Gadgetory

Alexa turn on the TV okay I'm David Katz Meyer here at scene it's TV test lab and what you're about to see is worth the wait there's a little box here that's gonna turn on the TV an AV receiver and get ready to pretty much except my other voice commands completely hands-free this is the Amazon fire TV cube the first Alexa device designed specifically for the living room it plugs into your TV to stream TV shows and movies from Netflix Hulu Amazon and the rest and includes the same voice remote as other fire TV gear but it also controls your gear hands-free here's a rack full of AV equipment I set up to demonstrate including a big vizio tv and a Marantz AV receiver check it out Alexa switch to Apple TV okay I'll still need to use the original device remote to actually control it but the fire TV cube handles of switching itself the little box has built-in infrared emitters as well as an included IR blaster once you tell it what gear you own during the setup process it shoots out signals to reach your gear in this case switching inputs on the AV receiver if you don't use a receiver the cube can switch inputs on your TV and can also control a sound bar and my test setup volume is controlled by the receiver although the cube has its own built-in speaker most of the sound including Alexa's voice music and audio from your TV shows and movies comes through the system speakers I found the cube very responsive to the Alexa Wake word even when music was blasting once it hears the word it mutes automatically to listen for the rest of your command Alexa volume up the system can also control cable and satellite boxes you don't get DVR controls but you can change channels by naming them tuned to PBS as a fire TV streamer the little box also allows voice control of sources like Netflix and YouTube launch Netflix here's Netflix Alexa show me world cup videos on YouTube amazon has also refreshed the fire TV menu system to make it more streamlined for voice for example by adding numbers next to selections although the fire TV cube worked well most the time in my testing it failed to recognize some commands some devices work better than others and many apps lack voiced support for search and other functions the biggest issue however is that you need to keep your regular remotes around if you want to perform more than just the basic functions the included clicker can't even control volume or mute owners a harmony and other universal remotes don't throw those clickers away yet even with those issues the fire TV cube takes living your voice control further than any other device I've seen and that's Amazon fire TV cube I'm David Katz meier foreseen it Alexa turn off the TV okay