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[rn701]

Shuffle playlist is working great. Thanks!

[sarkonovich]

@brantome

Yeah, 4-5 seconds is pretty laggy. I live in Oregon (where the server is) and often play/pause commands execute *before* Alexa starts speaking.

HouseBand could be hosted in the UK. I would just need to setup another server in the UK for that.

On a side note, the UK certification didn't have anything to do with server location. The program had to be rewritten slightly since Amazon has slightly different requirements for the UK. And I took that opportunity to rewrite a lot of the program. (The recertification process itself took about a month.)

It looks like -- absent some AWS wizardry that I'll look into -- getting a UK server will require another round of certification.

[brantome]

Thanks, I can live with it as it is just now as I get to grips with MC anyway. I guess you mean another server on AWS, hopefully not your own physical server...

Earlier in the thread, it was suggested that JRiver might be able to help you out - I hope they are as it was on the back of House Band I got interested in MC again, but that's between you and them

Till I got my Echo and Dot, I was happy enough using mininserver on my synology NAS and Linn's own control app for playback to my SneakyDS, so you're helping bring in revenue for JRiver...

Just slowly building my library on my Raspberry Pi - you getting re-certification might be quicker!

Cheers

[sarkonovich]

@brantome,

Yes, another AWS server.

And JRiver is has been very supportive of the project all the way through!

Best,
Steve

[carlgarton]

Hi, Finally House Band for the UK. Been using for a couple of days and 1st off just a couple of comments;

Play/Resume command will not play if the zone has been stopped by another application. Ie Webgizmo or JRiver App.

Is there a command to stop all zones playing at once. I often have more than 1 zone playing with different music, would be brill if i could say "Stop everything"

Keep up the good work

[amz]

Hi

now that this skill is available for the UK is there a chance to get it for the continent too, i.e. Germany? I'd be happy to help to get it going.
Does it need to be translated besides the procedures to implement it in Amazon?

Regards

[WeeHappyPixie]

Hi Steve,

Just want to say thank you for all your hard work bringing House Band to the UK. No mean feat I'm sure. Still learning the commands but so far so good. Yeah it can be a wee bit laggy but I can live with that. The fact it understands my Scottish accent is great. Not a lot of voice recognition do. Just ask a Scot to say Purple Burglar Alarm and prepare to piss yer self ☺️.

Anyway, big thank you. Keep up the good work.

John

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[brantome]

Trying to play or shuffle a playlist is just getting me the error "sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your House Bad skill right now". The Alexa app history correctly shows the request - any ideas? Thanks
PS is there any additional logging that can be switched on?

[sarkonovich]

@brantome,

That's an Amazon error. If you get that, it means that the skill isn't even getting the request from Amazon, so there's nothing for me to log.

Are you getting that error only for those commands?

The only errors you get from the skill itself are:

1. "There was a problem with the requested skill response." - That's a bug in the code. Hopefully there aren't any of those
2. "It took too long for the skill to response" - The request was made but Amazon didn't get any response. That could be because the server is just down, or the lag was too great (~10 seconds.)

I would write Amazon about this error, especially if it doesn't go away soon.  Go to the "Help and Feedback" section in the Alexa app.

Sorry about that.
Steve

[sarkonovich]

@carlgarton


Hmm. I don't think I've ever run into that, and just tried it here and all seems okay.

All the control commands (play/pause/volume/skip, etc) act on the current zone.

I'm guessing that what's happening -- let me know if this is possible! -- is that HouseBand is controlling a different zone than you're listening to. So, it's pausing/resuming Zone 2, you're listening to Zone1, and so nothing seems to be happening.

You can ask, "What's my current Zone" to get information on that zone.

Unfortunately, there isn't a "Pause" / "Resume all" command. I'll look into whether there's a good way to add that in without recertification. Otherwise, I'll add it to the next "release."

Please let me know if it's a zone issue

[sarkonovich]

@amz

Thanks for the offer to translate!  Yes, I imagine this is the bulk of the work, may the only work, that need to be done. I haven't really looked into what it takes to get a DE skill certified. (I don't even know if the responses have to be in German, or if it just needs to understand German requests.)

So I'll I can say is "we'll see" about a German release. In all honestly, it likely won't happen till summer.
First comes a google home release....

