Amazon Fire TV Cube using PLEX, Blink Cameras and More

I recently purchased an Amazon Fire TV Cube how does this differ from the Fire Stick or the 4K Streaming box.  Well it’s hand’s free.  Another game changer for me is ability to control the TV without having to purchase a new Smart TV.  I have 2 kids and its constantly a struggle finding one remote let alone two.

What I love about this device is I no longer need my TV’s actual remote.  I can say the following commands and they just work perfect.

• Alexa, Turn on the TV / Turn off the TV
• Alexa, Turn up the Volume / Turn down the Volume  – this will also adjust your soundbar or AV Receiver.  ( I’m a huge Sonos user and I just ordered the Sonos Play Base & Sub woofer, so we will see if they play together ).
• Alexa, Switch to BluRay, Switch to Cable
• Alexa, Tune to ESPN

I can also literally sit anywhere in my living room even if the volume is on high and the Fire TV Cube will hear me.

What I really love about the Fire TV Cube is the hands free PLEX Media Server experience. 

Honestly, I’m a huge Plex user and supporter almost all of my media is ripped to my computer were I do not need physical copies of my discs any more.  I can be sitting anywhere in my living room and say “Alexa, Ask Plex to Play Hackers movie” and within seconds Hackers (1995) will be playing.

Common Voice Commands

You can get started with some simple voice commands:

• Ask Plex what's On Deck?
• Ask Plex to suggest something to watch
• Ask Plex what's new?
• Tell Plex to play The Big Lebowski
• Tell Plex to play music by Bob Marley
• Tell Plex to pause
• Tell Plex to stop

Fire TV Cube and Blink Cameras

I currently use Blink and Blink XT camera’s outside and I cannot wait for them to add the following support to be able to watch the Camera clips on my TV.  I tested the commands yesterday everything works however the ability to

• “Alexa, Ask Blink to Arm My Home System”
• “Alexa, Ask Blink to Disarm My Vacation System, My Pin is…”
• “Alexa, Ask Blink What is My Status?”
• “Alexa, show the <camera name> camera”   (Not implemented yet into the Fire cube).
• “Alexa, hide the <camera name> camera”    (Not implemented yet into the Fire cube).

Fire TV Cube and Sonos Surround Sound

So I’m a huge fan of Sonos, I have the Play 1 and Play 3 speakers throughout my entire house.  Every room to be exact.  I wrote some other articles in the past about my doorbell being connected to my Sonos and when the mailman opens my mailbox it play’s a sound throughout all the speakers in the house at certain times of course.  This time I decided to take the jump and purchase the Sonos Play Base & Sub woofer for my living room.  Once I can get an electrician to install (2) outlets on at the higher ends of my ceilings I’m looking to go for the entire 5.1 experience.

The Playbase and woofer are scheduled to arrive this evening and I will post back on how my experience is with the Fire TV Cube.

Some of the bad features and it’s probably just me: 

• I’m still getting use to all of the play commands for example I seem to keep getting stuck on an app when I say “Alexa, Tune to ESPN” it seem’s if I’m on an App lets say the Food Network it try’s to find ESPN related videos inside of the Food Network app.
• Another weird thing it seems the cube will output Audio of its external speaker rather than through the TV or the receiver.  This is kind of driving me nuts.  I actually wish it didn’t say anything out of the speaker at all.  Going to look tonight to see if there’s an option to disable.