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Apple Releases 14.2 Software for HomePod With New Siri, Intercom and Home Theater Features
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My guess is since the minis have no processing power to do it (they don’t have an A8, they have an Apple Watch cpu that only keeps the bass in check) and it would have to be done on the normal HomePod and there isn’t enough power on them to process an extra channel and then there is the issue with latency as the HomePod has to listen and communicate back with the mini.
-Connect HomePod to Apple TV 4K and enjoy stereo, surround sound, and Dolby Atmos audio. Add a second HomePod for a more immersive soundstage
So can you have stereo , surround sound and Dolby with just one HomePod? Or do you need at least two?
So can you have stereo , surround sound and Dolby with just one HomePod? Or do you need at least two?
HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
I'm in the Home app on my iphone, I click "rooms" on the bottom of the app. I only have one room, and it's "Living Room". The Homepod is already there.
How do I add my apple tv? When I hit the "+" and hit "add accessory" I cannot find a way to find my apple tv.
HELP PLEASE.
From the Home menu to the left of the Room menu find the icon for your Apple TV. Long press on it and then hit the settings cog bottom right. There is a Room drop down menu here - put it in Living Room
Yeh makes sense. I guess cost was the main factor but just seems like such a missed opportunity. Anyway....
I can answer that, I think. Atmos comes in two flavors, lossy (more or less good) and lossless (supposedly better, I haven't heard it yet) . Listening on a Sonos Arc soundbar I'm not deeply impressed with lossy, but to be fair my listening room has an unusually high ceiling which no doubt limits the effectiveness of its overhead-firing speakers. Apple TV can only handle lossy. More accurately, the apps supplied by Netflix and the other streaming services (and I would imagine they are exactly the same apps on Apple TV, Fire Cube etc. etc.) only give you lossy, I don't know if there's any intrinsic limitation to the Apple TV's ability to handle lossless signals when and if they ever become available. As long as an Apple TV box is supplying your audio directly to your speakers, you should get lossy Atmos no matter what kind of TV you have. To enjoy lossless Atmos (at the moment only available on BluRay) you need a TV with an eARC port (there is one product on the market which supposedly works around this limitation by functioning as a kind of glorified signal splitter). Even ARC ports can't handle the extra traffic lossless entails. Note that important limitation of the Home Pod is that it only designed to distribute sound on a horizontal plane, it has no vertical dimension, so forget about those overhead helicopters.
Another thing to keep in mind before getting too excited about Atmos (and i. m. h. o. home theater sound in general) is that what you get is only what individual sound engineers choose to give you. Some surround soundtracks are great and truly inventive, but plenty of others are pure crap. All too often all you are given is very routine closed-loop junk copped from the studio library, coming from the rear speakers, that only serve to drown out the dialogue. Watch a couple of episodes from recent years of N. C. I. S. and you'll see what I mean.
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Strange. Mine sound much better after 14.2, much more balanced (Apple Music included). 14.1 was the problematic update for me in terms of sound quality.
Curious issue: having the Homepods set up as the default output of the Apple TV kills my Wi-Fi speeds, for some reason, and makes them crackle and pop every few minutes. But it tuens out that is not necessary for the home theatre sound to work. Just select the Hompeods from the Apple TV control center and you are good to go. When you finish, select back your internal tv speakers.
Much better sounds in movies and TV Shows (Atmos and 5.1), than before. Dialogue is clear and robust, soundstage is full and enveloping, and there are plaenty of directional sound going on. Very impressive.
Is there any way to use the HomePods via wifi for the LG TVs?
Alongside iOS and iPadOS 14.2, Apple today released new 14.2 software for the HomePod, which includes support for new Siri and Intercom features. Today's update comes a couple of weeks after the release of HomePod 14.1 software.
With the update, Siri can now provide a personal snapshot of each HomePod user's day, offering up news information, weather, traffic, reminders, and more when asked "What's my update?"
Intercom now supports iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and CarPlay, and the full-size HomePod can be connected to an Apple TV 4K for immersive sound. Apple's full release notes for the update are below:HomePod software is installed automatically on the HomePod, but the HomePod can also be manually updated by following the instructions in our HomePod update how to.
Article Link: Apple Releases 14.2 Software for HomePod With New Siri, Intercom and Home Theater Features
I have an Apple TV but still watch via my satellite box. I have a sound bar but would love to go 100% Apple.
Finally, someone with the exact same problem.
I have made feedback to Apple and written on different av/apple forums with no luck.
My homepods as default output kills my wifi bandwidth, no matter how close the Apple TV is to the router.
It's really low on 5ghz, as low as 3mbps, sometimes cut the wifi completely. A little better on 2.4ghz.
TV-speakers af default output and my 50mbps is back.
Any luck fixing it yet? I've had it for 3-4 beta updates now.
Fortunately having them set as default is not necessary to enjoy the (very much) improved sound in movies and tv shows, but yes, this is a major issue and should be fixed ASAP. Do you also get crackling and popping noises (with the homepods set as default output for the Apple TV) while navigating the apple tv menu?.
I think its a bug, my connection goes from 300mb/300 to 2.4/1.5mb when i enable this.
Damn
But do you think atmos/surround(theater mode) still activates when choosing homepods from the sidebar/menu, instead of setting it as the default output?
Yes, Im certain. Sound its the same in both cases, much better than 14.1. Dialogue is clear and robust, soundstage is enveloping and wide and there is a lot of sound directional effects going on. Very cool.
Would be curious to hear other people impressions of the sound in movies and tv shows. Keep in mind that that no Atmos track is necessary, a 5.1 regular track will be also benefitting for this.
I can't see the option on my Apple TV to set my HomePod pair as the default speakers. HomePods and Apple TV are all on 14.2, I've reset all of them, and they are definitely in the same room in the Home app. When I go to Video & Audio settings on the Apple TV, I am not seeing the menu option to set default speakers, nor is the option appearing in the Apple TV settings within the Home app.
Is the option to set HomePods as the default speakers only available on Apple TV 4K? I know that Dolby Atmos is only available on the 4K option, but I thought I'd be able to set my HomePods as default speakers in my non-4K Apple TV. Can anyone help?
Is the option to set HomePods as the default speakers only available on Apple TV 4K? I know that Dolby Atmos is only available on the 4K option, but I thought I'd be able to set my HomePods as default speakers in my non-4K Apple TV. Can anyone help?
Yeah, home teather improvements related to the homepods (including the ability of setting them as the default output of the Apple TV), applies only to the 4K model, not the HD one, unfortunately.