Alexa 2nd Generation Voice Remote with UMC-200.

[whovous]

Amazon released a number of new Fire TV devices on October 31. All use the new Alexa voice remote which for the first time includes physical controls for power and volume and also offers voice control of device switching.

I received the new voice remote on Halloween. It paired almost instantly with my Fire TV stick. It controlled volume and power on my Panasonic TV on the first try, and also offered switching control on a later try. It looks like it will control my Comcast X1 cable box once I solve the problem that bring me here.

Amazon claims the remote will control Emotiva devices along with about a zillion other products. I've made more than fifty attempts (Amazon encourages the user to keep trying) but not once have I managed to turn off my UMC-200 with the new Amazon remote. The Amazon help pages say little more than make sure CEC is turned on and keep trying.

Has anyone else managed to pair the new Alexa remote with any Emotiva product? Is there something unusual about Emotiva remote codes? I've never had a problem controlling the UMC-200 with my Logitech Harmony.

[garbulky]

Hi @whovus , I'm not sure how to pair the voice remote. This is the first I'm hearing of it. However you can use the voice remote to control Emotiva using your Logitech Harmony. You can switch inputs and control the volume both on the emotiva and your TV as well. With the voice remote by using logitech harmony HUB. Though honestly the volume control would be more intuitive with your smart remote. The way to do this is to enable the logitech harmony skill with alexa. Then create routines. Also if you haven't already - get the companion remote - I think it's about $15 to go with the harmony hub.

With the Amazon smart remote You can also control any smart devices using your voice - like smart bulbs or lamps with smart outlets for your living room. So you can make it dark or even change the color of the light in your living room.

You could adjust the thermostat as well if you have a smart thermostat.
Also since you likely have a fire tv, you should know that any echo dot - which goes frequently on sale for $30 on amazon will pair with your fire tv and stop, start, find you shows etc.

You may already know all this. But if you don't, check out my thread emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/51943/talk-house-amazing-echo-review
All those things I mentioned you can do with the voice remote. But it's even better with an echo dot.
It's fantastic once you utilize its functions.

[novisnick]

Nov 8, 2018 12:20:14 GMT -5 garbulky said:

Hi @whovus , I'm not sure how to pair the voice remote. This is the first I'm hearing of it. However you can use the voice remote to control Emotiva using your Logitech Harmony. You can switch inputs and control the volume both on the emotiva and your TV as well. With the voice remote by using logitech harmony HUB. Though honestly the volume control would be more intuitive with your smart remote. The way to do this is to enable the logitech harmony skill with alexa. Then create routines. Also if you haven't already - get the companion remote - I think it's about $15 to go with the harmony hub.

With the Amazon smart remote You can also control any smart devices using your voice - like smart bulbs or lamps with smart outlets for your living room. So you can make it dark or even change the color of the light in your living room.

You could adjust the thermostat as well if you have a smart thermostat.
Also since you likely have a fire tv, you should know that any echo dot - which goes frequently on sale for $30 on amazon will pair with your fire tv and stop, start, find you shows etc.

You may already know all this. But if you don't check out my thread emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/51943/talk-house-amazing-echo-review
All those things I mentioned you can do with the voice remote. But it's even better with an echo dot.
It's fantastic once you utilize its functions.

Ive done this all a long time ago and it works wonderfully! Mrs loves it too! 

[whovous]

Thanks for the replies. I have an old Harmony remote, but I do not have a Harmony hub. I was really hoping to find a way to make the new Alexa remote (released on 10-31-18) work the way it is advertised. Based on the reviews to date on Amazon, it is working swimmingly for some folks, and not at all for others.

[whovous]

A brief update: At the same time I posted this question I also posted a fairly negative review on Amazon. Not long after that I got an email from Amazon asking to schedule a telephone support session. The call took place about 48 hours later and resulted in getting the Alexa remote paired with the UMC-200. Based on some of the tech notes the support rep read to me, it is my impression that they may have altered or updated some of their remote codes for the device.

Anyway, it works now.

