makes them much easier to use and much more likely to pass the spouse acceptance factor (SAF) test.

As an aside, because the remote communicates with the Harmony Hub (which in turn does the IR, etc.) then it has almost limitless range. As a result, I was able to remove all my ugly AV gear (Linux sat box, Mac Mini, Android TV, Now TV, PS3, PS4, Xbox and Denon AV) out of the living room and into the study, with just a long single HDMI cable running to the TV in the living room. That has made the living room look far cleaner and nicer and helps keep the AV gear away from the sticky hands of the little monster who likes to pull on cables!

Between the high ease of use and that fact that all my AV gear is now out of sight, it has a very high SAF (spouse acceptance factor). So high in fact, that she was excited when I told her that I had bought a Harmony Elite to replace the Harmony Ultimate and move the Ultimate into the bedroom! High praise I think.

copacetic

bk wrote: »

As an aside, because the remote communicates with the Harmony Hub (which in turn does the IR, etc.) then it has almost limitless range. As a result, I was able to remove all my ugly AV gear (Linux sat box, Mac Mini, Android TV, Now TV, PS3, PS4, Xbox and Denon AV) out of the living room and into the study, with just a long single HDMI cable running to the TV in the living room. That has made the living room look far cleaner and nicer and helps keep the AV gear away from the sticky hands of the little monster who likes to pull on cables!

Between the high ease of use and that fact that all my AV gear is now out of sight, it has a very high SAF (spouse acceptance factor). So high in fact, that she was excited when I told her that I had bought a Harmony Elite to replace the Harmony Ultimate and move the Ultimate into the bedroom! High praise I think.

Very interested in how well this works, as I ruled harmony out a while ago as an option for my pending install as had read reviews saying the remote to hub connection was Bluetooth. So range was very limited, and would only work through one wall. Review I think said you need to use the app on phone to communicate via wifi. Do you find range is actually limitless? I.e. Is it wifi not Bluetooth?

Do you have a hdmi switch that the harmony can control on the other end of your long hdmi lead?

You've opened my eyes to possibly installing eir box itself in utility room, along with Apple TV and say DVD player. Then to a switch then possible hdmi to Ethernet.

(My little angel has been eyeing up the AV equipment since birth and is just on verge of crawling!)

Although maybe as a new install I should just run many more cat6 cables and not have the switch.

bk

copacetic wrote: »

Very interested in how well this works, as I ruled harmony out a while ago as an option for my pending install as had read reviews saying the remote to hub connection was Bluetooth. So range was very limited, and would only work through one wall. Review I think said you need to use the app on phone to communicate via wifi. Do you find range is actually limitless? I.e. Is it wifi not Bluetooth?

You know what, you are correct!! To be honest I thought it used wifi because the performance was so good. Worked perfect literally 100% of the time. But I just checked and it seems the remote talks to the Hub using RF (radio frequency), which makes sense as wifi uses a lot more power to operate and would thus reduce the remotes battery life.

Yes, my "server room" is just one room away.

However I would say that you need to remember that US houses are WAY bigger then Irish houses. I'd be surprised if it didn't work across at least two rooms and a floor of a typical Irish house.

Also the Harmony Elite remote comes with a new, updated, hub, which I believe has updated radios and Bluetooth. I think it works over further distances and is more reliable.

Also alternatively you could leave the Harmony Hub in the living room and use one of the methods listed in this guide to get the IR signal from it to your "server room":

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/infrared-everywhere-extending-harmony-ultimate-remote-multiple-rooms/

I'm using the DIY Blaster Extension method (in the opposite direction, to get one of the Hub's IR blasters into the living room to control the TV) though it was a little tricky to get working.

Even better as you are a new build, you can do IR over Cat6 cable:

https://www.lindy.ie/audio-video-c2/extenders-c181/450m-cat5-ir-extender-for-4-devices-p7294
http://www.ambery.com/irrecoovcaca.html

Potentially the HDMI over Cat6 dongles mentioned in the article could do both HDMI and IR on the same Cat6 cable, but you need to double check if it supports omni directional IR, as with this setup, the IR would be going in the opposite direction as the HDMI, I'm not sure that would work.

The only disadvantage to these approaches, is that they would only work for devices controlled by IR and IP control, if the hub is too far you won't be able to control devices that use Bluetooth exclusively (E.g. PS4).

