Amazon Echo vs Google Home

[MkII]

i have a Pixel and a Google Home, the pixel hands off requests to the home when they both detect the "Hey Google" or "Ok Google"

 

You can stream music directly to the google home itself, I can stream music from my desktop pc to my Google Home, they can sync the sound across multiple rooms/devices or play different music in different rooms.

 

I have a phillips Hue lighting system and some E We Link inline wireless switches for lamps etc - also just ordered a Harmony Hub for xmas

 

Why did you choose the Harmony over the Samsung Smarthings hub if you don't mind me asking? Just interested as I'm still deciding what to do... especially between Google and Amazon. Not really an Amazon fan and use Google a lot already.

[GuyJD]

I have a Google Home mini, and whilst the speaker is much better than that of the Echo Dot that I also have, neither are brilliant. You can however, cast audio to a Chromecast device connected to a better speaker from the Google Home mini - but this is where the Echo Dot wins, because you can connect it to a bluetooth speaker (I use a Samsung R1) without the expense of a Chromecast.

I read somewhere that they'd added in support for connecting to Bluetooth speakers in the summer, is that not the case? I'm swayed towards Google home over Alexa mainly because I'm more heavily invested in the Google ecosystem.

[mavhc]

My Google Home Mini arrived. As someone who never pays for subscriptions, you can play Google Music playlists of things you upload, or play spotify stations of "music inspired by the person you said" or genres. You can play radio via tunein, or bbc radio.

 

You can't yet tell it to play Google play videos you own on your chromecast, which is weird.

 

Works well in general, will be better once they fix stuff.

 

Getting plex or kodi to work is a pain.

 

Should be fun to write your own trivia quizzes using gsheets though

[penfold]

Had a quick play with the Google home mini last night, and while it was easy to setup I couldn't get it to play some radio stations from Tunein. Granted they are foreign stations, but I just kept getting "that is not available" which seems to be a pain. When it recognised the channel I was surprised how quick it started playing music.

 

I did a quick search online and found some stations were just problematic if google didn't know about them (or how to pronounce them). I was hoping that I could just say play tunein radio and if I only had 1 station as a favourite it would work but sadly not. I don't pay for music subscriptions and with the wife mainly listening to Tunein for the majority of music I'm now finding it may have some limitations compared to what I was hoping.

[mavhc]

Remember you can upload 20000 songs you have to google for free, and then stream them back down again, because apparently LAN isn't a thing any more

[penfold]

@mavhc - I have just read quickly about uploading the music, but I've got one question. I've got quite a lot of music that I've ripped over a number of years since I first had an mp3 player. However, due to not knowing enough about how to do it in the first place, some of the files are not particularly well named (eg, some have the track number and title some don't. Some have information in the file details, some don't) Does google automatically match based on filename or do you get prompted. And how does it block any files if it thinks it is copyrighted? I have bought some CD's from Amazon which are now available as a digital copy but I thought this was copyrighted so I couldn't move it anywhere outside of Amazon music? If it means I can transfer it into Google Music then I might look at moving my music there.

[GuyJD]

Does google automatically match based on filename or do you get prompted. And how does it block any files if it thinks it is copyrighted? I have bought some CD's from Amazon which are now available as a digital copy but I thought this was copyrighted so I couldn't move it anywhere outside of Amazon music? If it means I can transfer it into Google Music then I might look at moving my music there.

As far as I'm aware it doesn't match anything, What you upload it as is what it stays as, I heard somewhere that if your track matches another in it's library it will only keep one copy and share it between multiple users but the name you gave it will remain the same.

 

As for copyrite, there doesn't seem to be any checks that you own the music you are uploading but I guess that's because it is still only accessible by you and you aren't sharing it. I uploaded my entire mp3 library that I had gathered from various source (legal on not so legal) during my youth about 5 years ago and I can play it all back now without any issues but with the advent of streaming I haven't even looked at it in over a year.

[mowgli82]

Why did you choose the Harmony over the Samsung Smarthings hub if you don't mind me asking? Just interested as I'm still deciding what to do... especially between Google and Amazon. Not really an Amazon fan and use Google a lot already.

 

Honestly it's an impulse - I saw it that price and thought i'll see what its like...

[mowgli82]

@mark what light switches and power sockets are you installing?

[LeMarchand]

some of the files are not particularly well named (eg, some have the track number and title some don't. Some have information in the file details, some don't)

 

It'll still probably take more time than you think is worth spending, but I use https://www.mp3tag.de/en/ for this. I've also heard good things about https://picard.musicbrainz.org/ .

[penfold]

@GuyJD - I thought I read if it matches your file to one it has in the store it would make that one available - meaning it could be a better quality version.

@LeMarchand - I have thought about it for a number of years and always put it off because of the time it would take to make all files consistent

 

Is there a standard structure that should be followed before you upload the music? I've just thinking of how to ask for a song from the google home. Does Google music categorise it or just from the folder/filename.

 

If this is going off topic I can make a new thread (but this may be useful for those still deciding on which unit to buy?)

[MkII]

@mark what light switches and power sockets are you installing?

 

These: Remote Control Light Switch 2 gang(brass) HE108B The Home Easy Remote Control Double switch gives you a stylish finish and simply replace an existing double switch accordingly This allows you to remotely switch on/off and dim your lights using the Ho

 

I'm assured that they're rock solid by someone who's used them for years. End of life now but the price is amazing. I'm just doing RF adaptors for the 13A sockets for now. Would be nice to get matching tho.

[MkII]

Honestly it's an impulse - I saw it that price and thought i'll see what its like...

 

made of money! :D

 

Come back and tell us how it goes

[gds64]

I read somewhere that they'd added in support for connecting to Bluetooth speakers in the summer, is that not the case? I'm swayed towards Google home over Alexa mainly because I'm more heavily invested in the Google ecosystem.

