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HomePod Does macOS 10.13.5 not support stereo HPs?
- Thread starter JPGR_Fan
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That’s good to hear. Won’t consider buying a pair until that happens or at least an official announcement.
What about stereo sound for movies and shows on Apple TV? Supported?
This is note exactly the same a playing your local files from your Mac, but I just noticed that the remote application for iOS can play local files on any airplay speakers. I did not test it (away from home) but may solve the need for playing local ALAC files on stereo HP.
I some folk is willing to test, please report here
I some folk is willing to test, please report here
Wow... talk about jumping through hoops.
I had contemplated the HomePods as a solution when they were first announced. Because I wanted to do a full sound system in my home.
But I opted to use traditional wired speakers and built my own interconnect.
I maintain full stereo sound, and left / right separation throughout the house. And all speakers play simultaneously (or I can switch off speakers that I don’t want).
The HomePod solution would have been nice. But it lacked stereo sound. And simultaneous playback on multiple speakers.
They’ve begun implementing it. But this has got to be one of the sloppiest rollouts for a speaker system.
Modern Technology can certainly mess up one of the oldest technologies.
A better solution would have been to make a single HomePod act as the master hub at the device level. Transparent and unseen to the other computers.
Then that central HomePod would broadcast the signal to additional HomePods that it discovered. Those other HomePods would only talk to the master, and not your phone or computer.
Obviously, you could break the synchronization if you wanted several stand alone speakers. But the current implementation is a mess.
Incidentally, my home system receives music and sound from 8 computers, 3 televisions, 3 Apple TV’s, a radio, and Wi-Fi device, and any device with a mini-stereo jack.
A static music and music video library, and tv and movies accessible to all from an iTunes library.
And there is an override mechanism if I only want sound from a particular source. But it also handles the multiple sources simultaneously quite well without sounding like a noisy crowd if several devices produce sound simultaneously.
For example, watching television and then a quick YouTube video on the computer. The separation is there to make it as if they aren’t competing. It sounds fine with each distinctive source being simultaneously delivered but sounding separate. But I can set it so one device has full control and others are ignored too.
I had contemplated the HomePods as a solution when they were first announced. Because I wanted to do a full sound system in my home.
But I opted to use traditional wired speakers and built my own interconnect.
I maintain full stereo sound, and left / right separation throughout the house. And all speakers play simultaneously (or I can switch off speakers that I don’t want).
The HomePod solution would have been nice. But it lacked stereo sound. And simultaneous playback on multiple speakers.
They’ve begun implementing it. But this has got to be one of the sloppiest rollouts for a speaker system.
Modern Technology can certainly mess up one of the oldest technologies.
A better solution would have been to make a single HomePod act as the master hub at the device level. Transparent and unseen to the other computers.
Then that central HomePod would broadcast the signal to additional HomePods that it discovered. Those other HomePods would only talk to the master, and not your phone or computer.
Obviously, you could break the synchronization if you wanted several stand alone speakers. But the current implementation is a mess.
Incidentally, my home system receives music and sound from 8 computers, 3 televisions, 3 Apple TV’s, a radio, and Wi-Fi device, and any device with a mini-stereo jack.
A static music and music video library, and tv and movies accessible to all from an iTunes library.
And there is an override mechanism if I only want sound from a particular source. But it also handles the multiple sources simultaneously quite well without sounding like a noisy crowd if several devices produce sound simultaneously.
For example, watching television and then a quick YouTube video on the computer. The separation is there to make it as if they aren’t competing. It sounds fine with each distinctive source being simultaneously delivered but sounding separate. But I can set it so one device has full control and others are ignored too.
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Tried it, HomePods do not show as a device. Under settings in iTunes remote app it says "iTunes Remote will automatically find the iTunes libraries and Apple TVs that have Home Sharing turned on using the Apple ID ...." So looks as if the only devices it supports are computers with iTunes Libraries, Apple TV's, and IOS devices that run the remote app.
I would speculate that it is going to take a concurrent iTunes update to get where we need to be.
Yes, iTunes update is my bet also. Maybe unrelated to Mojave, hopefully for those unable to upgrade.
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I do not agree, just tried it (I'm back home) and it works, and there is some more to say:
- First be sure to select the HomePods stereo pair in iTunes on your Mac, as outlined in my previous post and in some others. Start playing some tunes on it to have the Airplay icon in toolbar coloured blue.
- Then on iTune remote on your iPhone you can select the shared library of your Mac (you have to share it from iTunes preferences), touch it and it plays on your HP pair.