Steve

[sarkonovich]

@WeeHappyPixie

Thanks for the kinds words. And thanks for writing them, so I can understand what you're saying!

Steve

[avpman]

@WeeHappyPixie

Thanks for the kinds words. And thanks for writing them, so I can understand what you're saying!

Steve

Ditto on the thanks Steve! I've really been enjoying using Houseband to integrate my JRiver setup. I just bought the Homeseer ZEE appliance and I'm in process of integrating Alexa with my Omni Home Automation system as well for lighting, etc. The two skills compliment one another very well. Immense thanks for all your hard work!

I have to say, the JR Skill is worth paying for to insure continued support and development efforts. I'm not wealthy and can't afford to throw money around. But I'm willing to pay something to insure continued sustainability of the skill! It has really contributed significant value to the JR product.

[avpman]

@brantome,

That's an Amazon error. If you get that, it means that the skill isn't even getting the request from Amazon, so there's nothing for me to log.

Are you getting that error only for those commands?

The only errors you get from the skill itself are:

1. "There was a problem with the requested skill response." - That's a bug in the code. Hopefully there aren't any of those
2. "It took too long for the skill to response" - The request was made but Amazon didn't get any response. That could be because the server is just down, or the lag was too great (~10 seconds.)

I would write Amazon about this error, especially if it doesn't go away soon.  Go to the "Help and Feedback" section in the Alexa app.

Sorry about that.
Steve

The experience I've had so far with Amazon tech support over Alexa issues has been very good. They have a phone number on the app you can call and talk to someone directly. Response time has been excellent. It's a lot easier to diagnose talking with someone one on one.

[brantome]

@sarkonovich

Sure, will do

I can ask Houseband to create a playlist by composer x, but sometimes that can throw up a "sorry, there's been a problem" error with different composers - and even at times, the same one that worked previously.

I also get (and can repeat) the "sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your House Band skill right now" that I get when I ask for a playlist to play, when I ask it to play tracks by composer Beethoven. It reads out the 4 matching pieces (at length), and when I reply 'play all', it lists three on the MC screen and gives the "trouble accessing" error.

Is there any commonality in the requests that are failing from a Houseband/MC POV? Is something timing out somewhere?

I'll let you know how I get on with Amazon - I've a feeling (or am hoping) that this might resolve itself overnight as seemed to happen a week or two back in this thread

Many thanks

[sarkonovich]

@brantome

Write me at sarkonovich @ gmail dot com

The classical music search is still wonky, for sure. But I'm pretty sure I know the ways it's wonky.

I have a few questions to ask about your setup, and probably better to do it via email.
Steve

[sarkonovich]

I can ask Houseband to create a playlist by composer x, but sometimes that can throw up a "sorry, there's been a problem" error with different composers - and even at times, the same one that worked previously.

Yep. I can repeat this. The answer (for now) is not to say "the composer"...just say, "Create a playlist based on Beethoven."

It's just an utterance that I hadn't thought of and, sort of oddly, not one that Alexa can figure out given the ones that I had thought of. The fix for this sort of error requires Amazon's approval, so nothing I can do immediately.

Thanks for the report!
Steve

[sarkonovich]

I have to say, the JR Skill is worth paying for to insure continued support and development efforts. I'm not wealthy and can't afford to throw money around. But I'm willing to pay something to insure continued sustainability of the skill! It has really contributed significant value to the JR product.

 At some point in the future, depending, there might be small charge. But not until I think it's really solid. For the foreseeable future, I kinda think of it as me foisting beta software on users to test for me! So, thank you.

Steve

[brantome]

Yep. I can repeat this. The answer (for now) is not to say "the composer"...just say, "Create a playlist based on Beethoven."

It's just an utterance that I hadn't thought of and, sort of oddly, not one that Alexa can figure out given the ones that I had thought of. The fix for this sort of error requires Amazon's approval, so nothing I can do immediately.

Thanks for the report!
Steve

No, thank you for identifying the issue/ work round.  Think what I was trying to do was specify that I wanted a composer tag match rather than an artist one, albeit clumsily.

I'll have another play with it today. Cheers

[JimH]

At some point in the future, depending, there might be small charge. But not until I think it's really solid. For the foreseeable future, I kinda think of it as me foisting beta software on users to test for me! So, thank you.