[garbulky]

Dec 11, 2018 9:07:32 GMT -5 whovous said:

A brief update: At the same time I posted this question I also posted a fairly negative review on Amazon. Not long after that I got an email from Amazon asking to schedule a telephone support session. The call took place about 48 hours later and resulted in getting the Alexa remote paired with the UMC-200. Based on some of the tech notes the support rep read to me, it is my impression that they may have altered or updated some of their remote codes for the device.

Anyway, it works now.

Would you like to post your fix?

[macromicroman]

I don't think he knows how they fixed it. From his post it sounds like the tech undated some codes but he/she probably didn't say what they did.

[whovous]

This is only a guess, but I suspect their codes for Emotiva devices were incomplete. They may have worked with some but not with others. I am going to post the entire review I posted on Amazon, including the all important update, on the off chance that it might help someone. At worst, you'll waste a minute or less reading it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What a disappointment. The new remote paired seamlessly with my second generation Fire TV stick. It controlled power and volume on my Panasonic plasma set on the first try, and added switching control on a later try. It also recognized my Comcast X-1 cable box immediately, and I am fairly confident I will be able to use the voice command to change channels if I can ever solve the problem that inspires this review.

I spell out all the things that work because they lead me to conclude that I do NOT have a defective device.

So much for the good news. The bad news is that the remote simply refuses to recognize my Emotiva UMC-200 device that I use to control switching between devices and to control volume to my 7.1 speaker setup. Amazon includes Emotiva on its long list of products that will work with their remote and Amazon does not list any limits on how it works. Amazon troubleshooting pages appear to be limited to making sure that CEC is activated.

I hope to update this review someday to a higher score. For now, this remote does no more than the first generation Alexa voice remote that came with the Fire stick.

UPDATE - Rating increased from two to five stars. Within a few hours of posting my initial review I received an email from Amazon asking me to schedule a time for them to call and help with my problems. They asked for 48 hours and called about 50 hours from the time I wrote back.

Paula said she had no experience with my equipment, but she did have detailed notes from her tech department. We followed through the steps suggested. There were a few hiccups, but we got the remote synced with the Emotiva, and later with my Comcast X-1 and Roku box in fairly short order. When we hit snags, she was able to message her tech guru and get back on path fairly quickly.

I am very impressed that Amazon provided this level of customer service this quickly on a product at this price level. While I am not completely sure of this, I think they actually did an update of their programming for my particular Emotiva device.

The best trick I can pass on from this experience is to keep clicking YES, even when the answer is no. It asked me to power down my processor, then asked if it worked. I said yes when the answer was no. Then it asked me to try using the volume control, and asked if that worked. It didn't but I said it did. I then made a mistake which returned me to the home page. Power did not work, said yes, then tried volume. This time it worked! It then asked for some HDMI info and then to use my original remote to change to any other input. Pushing the fast forward button then returned me to the Fire home screen. And pushing the Power button then turned the whole system off.

The remote seems to learn more and to offer more setting options the further you get into the setup process. Go through it again and if things are working, you get still more changeable options.

The remote is not perfect. It does not have enough buttons to do everything you might want done, and an awful lot of switching gets done by voice instead. You need to be very patient waiting for some of the voice commands to take. Still, I think it is very good value for the price. Paula and her customer service team did a great job for me on this one.
+++++
End of review.

[garbulky]

whovous
One thing that happened to me when I bought an older model fire tv was that it took time for it to update itself. So for the longest time it didn't work with my echo dot as it wasn't supported yet. And this was after I clicked on check for update and updated it. Turns out that it updates itself sequentially, one update after another till it gets to the latest one. So after one update and a restart, it simply meant it had to update again. Not realizing this it took several days for it to work. Amazon itself quietly updated itself without user input but it would take a long time to do so. So after a few days I was surprised to see the echo dot miraculously start working. And the reason was that my fire tv had finally caught up with all the updates.

[whovous]

Yes, Amazon seems to do a pretty good job of updating such a cheap and simple device, but a much less good job of telling folks the updates are out there and that they can make a real difference.