“Apple’s HomePod is a smart speaker, but primarily it’s just a very good speaker,” Charlie Sorrel reports for Cult of Mac. “Because the HomePod creates a wide stereo audio image, it’s also going to be great for watching movies. Today we’ll see how to hook up your HomePod to your Apple TV.”
“When you first power on your HomePod, it seeks out the nearest iPhone. It then copies all the settings it needs to connect to your home Wi-Fi network and your iCloud account. Once that’s done, connecting your Apple TV to your HomePod is dead easy,” Sorrel reports. “You just go to Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Output, and pick your HomePod from the list of available speakers. Because the HomePod uses AirPlay, and because it is already on your home Wi-Fi network, it really is that easy.”
Sorrel reports, “It’s amazing what a difference good speakers make to the experience of watching TV or movies, even on the small screen.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: HomePods make for very nice Apple TV speakers with high quality audio featuring deep rich bass. Give it a try, HomePod owners!
(Yes, UPS finally arrived with our HomePods!)
Of course… the first TV that supports streaming via AirPlay2 would be ideal. Or Apple could just provide optical Line In and boom… problem solved.
Now, see, your firat mistake is looking after your own interests.
Apple will tell you what to want and relieve you of options.
Otherwise +1000…
It sounds good. Just it isn’t very loud.
Do you live in an arena? The HomePod is wicked loud in a living room. Once pairing stereo comes out, it will blow the doors off.
He’s probably one of those people whose music you can clearly hear playing through their EarPods while sitting near you. Ironically the company bringing us the first mass-appeal audiophile product is partially responsible for giving many people hearing loss.
What?
Does running it through the Apple TV solve the latency problem? When I try to watch videos on my iMac Pro and send the sound to HomePod via airplay there is a *HUGE* latency (delay) between the video and the audio. I see lips move and then a second later I hear the audio. Completely useless for watching videos on my iMac. Does this problem go away with the Apple TV?
Your TV set probably has an audio sync feature that will let you match up the picture and sound.
I’ve tried this a few times now with my apple tv playing through the HomePod. It seems if when I first switch to the HomePod as my speaker there is a large gap in latency however when I just pause the show I’m watching and restart it the latency goes away or is barely noticeable. Not a horrible workaround.
Just wish the ATV 4K could stream higher quality audio. It’s currently stuck at Dolby 5.1/7.1 . It can stream what many consider the best video format of Dolby Vision, but is only streaming audio from the last century. Here’s hoping one day they can update it to Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos.
Sounds easy enough but what if you’re not getting HomePod as an Option on Audio Output in Settings on an AppleTV 4 gen? Just got a HomePod and trying to add it to my Apple TV 4 audio. So, following the Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Output path only allows “AppleTV” as the Audio output. No other options are available. AppleCare couldn’t help me out.
“Because the HomePod creates a wide stereo audio image, it’s also going to be great for watching movies. Today we’ll see how to hook up your HomePod to your Apple TV.”
No.
The HomePod sounds incredibly great. I was expecting awesome sound quality and it exceeded my expectations.
That said, you do not want to use this in lieu of a 5.1+ speaker system or for that matter even a mid-level sound bar when watching movies.
It’s worth connecting to an Apple TV if you want to use your Apple TV to play music through it, but the problem for watching movies is that it provides an immersive audio experience, not a directional one.
With lack of direction, including the lack of audience direction, you’re getting sound from a perception of “all over the place” as opposed to where the creators of the content intended.
If you’re the type of consumer that the HomePod targets, you care about audio quality, and have money to spend on it. If that’s the case, buy a HomePod, but also buy a speaker system made for TV/theater use.