 

Unfortunately not, bluetooth inbound only, so you can use it as a speaker for streaming from a phone or similar.

Don't get me wrong, I think that both devices are good - and it's not all about music (but it helps..). The other day, GH couldn't find Radio 2 ("That's not available right now"), whereas the DOT worked immediately without an issue - both were using Tunein. The DOT, however, sometimes can't find devices on my network such as power adapters when the GH can. Neither liked Energenie MiHome sockets most of the time, so I've switched now to using a Sonoff RF bridge to connect the Energenie sockets rather than their own hub - with much better results.

[mavhc]

These: Remote Control Light Switch 2 gang(brass) HE108B The Home Easy Remote Control Double switch gives you a stylish finish and simply replace an existing double switch accordingly This allows you to remotely switch on/off and dim your lights using the Ho

 

I'm assured that they're rock solid by someone who's used them for years. End of life now but the price is amazing. I'm just doing RF adaptors for the 13A sockets for now. Would be nice to get matching tho.

 

Nice to see some reasonably priced home automation stuff, who's going around paying £15/socket? Madness.

[penfold]

Remember you can upload 20000 songs you have to google for free, and then stream them back down again, because apparently LAN isn't a thing any more

 

Have you got this working on the Google Home? I tried uploading some music last night but when I tried to play something it couldn't find it. I'm guessing bacuse of some problem as discussed on here?

[mavhc]

Have you got this working on the Google Home? I tried uploading some music last night but when I tried to play something it couldn't find it. I'm guessing bacuse of some problem as discussed on here?

 

I named a playlist for an album I uploaded "blah blah playlist" so it could easily find it. Not sure what happens when things are named the same.

 

Also it's now 50,000 songs.

[penfold]

Just a quick update as I got the radio station working on Google home. I just asked the station saying each letter rather than the word. I'm guessing this may be because it is a foreign station so can't understand the language but can do the letters. I should have tried that in the first place as I did read it online just didn't try it straight away:getmecoat:

 

Anyway, it does what I'm after and got it set up for my wife to use. It's simple enough for her to use so I'm very happy

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Just a quick update as I got the radio station working on Google home. I just asked the station saying each letter rather than the word. I'm guessing this may be because it is a foreign station so can't understand the language but can do the letters. I should have tried that in the first place as I did read it online just didn't try it straight away:getmecoat:

 

Anyway, it does what I'm after and got it set up for my wife to use. It's simple enough for her to use so I'm very happy

 

Just need to look at my uploaded music next...

[Jawloms]

Nice;

 

[Jawloms]

OK, so my wife got me an Echo for Christmas, and I'm very pleased with it. Even to just use as a Bluetooth speaker, the sound is excellent! The world of what connects to it is very confusing though. I keep finding things which say they work with it, but then hub's get mentioned. Are there devices which just work, or does everything need to go through a hub of some sort? Basically, I want to be able to operate my lounge light using Alexa. What's the cheapest way to do it?

 

Thank you

 

Stuart

[JJonas]

Depends on if you want colours or not

 

I wanted coloured lights so I went with Lifx not the cheapest but they didn't need a hub and they are brighter than the equivalent Hue bulbs. I have white hue bulbs in the bedrooms(I got hub and bulbs on an Amazon deal for £34)

Edited January 2, 2018 by JJonas

[XiJ]

Now got the whole house - with the expedition of the main bathroom kitted out in hue lamps. Works great for us.

[mowgli82]

@MkII I thought I come back with an update...

 

Harmony is good but a bit of a pain to setup with the IR blasters and entering in some of the devices manually (HiFi) etc but it now turns on my TV/xbox/amp and dims the lights when i say "Hey Google xbox time".

 

You have to setup "activities" in Harmony and name them similarly to the voice command you want to use to activate them. The long winded voice command is "ok google ask harmony to turn on....." but these can be setup as shortcuts in the Google Home but are a bit of a pain as you have to be careful not to use the pre-programmed "Google" ones otherwise you get messages like "sorry I don't see and chromecast enabled TV's etc"

 

So i can turn my Xbox on by saying "ok google xbox time" if I say "ok Google game time" the Google home thinks I want to play one of its games.

 

The Harmony App is "ok" but i'd say it took a good couple of hours to get it all sorted - it's kinda cool though and i need to play with it some more to fine tune it.

[MkII]

@MkII I thought I come back with an update...

 

Harmony is good but a bit of a pain to setup with the IR blasters and entering in some of the devices manually (HiFi) etc but it now turns on my TV/xbox/amp and dims the lights when i say "Hey Google xbox time".

 

You have to setup "activities" in Harmony and name them similarly to the voice command you want to use to activate them. The long winded voice command is "ok google ask harmony to turn on....." but these can be setup as shortcuts in the Google Home but are a bit of a pain as you have to be careful not to use the pre-programmed "Google" ones otherwise you get messages like "sorry I don't see and chromecast enabled TV's etc"

 

So i can turn my Xbox on by saying "ok google xbox time" if I say "ok Google game time" the Google home thinks I want to play one of its games.

 

The Harmony App is "ok" but i'd say it took a good couple of hours to get it all sorted - it's kinda cool though and i need to play with it some more to fine tune it.

Thanks for getting back.

 

Glad to hear it's working for you. Does the Harmony control RF as well as IR? It sounds like a good system.

[mowgli82]

Thanks for getting back.

 

Glad to hear it's working for you. Does the Harmony control RF as well as IR? It sounds like a good system.

 

It does WiFi, Bluetooth and IR (bluetooth and WiFi are device dependent) I also got 4 Google Home mini's over Christmas and dotted them around the house so makes turning the lights off and on with voice much easier.