- This is not much different than using the Music application which has a built in remote feature for some time and, in fact is more handy to use. The only question is "which file is playing" the local one (lossless) or the remote one (AAC)
- I though I could make a test by playing an album I ripped and which is not on Apple Music but this is not a valuable test because that album has been uploaded in my iCloud library. Trying to differentiate ALAC from AAC by listening is too optimistic for me.
- So, at the moment I'm still unable to know which file is playing. Tomorrow, I'll do another test by unplugging the DSL modem and try playing library tunes, so we can know which one is playing. To be complete one should try to play from iTune on the Mac (with HP stereo pair active), from Music on iPhone (same HP pair active) and from iTunes remote.
Right, I didn't see the device on the first page. I should have opened the library. Got that "have to have iCloud music" message, did the computer/homepod toggle to get it to work on my iPad
In my case the local, lossless, one on my iMac is the one playing because:
1. I don't have iCloud music.
2. The track (Una vita in vacanza by Lo Stato Sociale on the CD "Radio Italia Spring 2018") isn't yet in iTunes music so it has to be playing from the iTunes library on my iMac.
3. I haven't synced the track from iTunes to my iPad
Well, this time you are ahead in success…
On my tests just now, I've been totally unable to obtain any sound from the HP pair unless when connected as output from the iPhone.
What I did, as planned, was to plug the phone cable out of the modem while the local WiFi network stayed alive. Neither iTunes on the Mac, the music application on iPhone nor the Remote application where able to drive the HP to play any local file. The only way is to stream from the iOS device and then it's locally (to the device) loaded AAC. From the Mac, same as usual : one can play local files on ONE HP (either one) by selecting it as output in the computer section. Trying to select the HP pair hanged.
And BTW, it hanged for long. Even after the internet link came back up, it took several minutes for the HP to awake again and play.
So, the remote application, in my case, is only what it claims: a remote to iTunes on the Mac. So it does nothing more than can be done from iTunes. Works on stereo HP pairs for remote files from internet.
Since you case is different, no iCloud Music Library, you may have triggered a different scenario. Because you can keep an internet connexion alive without streaming down music. You should try to document the steps precisely for other to try.
Yes, that's the way I'd read it as well. Just serves as a remote Device for iTunes on your mac. Taking your word that if iCloud library is enabled you can get stereo, otherwise mono.
Both homepods working in stereo playing from iTunes! But when I slide the soundbar to lower or raise the volume there is no response on the speakers...
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Also I have to have my computer and the homepod ticked at the same time, if not it says it can't find the homepods. I have found a workaround having the computer ticked as well but turning it's volume down to zero.
iTunes Music? iTunes Radio? iTunes Match? or tracks that you have ripped ....
The reason I ask is I still don't seem to be getting stereo from my iTunes ripped lossless tracks. iTunes music does though ...
It's a welcome addition for sure and an overdue one, but it's a shame that this functionality is restricted to iTunes for the time being. I hope we soon get system-wide AirPlay 2 and Stereo HomePod support on macOS like we already have on iOS and tvOS. Being able to watch YouTube, Netflix and so on with Stereo HomePods from the tiny iPhone screen but not from the big screen of a Mac where it would make most sense to do that is silly. I get that iOS/tvOS were Apple's priority and that they didn't want to hold back the feature until they've finished it for every platform, but it's still unfortunate that the Mac is lagging behind so much almost half a year after the HomePod release.
In my case the update has only partially satisfied my particular needs. As others have said, using the stereo paired HomePods to play music from my iTunes is now improved but still not what I want.
Specifically, when using iTunes I can now select which HomePod speakers to direct the music to, including the one stereo pair I have flanking both sides of my iMac, and it works well.
However my iTunes play count still does not update when doing this. In previous discussions here it has been speculated that this could be due to Apple now causing all music to flow from the cloud rather than my local iTunes library, but I haven't yet figured out whether that is the case or not. it would require me to temporarily shut down my internet connection to see how the system performs under that condition, and I haven't taken the time to do that yet.
Losing the play count is a major irritation to me because I have always been able to use that to keep track of music in my library that I have not yet listened to. Maybe it's just me, but that was a feature of iTunes that I really did use pretty much every day.
CORRECTION - I'm listening to music from my iTunes library now, and just noticed that the play count did update for the most recent track played. For some reason it did not update for the previous track, the initial track played when I first started up iTunes. So perhaps this particular feature has now been fixed, to my great relief.
Also, if I want to use the stereo paired HomePods for audio when watching a movie on the computer (Netflix, for example), then I don't have the ability to use both as a stereo pair. When I'm using the browser to stream music or video, the sound seems to be controlled using the system preferences setting, which does not provide the option of selecting the stereo pair - only the individual speakers (and not multiple speakers, only a single speaker can be selected for computer output).
