Echo Devices (Alexa) as Media Player - Testers Needed

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5228

IMO there is no config. You just write it, e.g. khob khun krab instead of using ขอบคุณคับ
But how it sounds when Alexa says it depends on the language Alexa is set to.
For example when it is set to German, English sentences often sounds awful and vice versa.
Not sure the princess would like that :wink:

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5229

In the documentation it says that the alexa notification service does not support ‘whole house audio’. Is this the same thing as speaker groups created in the Alexa app?

I want to achieve synchronised audio notifications if possible.

5230

You can use the service notify.alexa_media_everywhere to send a notification to all alexa devices. However it will only work with the type: announce:

service: notify.alexa_media_everywhere
data:
  message: This is my message
  data:
    type: announce

This will also work with Alexa speaker groups, again, it must be type: announce.

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5231

Hi Drew,

This would be great, 'cause until now I use an Alexa speaker group for doing so.
Nevertheless, this service doesn’t exist here:

Error handling message: Unable to find service notify.alexa_media_everywhere

Any Idea?

5232

Two things to check:

  1. Make sure you have an everywhere speaker group in the Alexa app
  2. Make sure you have a media_player.everywhere entity in HA and that it’s not disabled or excluded. If you enable the debug logging on alexa_media.helpers and search for Excluding device, you can discover if any device is being filtered out of AMP.
5233

Does this mean I would have to create the group myself? Well as said, I already use an Alexa group for doing so :wink:

This sounded like it’s a native group service.
Thanks anyway.

5234

Hi can Alex play URL streams like this one: https://somafm.com/secretagent.pls. If so then what is the correct way to configure the option? I read through the Wiki and searched this post but did not find any reference to playing URL streams. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

5235

You shouldn’t have to create it, but you should rule it out as a possible cause.

This service should have been created automatically by Alexa Media Player. However, it is possible it wasn’t created if the everywhere speaker group either didn’t eist in the Alexa app or it was excluded during configuration of the integration.

5236

From what I have tried, generally you can only stream from sources that have a skill. For SomaFM, if you enable their Alexa skill you can then use a custom command in AMP:

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.my_dot
data:
  media_content_type: custom
  media_content_id: ask soma fm to play secret agent
5237

Thank you I will give it a try!

5238

Is there a way to create a lovelace button that will send the equivalent of the voice command “alexa play music” where she just selects your favorite radio station or your personalized playlist?

5239

You can emulate any command that you would do with your voice by using the custom command type I gave an example of two posts ago.

You can attach that service call to the tap or hold action of a button card.

5240

I do it with the help of the mini-media-player card:

type: horizontal-stack
cards:
  - type: custom:mini-media-player
    name: Livingroom
    shortcuts:
      columns: 1
      buttons:
        - type: service
          name: Lounge
          id: media_player.play_media
          data:
            entity_id: media_player.echo_wohnen
            media_content_id: shuffle my playlist Lounge
            media_content_type: AMAZON_MUSIC
        - type: custom
          name: Milano Lounge
          id: play Milano Lounge on tunein
    artwork: full-cover-fit
    hide:
      volume: false
      power: true
      source: false
      name: false
      info: false
      controls: false
      progress: false
      icon: true
      state_label: true
      media_info: false
    scale: '1'
    entity: media_player.echo_wohnen

First a radio station, second a playlist.

image
image553×508 58.2 KB

Actually I have 10 button for each.

5241

Hi,
I never excluded anything AMP created. It’s just not there… And I never ever saw such a group in Alexa. All Alexa groups I had to create myself.
So I’ll stick to the “AnnounceAll” group I created myself - by this I have more control anyway.

5242

I just noticed this error when restarting HA. Any ideas? I thought it may have been because the state is actually ‘true’, lower case, but that wasn’t it either.

From here; Home · custom-components/alexa_media_player Wiki · GitHub

Logger: homeassistant.helpers.template
Source: helpers/template.py:1779
First occurred: 10:17:59 AM (4 occurrences)
Last logged: 10:18:09 AM

Template variable warning: No first item, sequence was empty. when rendering '{{ expand('group.echos') | selectattr('attributes.last_called','eq',True) | map(attribute='entity_id') | first }}'
5243

That warning it generated because, at startup when the sensors are rendered, the last_called attributes of the echo media_player entities isn’t yet defined. You can get rid of the warnings by adding an availability to your sensor configuration. I haven’t tested this, but I think it should work:


###configuration.yaml

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: last_alexa
        state: >
          {{ expand('group.echos') | selectattr('attributes.last_called','eq',True) | map(attribute='entity_id') | first }}
        availability: >
          {{ expand('group.hf_echos') | selectattr('attributes.last_called','eq', True) | first is defined }}
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5244

I tried this:

type: button
name: Punk
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: media_player.play_media
  target:
    entity_id: media_player.everywhere
  data:
    media_content_type: custom
    media_content_id: play punk music on everywhere group

But I keep getting this error:
Failed to call service media_player/play_media. required key not provided @ data['media_content_type']

What am I doing wrong?

5245

It is couterintuitive but, as stated in the docs, you cannot call whole house audio (WHA) on the media_player.everywhere target.

type: button
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: media_player.play_media
  service_data:
    media_content_type: custom
    media_content_id: "play punk music on everywhere group"
  target:
    entity_id: media_player.living_room_dot
icon: mdi:cassette
name: Punk Everywhere
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5246

It maybe off topic here, but anyone know if possible to add google nest mini to alexa and add it to a device group for whole house audio?

5247

As far as I know, the two do not work together for WHA. You might be able to connect to the nest as a bluetooth speaker but it will not be in sync and you will lose the output from the sending echo device.

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