I bought an LG OLED 65” B9 for my mother who is 91, visually impaired and hard of hearing. Sound and picture quality are very good but the main reason I chose it was the Alexa capability. It turns out to be rather more limited than I had hoped.
The advertised ‘Alexa compatibility’ seems to mean you can use the TV (with the microphone on the LG Magic Remote) to turn the lights off or ask for the weather, i.e. use the TV in place of the Alexa. Who wants that? What I want is to be able to use Alexa voice control on the Amazon Echo to work the TV because the LG Magic Remote is difficult to work if your vision is not good.
Sadly, in practice this means Mum can only mute the TV, change the volume and turn it off and on. What she wants to do is choose a channel on the Sky+HD Box.
• You can change inputs, but only by stating the HDMI number “HDMI 1”, because it does not recognise the assigned name “Sky Box”. That’s too hard for her to remember.
• Channel change commands do not work on the Sky Box and tend to switch you to terrestrial TV (as does the Remote; not useful).
• The search function is compromised because Alexa tries to take you to the Amazon store and charge you for a film or TV series, even if it is available free on Netflix subscription or BBC iPlayer. The LG search function is much better, giving you a choice of Netflix, Amazon, Apple and NowTV.
Does anyone have any tips?
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