Alexa Plus finds movie scenes on Fire TV by voice description, no title needed

Alexa Plus Will Summon a Movie Scene for You, and Prime Video Will Stream It

Though Kourtnee hasn't won any journalism awards yet, she's been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes. Have you ever hunted for movie scenes to replay or tried explaining one to a friend? Well, Alexa Plus can do the legwork for you and stream the scene on Prime Video. On Wednesday, Amazon announced the launch of an AI-powered feature for Fire TVs that lets you ask Alexa to find a film moment and then will have Prime Video play it. Instead of digging for the title or clip yourself, you can describe details, like the actors' names, characters, quotes or a sequence, and tell Alexa to jump to that specific part. According to Amazon, if you say a phrase such as, "Jump to the scene where Violet first meets Richard at the bar" or "Jump to the Ozdust ballroom scene in Wicked with Glinda," Alexa Plus will summon it, and it'll automatically play on Prime Video. Using AI, Alexa Plus mines film captions and gleans from Prime Video's X-Ray feature to find what you're looking for. No need to remember a movie's title, nor is there a need to press fast forward, rewind or play. Subscribers will need an Amazon Prime account with titles that are either included with or purchased from Prime Video. The new feature can pull scenes from thousands of movies. Amazon said it plans to add more films and indexed scenes, and the company aims to roll the feature out for TV shows, too. This scene-finder function launches several weeks after Prime Video introduced video recaps on the streaming service, which helps viewers catch up on past seasons of TV shows.

Amazon says Alexa Plus can find that movie scene you're thinking about

Amazon has launched a new AI-powered feature for Fire TV that lets you jump to specific moments of a movie by describing the scene to Alexa Plus. The feature, which was previously announced during Amazon's hardware event in September, works with Prime Video and builds on the X-Ray feature that provides information about the content you're watching. "Our number one mission at Fire TV is getting you to what you want to watch -- fast," Amazon says in its announcement. "Just describe a movie scene like you would to a friend, and Alexa Plus will jump directly to that specific moment -- no more searching required." The Alexa Plus feature "works with thousands of Prime Video movies by understanding scene descriptions, character names, and famous quotes," according to Amazon. Users can skip to a scene by mentioning details about characters, actors, locations, and more, such as asking to find "the card scene in Love Actually," or "where Joshua asks, 'shall we play a game?'" in WarGames. The feature is designed to make it easier and faster to locate and watch scenes compared to manually fast-forwarding through movies, giving Fire TV users fewer reasons to search for the same content on other platforms like YouTube. Amazon says the feature utilizes a variety of AI models, including Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude, and can identify movies without the title being included in the descriptions. The Fire TV feature is currently limited to indexed scenes in select movies that have been purchased or rented from Prime Video, or are available to stream via a Prime membership subscription. Amazon says that the feature will soon be expanded to include more scenes and TV shows.

Amazon's Alexa+ Can Now Jump to Specific Movie Scenes on Fire TV

Sick of fast-forwarding to find movie scenes? Amazon's Alexa+ can now skip to the right moment based on your description of the action, character or actor names, or movie quotes. The new feature is the latest expansion of Prime Video's unique X-Ray technology, which tracks everything in a scene to tell you an actor's name, the music playing, plot details, and more. With Alexa+ AI, you can now ask Fire TV products to find a scene in select movies. An example given by Amazon is to ask it to "play the card scene in Love Actually." It'll then start the film from the beginning of that scene. It also suggests asking, "Jump to the scene when John McClane says 'come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs.'" Alexa+ can understand that McClane is a character in Die Hard, and it'll look through the dialogue to find the specific timestamp in the movie. "Our number one mission at Fire TV is getting you to what you want to watch -- fast," Amazon says. "Just describe a movie scene like you would to a friend, and Alexa+ will jump directly to that specific moment -- no more searching required." The feature uses Amazon's Bedrock AI tech, alongside Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude large language models. It works for thousands of films at launch, but Amazon only shared a few titles, such as Mamma Mia, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Red One, and Wicked. Alongside titles included with Prime Video, it'll also work on select films you bought or rented from the app. There's no way to tell if a title can support the feature without asking Alexa+, so you'll just have to try it to see if the movie you're looking for works. Amazon plans to introduce the feature to TV shows at a later date. Everyone can use Alexa+ for free until at least January. Once early access ends, it'll remain free for those with a Prime subscription, which includes Prime Video. Everyone else will need to pay $19.99 a month.

Amazon Fire TV now lets you jump straight to a movie scene if you pay for Alexa

Amazon's Alexa+ is starting to roll out some of its more advanced features, including a new option on Fire TV that lets you skip straight to a specific movie scene with just a voice command and a brief description. Alexa on Fire TV, like Assistant and Gemini on Google TV or really any other voice assistant, can already open up movies and TV shows on demand, but Amazon is using its AI overhaul of Alexa to add a new capability. Users can now ask to go directly into a movie scene by just describing it, with commands such as "Jump to the scene in Mamma Mia where Sophie sings 'Honey Honey.'" Amazon explains: Just ask Alexa+ to jump to the movie scene you have in mind, and Fire TV will start playing that scene on Prime Video. You can describe the scene to Alexa by mentioning details like the actor or character's name, or a memorable quote. This is available only with Alexa+, which is a paid upgrade to Alexa for $19.99/month or as a perk of Amazon Prime's membership - something that still makes little to no sense when looking at the pricing. While the use cases here are probably not widespread, it's a pretty impressive idea if it actually works well. Gemini on Google TV, for instance, can't do this, instead just returning YouTube clips or starting Spotify streams in the case of Amazon's Mamma Mia example. Notably, this only works with Prime Video, so other places you've purchased a movie or streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+ won't work.

Amazon's Fire TV Devices Add a New Party Trick: Describe a Scene in a Movie, and Prime Queues It Up

We've all been there: You're describing a scene from a movie, but you can't quite remember all the details. Frantic efforts to find it in your library fall short, or you can't remember if it is 45 minutes in or an hour and 40 in. Amazon has built a solution to that conundrum, combining its AI prowess, Fire TV devices, its Alexa+ voice assistant and the vast scale of Prime Video in one new feature for Alexa+ users with Fire TV devices: Describe a scene in a movie, and Prime Video will pull up the scene instantly, no guesswork required. Users can describe the scene using the names of actors or characters, lines of dialogue, or whatever else they can think of. Here are some examples of requests, as outlined by Amazon: Amazon has thousands of movie titles available at launch, including tens of thousands of scenes, and the company says that it is indexing more all the time. It is worth noting that users will need to be fully-baked in the Amazon ecosystem to get the capabilities: They will need a Fire TV device (sorry Roku or Apple TV users!), a Prime or Prime Video subscription, and access to Alexa+, which is included in Prime but will soon be available as a standalone subscription. Amazon has also been integrating AI into its platform for years, going back to its X-Ray tools, which provide information about actors and scenes. Alexa+ also allows for conversational features like acting about an actor's filmography, sports highlights, or recommendations based on things the user has watched.