[mythtv-users] Echo/Alexander integration

[Will Cooke]

On 26 November 2016 at 01:22, <networks1 at cox.net> wrote:

> Has anyone done work on developing an Alexa "skill" for controlling MythTV?
>

Yeah, I've got a skill set up to schedule recordings.
Here's a link: https://github.com/8none1/alexascripts

It won't "just work" though, you'll have to fiddle with it.  Also, I've
recently replaced the proxy script with the Apache reverse proxy module.
It speeds things up and is one less script to maintain.  You'll want at
least basic auth on the proxy - and it's needed because you probably don't
want to expose your Myth box to the internet directly.

However - Alexa's voice recognition is quite lacking (especially when
compared to Google's or Apple's) and it's often quite hard to get a close
enough match to actually get it to find a programme to record.
Additionally, it really struggles with detecting the word "Myth" - or at
least it does when I say it.  Trying to get it to load the MythTV skill
sometimes ended up with Alexa telling me I didn't have any Lionel Richie
songs in my library, so you might want to choose an invocation name which
isn't "myth".


If you wanted some basic playback control, you should be able to limit the
utterances to a few keywords and so improve the hit rate.


If you want to add some playback controls have a look at my Bravia skill
here:
https://github.com/8none1/bravialib

In the Alexa directory is a file which details the intents schema I used:
https://github.com/8none1/bravialib/blob/master/alexa/skills_data.md

Maybe that will give you some ideas?

Cheers, Will
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