topic Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill) in Arlo Pro

Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Lax12 — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 23:08:53 GMT

When trying to use the new Arlo Alexa skill through Fire TV, the Fire TV is stuck on a "Waiting for Netgear" screen and never loads the video feed.

Fire TV and Arlo Pro camera and base station are up to date. Restarted both, did not resolve the issue. Discovered devices in the Alexa app and double-checked device names, no found issues.

Any reason why the Fire TV is unable to connect to the Netgear base station/Arlo Pro camera? Is this a known issue and fix coming?

Thank you.

Arlo Fire TV

JeremyBrumm — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 16:31:14 GMT

Hi All,

Since the newest update to Amazon Alexa I have downloaded the Arlo skill. Are we now able to call up our cameras on the Fire TV?

This is an amazing feature that i have waiting for.

Jeremy

Re: Arlo Fire TV

steve_t — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 22:33:14 GMT

I think it's just for calling up the cameras on an Echo Show but if you find it works with Fire TV, let us know

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

mechevarria — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:57:25 GMT

Bumping so this gets some more attention. I have the exact same issue and did the same troublshooting. I rebooted the FireTV and renamed and re-discovered the devices. The Waiting for Netgear screen appears and hangs indefinitely after issuing an Alexa command like show the front camera.

Version 2.4.4.09.1044_18113
Firmware 1.092.0.5_13833

I am willing to help debug. If any of the developers or support staff see this, feel free to reach out.

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

steven5986 — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:56:58 GMT

I am having the same problem: On my FIRE TV it says Waiting for Netgear. After rebooting everything I was able to say Alexa, show me the front door and it worked once but haven't been able to get it to work again. I noticed when you say Alexa, show me the front door the middle green light on the Arlo base station starts blinking which means it is trying to connect to the arlo servers so my guess is an Arlo server overload problem. Maybe the servers are overloaded today because Netgear sent out an email today about Arlo now supporting Alexa?

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Heckmonster — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 20:08:09 GMT

Same issue,. Camera never loads on fire TV.. "Waiting for Netgear"

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Heckmonster — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 20:22:32 GMT

Same issue,. Camera never loads on fire TV.. "Waiting for Netgear". The only way I can get it to work is if I already have the camera up live on my phone arlo app.

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Dandro — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 20:55:57 GMT

This was happening to me as well.. I realized I was saying "Alexa, show me camera a".... where my camera is named camera a. The part that it was hanging on was the "me" in front of it. It worked perfectly by just saying "Alexa show camera a"

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

g3niu5 — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 21:53:25 GMT

Apparently doesn't even work on 1gen fire stick

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Brinkley4 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 09:25:17 GMT

Same here. Added skill, approved account link, renamed cameras, grouped them et al, still getting same waiting message.

Btw: has anyone watched the promo video? https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/d04b29e2-8454-4197-819a-b67ad7040c77/arlo-voice-enables-its-smart-cameras-with-alexa-s-smart-home-skill-api

Is there any chance that a live stream will appear THAT quickly?

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

BrianDev — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 15:50:06 GMT

Same. And if you read the skill reviews this is a huge problem. Dennis and Naveen if you are reading better get some communication out and let us know what is being done.. This is a big flop and there is zero communication to customers acknowledging a problem.. Every single Arlo owner with a Fire TV is having a terrible user experience. We all got the announcement email. Get involved!

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

mechevarria — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 17:21:20 GMT

In the meantime I do have a workaround, same as posted above by a couple people.

I have a camera named "Front Camera". If I open the Arlo app on my phone, tap the live button, keep my phone open/awake, then say "Alexa, show Front Camera", then the feed comes up in a couple seconds. Works everytime. If my phone goes to sleep or I close the Arlo app then the feed immediately goes to buffering. I also do not say "show me" or "show the", just "show".

I agree the biggest problem is the lack of communication. Bugs happen, version 1.0 is never smooth, but not being responsive is bad. Its not too tough to have someone from Netgear monitoring the customer forums and responding back with "We are aware of issues with Alexa integration and our devs our looking into it. We will post an update on the forums in a couple weeks with a status".

EDIT: Nevermind, response below.

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

JamesC — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 17:19:16 GMT

I've escalated this topic for further investigation. I will provide an update as soon as I can.

JamesC

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Brinkley4 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 14:34:05 GMT

Here’s a new wrinkle. I’m using a FireTV box on my main tv. It goes into a ‘sleep’ mode ( Devs don’t crucify me I only know the LED power light is off so I’m referring to it as sleep mode for lack of understanding) but when I ask Alexa to show the front door, Alexa wakes the FireTV, which turns on my Samsung via HDMI CEC and the Arlo camera showing a live feed is on before the backlight on TV completely powers up. Now, if I then ask Alexa to show me another camera, bingo ‘Waiting...’comes right back. I performed this test multiple times, same result.

hope this helps

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Heckmonster — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 01:52:20 GMT

Now Alexa is saying "sorry cameras dont work on this device". I didnt change anything..

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Heckmonster — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:00:46 GMT

Any reason my echo would say "sorry, cameras dont work on this device". When they came up before? I unlinked and re-linked everything.

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

rb4321 — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 22:43:46 GMT

I used the workaround also works for me. However you need to call it up on your phone first what good is that?

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

MLPUB — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 04:48:54 GMT

Same. Stuck on waiting for Netgear. Only works if I launch the Arlo app on my phone and bring up the live feed first. As a previous poster said "what good is that"? Anyone find a workaround?

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

Hrusso — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 11:32:26 GMT

Same here. But even the phone workaround does not work for me. Is it an authentication issue?

Re: Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

MikeDJ — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 02:35:23 GMT

I finally got it working. It’s not ideal and clearly there is an issue with the Arlo Alexa connection. I have the Arlo Pro Base Station and 8 Arlo Pro cameras. I also use the Element 4K TV with Alexa built in as well as Fire TV Sticks with Alexa remote (Called 2nd generation) on my other TVs.

So all you have to do is make sure your cameras are on. I use routines in Smartthings to arm and disarm my Arlos but however you do this it won’t matter. You do not have to push live on the cameras like some suggest, even though it does work sometimes.

The key is to request Alexa show you the camera 2 times. “Alexa show me the front camera.” Wait a second then request again, “Alexa show me the front camera.” It works. Still frustrating since I have the ring pro Doorbell and I don’t have to do that for it to work. Hope this helps until they come out with a real fix.