HomePod Airplay is still the biggest load of crap

[scaramoosh]

I have a new MacBook M1 Max and two HomePods..... but the latency is so high it is unusable. I saw so many people at the time of release if Airplay 2 saying how it is superior to Bluetooth... how? Cause I can use Bluetooth, however with Airplay there is this constant delay between pressing play on the Mac and it actually playing. You can tell it is trying to sync, but it means Airplay cannot be used in real time. It cannot be used as MacBook speakers or gaming as a result, and Airplay cannot be used with anything else.

Just another example of Apple wanting to control everything, but making it worse. The M1 is great, the AirPods were great, their watch was great.... but the HomePod and Airplay sucked and continue to do so.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Agree with the AirPlay take, definitely not for those who want reliability. Almost like you need to start it and never pause or do anything with it or it will disconnect randomly. I have find that not letting you computer go to sleep when the display is off helps with simply staying connected but because it uses WiFI there’s lag.

 

[Danfango]

Works fine and reliably here. Even works nicely to my Samsung TV!

Are you sure your home networking kit isn't garbage?

 

[Zensō]

Works fine and reliably here. Even works nicely to my Samsung TV!

Are you sure your home networking kit isn't garbage?

No problems her either to a HomePod and a bunch of Sonos speakers around the house. I know that doesn’t help OP, but it’s another data point.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

No problems her either to a HomePod and a bunch of Sonos speakers around the house. I know that doesn’t help OP, but it’s another data point.

You ever try to AirPlay to those devices from a Mac? Play/pause does have a brief delay and I have Sonos and HomePods as well. This is on both my iMac M1 and new MBP 16” so it’s not on the OP.

 

[Zensō]

You ever try to AirPlay to those devices from a Mac? Play/pause does have a brief delay and I have Sonos and HomePods as well. This is on both my iMac M1 and new MBP 16” so it’s not on the OP.

Now that you mention it, I only use Airplay from iOS devices. My Mac is hardwired to an external DAC and studio monitors.

 

[pup]

Put the HomePods on your front lawn and set them on fire.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Ashbash75]

mac to paired homepods, works ok but if the mac wakes from sleep, airplay is toast. Only fix is to reboot my mac.