Yes, you could control Bluetooth devices with the mobile app or Alexa, as they all talk to the hub over wifi, but not ideal.

copacetic wrote: »

Do you have a hdmi switch that the harmony can control on the other end of your long hdmi lead?

Yup, I've a Denon AV system in the study that can take 5 HDMI inputs and output them as one to the TV. Also it obviously does 5.1 surround too. The Harmony Hub controls it great too.

However as I mentioned a few posts back, if you don't need 5.1 surround sound *, then you could use something like a HDMI 6x2 matrix device (basically a HDMI switch) instead, much cheaper.

* You could still get surround sound using a sound bar or similar under the TV.

copacetic wrote: »

You've opened my eyes to possibly installing eir box itself in utility room, along with Apple TV and say DVD player. Then to a switch then possible hdmi to Ethernet.

Yup. Note a few things:

- You will want at least one extra Cat 6 cable to do the HDMI over Cat 6, separate from the ethernet cable going to the living room. HDMI over Cat 6 doesn't actually use Ethernet as such it is using a different protocol over cat6 cable.

- You might want a third too for running IR over Cat6.

- The Apple TV uses bluetooth for it's remote, but it also has IR, so while Siri voice control might not work if it is too far away, you should still be able to control it with the Harmony Hub. DVD player, etc. should be fine too.

copacetic wrote: »

(My little angel has been eyeing up the AV equipment since birth and is just on verge of crawling!)

Although maybe as a new install I should just run many more cat6 cables and not have the switch.

As mentioned above, at least 3 anyway:
- Ethernet
- HDMI over Cat6
- IR over Cat6

copacetic

bk wrote: »

You know what, you are correct!! To be honest I thought it used wifi because the performance was so good. Worked perfect literally 100% of the time. But I just checked and it seems the remote talks to the Hub using RF (radio frequency), which makes sense as wifi uses a lot more power to operate and would thus reduce the remotes battery life.

Yes, my "server room" is just one room away.

However I would say that you need to remember that US houses are WAY bigger then Irish houses. I'd be surprised if it didn't work across at least two rooms and a floor of a typical Irish house.

Also the Harmony Elite remote comes with a new, updated, hub, which I believe has updated radios and Bluetooth. I think it works over further distances and is more reliable.

Also alternatively you could leave the Harmony Hub in the living room and use one of the methods listed in this guide to get the IR signal from it to your "server room":

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/infrared-everywhere-extending-harmony-ultimate-remote-multiple-rooms/

I'm using the DIY Blaster Extension method (in the opposite direction, to get one of the Hub's IR blasters into the living room to control the TV) though it was a little tricky to get working.

Even better as you are a new build, you can do IR over Cat6 cable:

https://www.lindy.ie/audio-video-c2/extenders-c181/450m-cat5-ir-extender-for-4-devices-p7294
http://www.ambery.com/irrecoovcaca.html

Potentially the HDMI over Cat6 dongles mentioned in the article could do both HDMI and IR on the same Cat6 cable, but you need to double check if it supports omni directional IR, as with this setup, the IR would be going in the opposite direction as the HDMI, I'm not sure that would work.

The only disadvantage to these approaches, is that they would only work for devices controlled by IR and IP control, if the hub is too far you won't be able to control devices that use Bluetooth exclusively (E.g. PS4).

Yes, you could control Bluetooth devices with the mobile app or Alexa, as they all talk to the hub over wifi, but not ideal.



Yup, I've a Denon AV system in the study that can take 5 HDMI inputs and output them as one to the TV. Also it obviously does 5.1 surround too. The Harmony Hub controls it great too.

However as I mentioned a few posts back, if you don't need 5.1 surround sound *, then you could use something like a HDMI 6x2 matrix device (basically a HDMI switch) instead, much cheaper.

* You could still get surround sound using a sound bar or similar under the TV.



Yup. Note a few things:

- You will want at least one extra Cat 6 cable to do the HDMI over Cat 6, separate from the ethernet cable going to the living room. HDMI over Cat 6 doesn't actually use Ethernet as such it is using a different protocol over cat6 cable.

- You might want a third too for running IR over Cat6.

- The Apple TV uses bluetooth for it's remote, but it also has IR, so while Siri voice control might not work if it is too far away, you should still be able to control it with the Harmony Hub. DVD player, etc. should be fine too.



As mentioned above, at least 3 anyway:
- Ethernet
- HDMI over Cat6
- IR over Cat6

Thanks for that, will need to look into it in more detail.

