How to Control Plex Media Center With Alexa AI Installed onto Raspberry Pi 3

In this video tutorial, we will be showing you how you can connect a Plex Media Server with Alexa AI Voice Service installed onto Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Model.

What you will need for this Project:

1. Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Model;
2. Alexa AI Voice Sevice installed and configured on your Raspberry Pi;
3. Monitor;
4. HDMI Cable;
5. Power Adapter for your Raspberry Pi 3;
6. Keyboard;
7. PC Mouse;
8. USB Microphone;
9. Speakers 3.5 mm jack.

Pre Steps

• First of all, you will need to be running a Plex Media Server ( 1.7.5 version or newer) linked to a Plex account with remote access enabled.
• Secondly, the somewhat confusing part – Not all Plex clients are supported.

Here is the list of platforms that are currently supported by PLex Apps:

1. Apple TV;
2. Android TV;
3. Amazon Fire TV;
4. Android Mobile;
5. PlayStation 4;
6. PLex Media Player;
7. Roku;
8. Plex Web App;
9. Windows/Windows Phone

It means that the Plex Client your smart TV has access to might not work and clients like RasPlex don’t work either.

• In our case, we will be using an Apple TV which 100% compatible with Plex Media Server/Client.

Setting Up Alexa and Plex

• One of the first steps is that you have to make sure that your Alexa Voice Service is properly configured on your Raspberry Pi 3 which means that the Wake-Up Word is fully configured and working with no any issues.
• After that when you checked Alexa and Raspberry Pi 3 configuration, the very first step is to tap into the Skills Database and teach Alexa how to interact with the Plex.

There are two options that you can accomplish this:

1. You can use a Web Browser while Logged into your Amazon Account
2. Or through the Alexa Application on your Mobile or Tablet.

In our case, we will be using a web-based way as it allows us to make a clean explanation of what could be done.

• Now we have to login into our Amazon Account with the same credential that you were using for creating an Alexa AI Voice Service, here is a direct link to Amazon Alexa.

• Once you Logged into your Amazon Alex Account you should see the similar screen:

• Next, you should select a “Skills” from the left side menu:

• From top center, you should see “Search Skills Bar“, type a Plex in it and hit Enter.
• When a Plex Apps will be shown click on it and you should see the following screen:

• After, you have to click “Enable” to be able to link a Plex to your Alexa Voice Service. And when you click on “Enable” you will be redirected the Plex web site where you should login to your Plex Account 

( and hope you have one as we not showing here how to configure a Plex Server onto your computer or server. If for some reason you find out that you don’t have a Plex Server installed yet then you should watch this prior to do next step ) with your credential that you using for your Plex Server.

• As soon as you logged into your Plex Account you will be automatically linked with Amazon Alexa and when you go back to your Amazon Alexa page you should see the similar screen:

We are not done yet as you may think.

• Once’s you’ve linked the two together in the previous steps you can jump into using the voice control.

But, before we proceed, make sure the Plex Client you wish to use is open, which in our case is Apple TV and Plex Server as well.

• The whole structure for Plex commands is similar to other Alexa Skills. You need to first invoke “Alexa” then you need to indicate you want to interact with Plex by saying “Ask Plex” or “Tell Plex” before your command. Let say we want to pull up a specific movie or episode of a TV show.

Here is how that command would look:

Alexa, tell Plex to play La La Land

• And, in 2 seconds you should hear a reply from Alexa and see how she starts playing a movie that you just requested.
• Here is the Entire List of available commands that you can use, to check them all out follow here.

Thank you for watching and if you have any further question don’t hesitate just ask.

Related posts:

How To Install Alexa AI on Raspberry Pi 3 With Wake Word Raspberry Pi 3 GPIO Project For Beginners Part 1 Raspberry Pi 3 GPIO Project For Beginners Part 2 Social Media Marketing: The Most Important Indicators in 2017