Bose Soundbar 700 and Alexa Voice accent/language and Harmony Hub issues

[Nathan_P]

I have recently got an issue where my Soundbar 700 is stuck in US voice. I have tried all settings including deregistering, reinstalling skill and factory reset to restore back to AU voice however nothing seems to work. 

Additionally I have also had ongoing issues for months in getting the Alexa to reliably work with the Harmony Hub. It will work for a few days controlling all functions as it should, then randomly stop controlling the Hub and revert to controlling the build in soundbar and "TV" functions. I go back into the Bose skill and go into advanced setting and have Alexa control Soundbar and not the "TV" which I assume is via HDMI CEC. This sometimes corrects it and other times I need to reinstall the Harmony skill to correct the problem. Will only work for couple of days (randomly) then the above issue returns. 

I have a Home 500 speaker and that seems to work flawlessly. Anyone else experienced the above issues

[Jessie_O]

Hi Nathan_P, 

Thank you for your post and welcome! 

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you are experiencing with your Soundbar 700, I will do all I can to assist you. 

I would recommend making sure you are running the most recent firmware. I have included the LINK HERE to assist you with how to do this. 

Let me know how it goes!

[Nathan_P]

Hi,

I can confirm the firmware is up to date (auto updated about 2 weeks ago). I was able to finally rectify the voice accent last night by going into the BOSE app and changing from English AU to English US, exit the app, then go back in and change back to English AU. The first issue is resolved. 

As for the second issue regarding control of TV vs the Harmony Hub it is currently working after doing all the previous steps and reinstalling the Harmony skill however it has a habit of working for a couple of days before going back to controlling only the TV and not the Watch TV activity in Harmony. I will report back should the issue return soon.

[Nathan_P]

so the issue returned today. When I ask Alexa to turn the TV on it only turns the TV on and does not start my “watch tv” activity. If I ask her to turn the television on no problem activity starts as it should with the word TV. All ither functions linked with the word TV also dont work. 

[Keith_L]

Hi Nathan_P,

Thank you for the updates.

From how you are describing this, it does seem like there is a conflict when using Alexa to control your TV as you have 2 devices that are capable of taking a command that references the 'TV'. Alexa is likely getting confused as to which command it is you are trying to use at this point, which is why it defaults to the soundbar's control, as that is the system you are talking to.

The best way to avoid this would be to either keep specifying 'television' as that command works for your Harmony hub, or rename the command for the Harmony Hub to a different word, if that is possible.

It would also be worth reaching out to Harmony as well, to see if they have any experience with using their skill with 3rd party Alexa speakers that could be beneficial.

Let me know how you get on.

[Nathan_P]

Thanks for the response. It does seem like their is a conflict with the term "TV" however I should have the control to decide what I use that for. I have had Harmony far longer than the Bose soundbar which worked flawlessly on its own. This information needs to be passed on to the Bose Alexa developers to put the control back in the hands of the consumers. I have the Watch TV activity with multiple names (TV, television, and Fetch) however only want to use the term TV. I should be able to do this and not have to change the way I say things in day to day life.

I have reached out to Alexa forum with no luck (and rightly so), and believe there are no issues with the Logitech setup as it works perfectly without the Bose skill installed. Bose just need to correct their buggy software, otherwise this will be the first and last piece of Bose hardware I ever touch.