I have a kitchen radio with faceplate control and ceiling speakers in my p,an to not have a visible one, which is quite expensive, thinking that the harmony hub could control a mini hi-if unit hidden in utility room also, wired to ceiling speakers in kitchen.

Could you then use a second elite remote that is left in kitchen/divining room to control that setup via the hub, or would you need to just use iPad app for that?

An iPad mini, plus the harmony elite with hub is actually not much more than the built in kitchen radio option anyway.

http://kitchenbathroomradio.co.uk/kitchen-ceiling-radio/kitchen-ceiling-radios/systemline-e100-bluetooth-dab-fm-in-wall-radio-system-inc-2-x-6-5-speakers

bk

copacetic wrote: »

Thanks for that, will need to look into it in more detail.

I have a kitchen radio with faceplate control and ceiling speakers in my p,an to not have a visible one, which is quite expensive, thinking that the harmony hub could control a mini hi-if unit hidden in utility room also, wired to ceiling speakers in kitchen.

Could you then use a second elite remote that is left in kitchen/divining room to control that setup via the hub, or would you need to just use iPad app for that?

An iPad mini, plus the harmony elite with hub is actually not much more than the built in kitchen radio option anyway.

http://kitchenbathroomradio.co.uk/kitchen-ceiling-radio/kitchen-ceiling-radios/systemline-e100-bluetooth-dab-fm-in-wall-radio-system-inc-2-x-6-5-speakers

You can have only one touch screen remote like the Elite paired to the hub, however there are a number of work arounds:

1) You can have one touch screen remote and one non-touch screen remote (like the Companion) remote paired to one hub.

2) Or you could use a tablet with the app on it.

3) Or you could potentially use An Echo Dot for voice control.

4) You can buy two elites with two hubs, this works fine, I've actually this setup myself. One for the living room and one for the bedroom.

BTW Another idea would be to not bother with the Hifi at all. Instead get ceiling speakers with Bluetooth or even better with an audio in port wired into the kitchen and then use an Echo Dot in the kitchen to play music from those speakers.

That would give you all the power of the Echo, Spotify, Tunein Radio, timers, etc. It is a great kitchen device. No need for an additional Harmony, Hifi, iPad or expensive ceiling speaker radios then.

copacetic

bk wrote: »

You can have only one touch screen remote like the Elite paired to the hub, however there are a number of work arounds:

1) You can have one touch screen remote and one non-touch screen remote (like the Companion) remote paired to one hub.

2) Or you could use a tablet with the app on it.

3) Or you could potentially use An Echo Dot for voice control.

4) You can buy two elites with two hubs, this works fine, I've actually this setup myself. One for the living room and one for the bedroom.

BTW Another idea would be to not bother with the Hifi at all. Instead get ceiling speakers with Bluetooth or even better with an audio in port wired into the kitchen and then use an Echo Dot in the kitchen to play music from those speakers.

That would give you all the power of the Echo, Spotify, Tunein Radio, timers, etc. It is a great kitchen device. No need for an additional Harmony, Hifi, iPad or expensive ceiling speaker radios then.

Good ideas there, live FM and occasional MW radio in the kitchen is important to us hence the kitchen radio to begin with probably 75% of the use. Have a mini head unit that already has that plus AirPlay, Bluetooth, etc, so could run pretty much everything via it and an iPad which might be nice.

The kitchen has a dining and seating area also, so maybe a second setup works also

bk

copacetic wrote: »

Good ideas there, live FM and occasional MW radio in the kitchen is important to us hence the kitchen radio to begin with probably 75% of the use. Have a mini head unit that already has that plus AirPlay, Bluetooth, etc, so could run pretty much everything via it and an iPad which might be nice.

The kitchen has a dining and seating area also, so maybe a second setup works also

Well the Echo Dot has Tunein Radio, which has most of the radio stations in the world. I'd be surprised if it doesn't have the stations you listen too. But then the Echo voice control of radio stations isn't great. Though it works well with the app.

Looking at that radio, it is quiet nice, with both Bluetooth and audio in inputs.

Might I make a suggestion, run two audio cables to it. One from your utility room and have another audio out port fitted right next to the radio. That way you can change your mind in future, run it from either the hifi in the study or from an Echo Dot in the kitchen.

matrim

Home assistant has a plugin for Sony Bravia (and philips and lg) so that I can do basic controls from that. I haven't tried but I'd be pretty sure you could get Alexa to turn it off using home assistant as a hub.