I think you could charge something now.  You're getting a lot of very positive feedback.  In my opinion, it's worth $10 when it's solid, but it's worth at least $5 now.

[sarkonovich]

@brantome

I see. So, there's a few ways to do what you want.

1. Create a Playdoctor Playlist.

These playlists will not limit the "seed" to any particular tag. So:

"Create a Beethoven playlist"
"Make a playlist based on 'Beethoven'"

etc., will just use "Beethoven" as the key word. I'm assuming that  this means that "Roll over Beethoven" by Chuck Berry could very well show up in in.


2. Do a tag search

"Play music with the tag composer beethoven"
"Play all music with the following tags: composer equals beethoven"

I actually think this is what you want.
I need to work on more/different utterances to make this search more natural. Also, it is a bit borked for now.


3. Search for all your music by Beethoven (and play all of it.)

"Play music by the composer Beethoven"
"Play music by Beethoven"

and then say, "play all" if you are given a list of what you have (or are told that you have too much to list.)

[brantome]

@sarkonovich

Thanks for that - as I think I said, I don't have a great deal of classical stuff, but I think I must have just read your help file and somehow classical tag searches was the  first thing to come to mind...

[~OHM~]

So is there a way to start the playlist from where you left off or even better would be able to start it from the sequential #. Every time I start a playlist it always starts from the beginning. Am I doing something wrong?

[brantome]

@TAO1857

Is that a function/ drawback of MC or House Band? Does it do the same in both?

[~OHM~]

well in MC I of course click on where I left off. I know this because I have last played as a field I can see. So I don't know how to answer your question. sorry

[sarkonovich]

@TAO1857

Well, you're not doing something wrong. Both "play" and "shuffle" playlist commands just load up that playlist from the beginning.

It's a function/drawback of MC insofar as the PlayPlaylist command itself has no parameters for resuming from previous position.

However, that's not to say that there isn't a way for me to manually save the position and use that next time you ask for the playlist. I've never thought of it or looked int MCWS to see if there's a way of doing this.

Steve

[~OHM~]

I did find a work a round for it....I open the playlist on PC look for where i want to start at and have Alexa start there and she just keeps going down the line....

[sarkonovich]

Good. And of course, you can alway pause and resume from where ever you stopped in a playlist.

I thought you were looking to play part of a playlist, go on to play other stuff, and then next time you asked to play that playlist, it would pick up where you left off.

Steve

[~OHM~]

I thought you were looking to play part of a playlist, go on to play other stuff, and then next time you asked to play that playlist, it would pick up where you left off.

Steve

I rarely play full albums any more so I like the dsp effect of volume leveling for playlists.

[Dirk_]

So I'll I can say is "we'll see" about a German release. In all honestly, it likely won't happen till summer.

It would be great!

BR
Dirk from Hannover

[AndrewFG]

Just for info, Amazon has just started accepting orders for Alexa devices in the "DACH" German speaking countries..

[Hendrik]

Just for info, Amazon has just started accepting orders for Alexa devices in the "DACH" German speaking countries..

More accurately, they actually ship now. Mine should be here tomorrow.
Its a shame I can't just talk english to the thing and use the House Band skill that way, though.

Anything we could help with to get a German skill going?

While I'm here, I use Theater View a lot for movies and tv shows, it would be neat to be able to navigate around in that with voice commands.

[sarkonovich]

In all honesty, I wasn't really going to look at this until summer.

But what I can do this week is put up some of the larger translation jobs - skill description, help text, utterance samples - up on Github or something, and anyone who wants to can take a crack at starting the translation.

I haven't looked at the documentation to see if the requirements are any different than USA or UK versions, but I don't think so.

I'll post back here when that's done!

Steve

[AndrewFG]

Hi Steve, would you be able to post a list of all phrases supported? I guess that the list gets longer as you add functionality but a current snapshot would be much appreciated.

[sarkonovich]

Yes, I'll try to post that.

If you ask for help, there are now various topics you can get help with. Those topics all contain central examples that are sent to a card in the Alexa app (though, "tag search" does not work well currently.)

