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Alexa [OLD Thread]

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datdude:
Will it be possible to make this skill the default music player for alexa, so that way we don't always have to tell alexa to open the media center skill and then tell it whatever commands we want. Instead if I say 'play nine inch nails' it will automatically play that from MC, assuming that music exists in my MC library.

cncb:
I don't think so because at this point it just controls an MC server and does not play on the Alexa device itself.

dtc:
Not sure how much input you want at this stage, but here is what I use the most on Alexa. These account for the vast majority of my plays.  They should be able to be done with simply searches and they very much mimic current functionality in Alexa., which should be familiar to the average Alexa user.

Italics represent variable entries. Non-italics are key words

Play Album albumname by artist on zone name
  e.g. Play Album Anything is Possible by Patchouli on Main  (where Main is the default player)

Play Track trackname by artist on zone name
  e.g. Play Track Paper Tigers by Patchouli on Main  (where Main is the default player)

Play Playlist Playlist on zone name
  e.g. Play Playlist Summer Pop on Main

Play artist on zone name
  e.g.  Play Patchouli on Bedroom

Play genre on zone name
  e.g  Play Jazz Vocals on Living Room

Volume Up/Down

Volume number 1 to 10

Stop Music

Set defaut zone   -  sets default player (Main)

On the wishlist

Play artist name Radio on zone name
     This is the Pandora like function that plays tracks by artists that are similar to the original artist.


Thanks.

cncb:
The "search" ones are coming but your wishlist item is already possible.  "create a Sting playlist" or "create a play doctor playlist based on Sting" starts PlayDoctor for Sting-related tracks (although it might have some trouble with "Patchouli" like Spotlight did :)).

I think it will better for the user to set the default zone before issuing the play requests instead of having to specify the zone in each request.

dtc:
Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear that most of the Play items are part of the design.  I also think that maintaining consistency with Alexa is desirable.

On the default playback, I would like to have a default but also be able to override that for a given play without having to change the default. Changing the default each time you want to play to a specific place makes it a two step process each time you want to change. Adding a playback zone to the PLAY command would allow playing to a specific zone, while maintaining the default, much like Alexa does by having the Alexa speaker be the default. The default is the standard playback and the overrides are only used occasionally.

Pandora does its radio station selections on a large number of criteria (200 or so) for each track, not just on file tags. I do not know what criteria Play Doctor actual uses, but as I remember they were not very precise.  If Play Doctor is the answer to a Pandora radio station, then it should be invoked automatically from the Play Radio command, without any other intervention from the user. Having to set up playlists or specify criteria negates the ease of the Alexa interface. At the moment I cannot even find Play Doctor to test it. It has been a while since I used it.  Any pointers as to where it is?  According to the Wiki it is under Playing Now, but I do not see it.

EDIT - OK, found Play Doctor again. Best I can tell it just selects random files from the same genre, although there may be more to it than that.  But, it might be a start at the Play Radio command, as long as it is automatic from Alexa. And Patchouli does work in Play Doctor.

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