Using the plex alexa skill: https://www.plex.tv/apps/streaming-devices/amazon-alexa/ I am unable to use the video playback, which is my main interest in this skill. The reason being, I cannot select the device I want to.
Initially, when I ask it about the devices it is aware of, it lists all of them (5 in total).
Then, when I try to set the default device, it only recognizes one (plex web player).
The same issue occurs If I try to play a title directly on a specific device. It no longer sees it online, even though it is.
Then if I go back to ask it about its known list again, the full list is gone and it only has knowledge of the single plex web player.
The only way I can get it to know about the full list is if I unplug my echo and reboot. But then the same issue happens again. The list of devices is reduced to one as soon as I attempt to set default or play a title on any specific device.
Were the Plex apps running when you tried setting the default? Alexa can only see running clients. Also, when setting the default player, it should list them with a 1, 2, 3 and you should be able to say 1, 2, 3 when you hear the name. i.e.
“Alexa, set default Plex player”
“Ok, here are the players I’ve found. 1 …, 2…”
“2”
“Ok, setting … as the default player.”
I forget the exact response Alexa gives but you get the idea, hopefully.
Thanks for the timely response. Yes, the player was on. Ive tried multiple different states; i.e. player on, but on the home screen. Player on, at a specific episode. Player on, actually playing an episode.
I am attempting to use my 2nd gen amazon fire tv as the player, but the echo seems to only recognize the plex desktop client. I said plex web player in my original post but its actually the windows client.
Also note that it sees all devices initially but then can only actually connect to one. Once the connection is made, the device list also becomes truncated to just one.
. As you can see, it recognizes the devices. But then it can only find one compatible player. Based on
This link, my understanding is that the amazon fire tv 2nd gen is a valid companion app player for alexa.
Follow-up:
One thing I noticed in your reply was that the system would number the results and let me pick based on number. When I was running this tests, the devices would be echoed but not numbered. The system would request me to select the default player by name.
Today I ran the same tests as I did yesterday, and all my companion apps are now available as players. I was able to set my default player and now I can control plex via the alex skill, as intended.
So I changed nothing, but it started working! I will assume I got some update to the skill that fixed it. Because as you can see based on the screenshot above that my attempts yesterday were fruitless.
EDIT: I did change one thing. I have another open forum topic about playback issues. I changed the wifi connection to a 2.4ghz band instead of a 5ghz band in attempt to solve my playback issues. It is possible that the functionality now works for that reason.
Ok. The list of clients is based on what clients are able to communicate back to plex.tv. When it is setting the primary player, Alexa has to be able to communicate directly with the device. So although your devices were communicating to plex.tv, they could not talk back. It’s possible your Wifi was the issue. I was going to suggest something on your network wasn’t working properly.
I believe there are some strange behaviors with 5hgz wifi and Plex on the AFTV. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but two of my issues immediately went away (this issue plus this issue about playback stuttering) as soon as I switched from a 5ghz channel to 2.4ghz.
Just want to call it out in case some conclusions can be drawn by your team or by the community; or, in the off-chance that someone else stumbles across this forum and it solves their issue.
Cheers, thanks for the support.
There have been many reports of the AFTV devices having issues with 5 GHz WiFi. The 5 GHz radio allows for more throughput, but it’s a weaker signal and most reports say the radio in the FireTV devices are quite weak so using 5 GHz just makes it worse.
@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
There have been many reports of the AFTV devices having issues with 5 GHz WiFi. The 5 GHz radio allows for more throughput, but it’s a weaker signal and most reports say the radio in the FireTV devices are quite weak so using 5 GHz just makes it worse.
Yes agreed in principle. However since other streaming services don’t have this issue (hbo, hulu, netflix), it can also be argued from an outside perspective that it is a “bug” in the plex client running on the device. It is unfair to blame the AFTV radio since Plex would be theoretically more “ideal” (fewer variables) than the other streaming services which go over the internet.
As I understand it, they are simply different streaming mechanisms and Plex is just a bit more sensitive to the latency issues that wifi has over an ethernet connection.
That being said, no reason to debate philosophy. Without anyone actually digging in, its impossible to draw reasoning and the rest is guesswork.
The conclusion is that Plex runs better on AFTV when using a 2.4GHz channel. Thanks again.