Steve

[AndrewFG]

If you ask for help, there are now various topics you can get help with. Those topics all contain central examples that are sent to a card in the Alexa app (though, "tag search" does not work well currently.)

Thanks for the tip about "help". At least that command works. However none of the commands described in the help syntax work. Is there some way to debug what is going wrong?

[AndrewFG]

I think the issue may be due to server authentication. I imagine that the MC token expires after some time. So there needs to be some way of using a login / password combination.

Actually Using a token is basically the same a no security at all.

In parallel I will do one tests with my HTTPS proxy server

[sarkonovich]

Thanks for the tip about "help". At least that command works. However none of the commands described in the help syntax work. Is there some way to debug what is going wrong?

Did you get this figured out? Was it an authentication problem?  By "don't work" do you mean they don't work as well as you hoped or didn't work at all....

[sarkonovich]

Actually Using a token is basically the same a no security at all.

I followed the procedures outlined here:   

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Web_Service_Connection

Amazon wouldn't certify with using username/password without me setting up a separate website/oauth server. You can, of course, password protect the server after account linking (but authentication is still done with a token).

[AndrewFG]

Authenticate
Call the web service function: MCWS/v1/Authenticate
Provide the saved username and password if you have one.
If authentication does not succeeed, ask the user for their username and password. Then repeat.
Store the token returned and include it in all future calls.

Steve, how do get the security token for the first time? When you call MCWS/v1/Authenticate as above, you surely need to provide it with a login and a password. So where do get them from? Your Skill login page asks for the Access key but not for any authentication credentials..

[sarkonovich]

Actually, the MCWS will give the token if the server isn't password protected. After HouseBand receives the token, you can password protect the server.

[AndrewFG]

So you have to have the login and password previously stored in MC, (even though Authentication is off), in order to generate the correct token initially, and you cannot enter or edit the login/password set after you have paired the Skill with MC.

I would be interested to hear from someone at JRiver whether the token is time variant. I would expect it to be something like a hash of the login, password, and some date/time variable.

OTOH, if this so called "security" is really as rudimentary and compromised as it appears to be, then perhaps JRiver can advise why one would bother about using it at all...

[Hendrik]

Tokens are fully randomly generated, independent of your username/password, but they do get tracked on the server and expire. They are designed as a temporary authentication mechanism to avoid sending user/pass with every single request (which would also work if you really wanted to), not as a permanent login for an app. Apps should use the username/password to request a new token dynamically.

If you have your MC accessible to the internet without any password, then only you are to blame for compromising its security, really.

[AndrewFG]

Ok thanks Hendrik for the info.

That means that the Houseband Skill must have a possibility for the user to enter (and store) a login plus password. Otherwise you would have to repeatedly disable and re enable the Skill every time that the token expires.

[sarkonovich]

It means that when the token expires, you'll have to remove authentication from the server and then launch the skill so it can get the new token. You can then re-enable authentication. There's no need to disable/re-enable the skill. (Anyway, that would also require you to disable authentication to grab the new token.)

Enabling the skill lets you provide your access code. As far as I know, that doesn't change.

[AndrewFG]

Hi Steve,

I am concerned to improve the security of your Skill, so I've been logging the Http transactions sent from Houseband to MC to see what's going on. I noticed that you are being very verbose in the use of the MCWS/v1/Authenticate command. In one log you issued that command 18 times in 90 seconds. Which seems a bit wasteful..

[sarkonovich]

I'll take a look at why it's calling that so much.

Currently I do not store the token, so it's requested every "session", that is, every time the skill is invoked. It needn't be requesting a token if the session is remaining open between requests, e.g., when the user is answering a query from the skill ("What should I play?")

I'm curious if you think it's a security concern.

As far as I know, I can either just send the auth token along with either request, or provide username/password in the header, with the token being the preferred method. And that's all there is to MCWS security. But

Steve

[AndrewFG]

I'm curious if you think it's a security concern.

No. But it seems a bit wasteful.

[sarkonovich]

It should be a bit cleaner now....

[Kid Twist]

Just wanted to let you know, the commands "Ask House Band what's playing" or "Ask House Band what song is this" no longer seem to work when my MC server is password protected. Alexa tells me she's having trouble accessing my House Band skill right now. It works fine if I turn off password protection. All other functions seem to be OK. Thanks.