Alexa + Channels DVR

Not sure where to put this or if I’m even wording it correctly. I have Channels on an Apple TV. I also have Amazon Alexa. Is it possible to control the Channels instance with Alexa?

Unfortunately no. The only thing you can do is pause and play.

Just in case you or anyone who might google this wonder, turns if you put in some work and money you can do this. Through Home Assistant and Alexa it possible to control Channels on Apple TV; as blasphemous as it may be...but quite handy.

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Help a brother out. I have an echo, Fire TV Harmony hub and See nothing on Google how to control the Channels app.

  • [ ] Put any channel you want to use in your Channels favorites
  • [ ] You need Home Assistant
  • [ ] Make whatever channels device(not the server, the watching device) has a static IP.
  • [ ] Incorporate that instance of Channels into Home Assistant
  • [ ] Connect to the Home Assistant Cloud($5/month but no configuration necessary for the cloud to work)
  • [ ] Make a script in Home Assistant for each channel using media_player.select_source and the Channels instance
  • [ ] Connect Alexa to the Home Assistant skill
  • [ ] Make an Alexa routine for each script. Alexa sees the scripts as scenes
  • [ ] Na the routine whatever you’d like to say
    Any questions feel free to ask.
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This is ace! Thanks for sharing. Would you mind sharing the exact format of the scripts? I’m struggling a little to get working.

I have HASSIO so I don’t mess with the configuration.yaml much. As for scripts the service is media_player.select_source. The data looks like this:
{
"entity_id": "media_player.living_room_channels",
"source": "WGALD"
}
If you look at the corresponding entity of Channels on the main page of home assistant each channel you favorited will be listed there (replace the content of source in the script for each channel). After that import the scripts into Alexa (they import as scene) and make the routine for each one.

You can also play a channel directly via its number with the media_player.play_media service and pass it a channel number.

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media_player.play_media

{
"entity_id": "media_player.living_room_channels",
"media_content_type": "channel",
“media_content_id”: 10.1
}

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