I have configured a channel mapping, but only some “mappings” are found by alexa. Mostly Alexa replies “Dieser Befehl funktioniert für das Gerät „<device_name>“ nicht.”
Does anyone have a german channel mapping?
As mentioned in the documentation, only well-known channel names can be used as these are matched against a database on the Alexa side when requested. While Amazon doesn’t provide a list of supported channel names, it is recommended using the names listed on TV Channel Lists for your regional channel lineup.
I have used only names from TV Channel Lists of Germany. But still some names are not recognized:
ZDF, RTL, RTL Zwei, VOX, Welt, Phoenix, Arte, One, Kabel eins Doku, RTL Living
Channel name “One” has been interpreted as “1” and therefor selected channel “1” and not mapped name “One” to channel “30”.
Voice recognition in the activity protocol of Alexa shows expected results.
Could you share how you configured your channel item Alexa metadata?
Here is my channel mapping:
1=Das Erste
2=ZDF
3=ProSieben
4=Sat.1
5=RTL
6=RTL zwei
7=RTL Super
8=VOX
9=Kabel eins
12=3Sat
13=Welt
14=NTV
15=Phönix
16=Tele 5
17=ZDFneo
18=BR Fernsehen Süd
19=HR Fernsehen
20=MDR Fernsehen Sachsen
21=NDR Fernsehen Niedersachsen
22=Radio Bremen TV
23=RBB Fernsehen Berlin
24=SR Fernsehen
25=SWR Fernsehen Baden Württemberg
26=SWR Fernsehen Rheinland Pfalz
27=WDR Fernsehen Köln
29=Arte
30=One
38=ARD-alpha
43=N24 Doku
44=Tagesschau 24
46=ZDFinfo
51=Sonnenklar TV
59=Kabel eins Doku
71=RTL Crime
87=RTL Passion
96=RTL Living
102=Geo Television
Is your echo device setup as German language?
Unfortunately there is no way to troubleshoot the Channel attribute because the database that the channel names are matched to on the Alexa side isn’t known. The recommendations to use the names listed on TV Channel Lists for your regional channel lineup, is just a suggestion not a failproof solution.
You could use an ordered Mode or RangeValue generic attributes instead.
Dear Jeremy,
maybe you remember me. I approached you last year with exactly the same issue.
The mentioned German channels names are used by 99.5% in Germany.
Does this mean that Alexa-ChannelController is unusable in Germany (also in TVs with native Alexa support)? This I can’t believe… O.
My echo devices are setup to German language.
Thanks for the reminder. I assume you are referring to this thread.
Unfortunately, this appeared to be the case. The issue with the Alexa.ChannelController interface in our use case, is that we have two channel mappings involved: the metadata-based one, at the skill level, and the SMAPI-based one which is unknown, at the Alexa level. These mappings are hard to correlate unless we hard code each of them for all supported languages into the skill.
A workaround is creating Alexa routines for channels not mapped.
Pass phrase of routine would be pass phrase of missmatched channel mapping. Launched alexa command is pass phrase to select channel by number.
1 Like
That works as well for Number item. This is basically doing the hard coding I mentioned above.
Lately I could define channel names for each of my favorite channels.
Conclusion: Channel mapping succeeds, but its hard to find descriptive names that Alexa doesn’t use in a different context.
Hi Manni51,
sounds great. Can you share your names?
I developed as workaround a custom skill. There I do not have any problem with recognition of the popular German channel name. But the invokation of the skill is complex: “sag fernseher schalte auf kanal xyz”, especially by introduction of a second device name - one by “Alexa Smarrt Home Skill” and another one for the custom skill is a challenge.
This is my channel mapping:
SampleGermanChannelMapping.txt (654 Bytes)