Sky TV viewers urged not to make common Amazon Alexa mistake – check your device today
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SKY TV viewers have been urged not try and use Amazon's Fire TV Cube to voice control their telly.
The Alexa-powered Fire TV Cube can be used to control devices that are connected to your television, and bring up any channel with a quick spoken phrase.
However, it doesn't work with Sky's telly boxes - as many users have spent several hours finding out.
In a help forum on Sky's website, one customer wrote: "I have not been able to find anyone who is able to say they have a working configuration of Sky Q being controlled by voice on Amazon Fire Cube TV Gen three. (But loads having issues!)
"Spent three+ hours today setting up and testing all 'supported' configurations but NONE have worked.
"Have spent 45 mins with Amazon support (repeating all my diagnostics again!) and they have said - Sky Q is supported on their box so I needed to contact Sky support as it MUST be their issue.
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"I can get it to work once 'Alexa, watch BBC One on Satellite', but then the Fire Cube stops responding!"
While the customer claims an Amazon support representative told them Sky Q is compatible with the device, that is unfortunately not the case.
The only cable and satellite boxes the Amazon Fire TV Cube can control are the ones listed below:
- AT&T DIRECTV
- AT&T U-Verse
- DISH
- Comcast
- Xfinity by Comcast
- Charter Spectrum
- Verizon
- Cox
- Mediacom
- CenturyLink
- Altice
- Frontier
- TiVO (digital cable channel changing only)
For viewers with disabilities, voice control can be essential.
With voice control you can search for a specific show, actor, movie or sporting event, change channels, play recordings and downloads, play, pause, rewind, or fast-forward and open apps like Netflix.
While Sky and the Amazon Fire TV Cube are evidently not a match - Sky customers can still use voice control to navigate their tellies.
First, Sky Q customers must make sure they have from the broadcaster.
The remote will need to be and connected to the Wi-Fi, but this shouldn't take longer than a couple of minutes.
It's important to note that before pairing your new voice remote, you'll need to disconnect any existing remotes by holding down buttons seven and nine the old remote until its light flashes four times.
Once you have paired the voice remote with your Sky Q box, simply press and hold the voice button just below the Sky button, and speak into the microphone.
Let go of the voice button when you’re done, and your Sky Q box will then process your request.
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