Voice control for Xbox One S - Kinect or (Amazon Alexa + Harmony hub)?

[psurob55]

Just bought an Alexa.

Setup is:

TV STB (FiOS) -> Xbox One -> Yamaha (YSP-2700) Sound Bar <- TV (Samsung JS8500)

Would I be better served controlling everything with the kinect (not hooked up yet) or buying a harmony hub and letting Alexa handle it all?

Hopefully this is resolved by the Harman Kardon Cortana speaker next year, but I would like to make this all a bit easier, especially for when we have the in laws or someone else over babysitting the little dude.

Thoughts?

 

[Jez Corden]

I think Kinect might be your best bet here. I'm not sure how Alexa would augment the experience, does it have an IR blaster? I'm not super familiar with them, but I do know Kinect will be able to control all of that, whether you use the Xbox legacy controls or Cortana.

 

[psurob55]

I think Kinect might be your best bet here. I'm not sure how Alexa would augment the experience, does it have an IR blaster? I'm not super familiar with them, but I do know Kinect will be able to control all of that, whether you use the Xbox legacy controls or Cortana.

the harmony hub has IR blaster.

I think you are right though. May just hook up kinect and go from there for now. Especially with the outlook of some cortana hub like devices slated for 2017.