Using the HomePods is not very intuitive although if your main interest is simply to be able to ask Siri to play something and you have the Apple Music subscription, then that is great and it is handy. My wife enjoys that but my own usage is more focused on my own library of music.
Siri also inexplicably responds at random times, presumably because something either on a television program or simply in the background noise has caused her to think she was asked a question. It's kind of funny and doesn't happen that often, perhaps once a week or so.
Overall it is improved from how the HomePods first worked with my particular system, but not fully satisfactory for me. I had been very frustrated with these speakers prior to the update, and now I'm just ok with them. It is the first Apple product that has really given me this level of frustration and dissatisfaction.
Specifically, when using iTunes I can now select which HomePod speakers to direct the music to, including the one stereo pair I have flanking both sides of my iMac, and it works well.
However my iTunes play count still does not update when doing this. In previous discussions here it has been speculated that this could be due to Apple now causing all music to flow from the cloud rather than my local iTunes library, but I haven't yet figured out whether that is the case or not. it would require me to temporarily shut down my internet connection to see how the system performs under that condition, and I haven't taken the time to do that yet.
Losing the play count is a major irritation to me because I have always been able to use that to keep track of music in my library that I have not yet listened to. Maybe it's just me, but that was a feature of iTunes that I really did use pretty much every day.
CORRECTION - I'm listening to music from my iTunes library now, and just noticed that the play count did update for the most recent track played. For some reason it did not update for the previous track, the initial track played when I first started up iTunes. So perhaps this particular feature has now been fixed, to my great relief.
Also, if I want to use the stereo paired HomePods for audio when watching a movie on the computer (Netflix, for example), then I don't have the ability to use both as a stereo pair. When I'm using the browser to stream music or video, the sound seems to be controlled using the system preferences setting, which does not provide the option of selecting the stereo pair - only the individual speakers (and not multiple speakers, only a single speaker can be selected for computer output).
Using the HomePods is not very intuitive although if your main interest is simply to be able to ask Siri to play something and you have the Apple Music subscription, then that is great and it is handy. My wife enjoys that but my own usage is more focused on my own library of music.
Siri also inexplicably responds at random times, presumably because something either on a television program or simply in the background noise has caused her to think she was asked a question. It's kind of funny and doesn't happen that often, perhaps once a week or so.
Overall it is improved from how the HomePods first worked with my particular system, but not fully satisfactory for me. I had been very frustrated with these speakers prior to the update, and now I'm just ok with them. It is the first Apple product that has really given me this level of frustration and dissatisfaction.
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The short version is that if you select the HomePod Stereo pair in iTunes under the "switch to..."-category, it will control the native music playback on the HomePods (i.e. the one that streams right from the cloud, without your Mac in-between – iTunes will only act as a remote control in this case, so to speak). If you select the stereo pair under the "Computer" parent-category at the top of the list, then it will play the music from your Mac via AirPlay 2. So in the last case, it should update your play count since you're playing it from iTunes directly – might have been a bug if it did not do that, as in my experience the current software implementation of the HomePods isn't entirely free of issues.
Thanks - and I'm listening to it right now so I'm trying this, but if I select the 'Computer' parent category as you suggest, then the output comes from whichever speaker I have selected my Sound System Preferences. That doesn't give me the option to select the stereo pair, only or or another of the HomePods.
Yep, this is currently my biggest gripe with the HomePods swell. I love them for everything music-related, but the fact that you cannot stream music, movies or other sounds from outside of iTunes to the stereo pair yet is a big bummer. It's possible from iOS devices, but naturally I'd like to watch my movie collection and my Netflix series on the big screen of my iMac or MacBook instead of the tiny iPhone screen. I shouldn't have to choose between watching a movie on the best screen in my house or on the best stereo speakers in my house.
Also, I just tried it again, switching back to the stereo pair under 'Computer', which is how I had it working before, then it does not update the play count.
Although as I said earlier, it did update the play count for a couple of tracks, then it stopped updating. So it is inconsistent.
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Yes, and I personally don't like having to do this using the phone or iPad because I don't find that as user friendly as my iTunes library.
Hm, weird – the HomePod pair definitely should show up under the Computer category. Just for reference, this is what it looks for me right now – I can either switch to the HomePod pair's native playback (big tab at the bottom) or select either them or my computer speakers under the Computer tab.
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If you select the HomePods there under the computer-tab, the entry right above the "Switch to:"-prompt, doesn't it play on them?
Yes, second screenshot added to my earlier post.
But the updates to my play count are still inconsistent. At the moment it seems to be updating, but it was working earlier and then stopped updating the play count even though it continued to play through the music tracks without my changing anything, just continuing to listen to the music.