How should they? They did as much as is possible with AirPlay 2, it still not suitable for real time audio. If you don't understand how to do something it's probably best that you don't just demand someone should have done it differently or find a solution. They should have cured cancer by now, I am pretty PO'd off that this hasn't been cured after all this time.
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PSA: You Can't Output Mac System Audio to Stereo-Paired HomePod Minis, But There Is a Workaround
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How should they? They did as much as is possible with AirPlay 2, it still not suitable for real time audio. If you don't understand how to do something it's probably best that you don't just demand someone should have done it differently or find a solution. They should have cured cancer by now, I am pretty PO'd off that this hasn't been cured after all this time.
There is an option in Sound (system preferences) to specifically set the output device of system sounds to another device.
So system sounds can play on the Mac itself (or be muted) as for example Music is being AirPlayed to a HomePod.
2020 even for apple a disaster.
Magsafe, not deserving the name.
Magsafe wallet a joke.
iPhone not 120Hz and no charger.
and finally the HomePod can’t be used as mac speakers.
How can you let this opportunity go by...
Magsafe, not deserving the name.
Magsafe wallet a joke.
iPhone not 120Hz and no charger.
and finally the HomePod can’t be used as mac speakers.
How can you let this opportunity go by...
So I can do a stereo pair with my Sonos via Air Play 2 frm my Mac, but not with Homepods? What! Delay is minimal to notice. I was going to buy two Homepod Mini's for my Mac audio, guess not now.
Have seen tvOS 14.2 Air Play 2 and outputting to HDMI the sound is now in perfect sync when played using both outputs.
Have seen tvOS 14.2 Air Play 2 and outputting to HDMI the sound is now in perfect sync when played using both outputs.
If only Apple got everything right first time... every time
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Another ridiculous way to make it work is add Apple TV to the mix and use home theater mode after connecting it to your Mac..
Well, at least with 14.2 software, if you choose the Homepods (standard, not minis) as the default output of an Apple TV 4K, you can bypass traditional airplay 2 limitations and enjoy videogames and live tv streaming (from the apple TV) on the homepods without any delay, which wasnt the case before. If its doable with an Apple TV, it must be posible with Mac Os.
As stated in the MacRumors article above: "The inability to select stereo-paired HomePod speakers as your Mac audio output device is a glaring omission in Apple's AirPlay rollout, and the situation unfortunately remains the same in macOS 11 Big Sur. You can only use them with certain Apple apps like Music and TV – all other Mac audio must be output to one speaker or the other, but not both at the same time."
This is exactly my experience with my iMac and stereo-paired HomePods. There is no latency issue with the HomePods when watching something using the Apple TV app, although when pausing and resuming a show the latency is momentarily present.
You know, stereo is so old school. Mono is where its at.
Completely agree! The fact that you can't use HomePod with your Mac as a regular bluetooth audio device, especially now that so many people are working from home or using apps like Zoom to connect with others, is ridiculous! I would love to be able to use my HomePod or a HomePod mini at work or at home for my zoom calls that occupy most of my day now. Instead we buy other products like Jabra Speaks to do that work - Apple could own that market for Mac users if they just enabled that feature. Very short sighted on their part. Simple software update would fix it too!
Select "system audio" as your source, and your HomePod as your output. Every sound your Mac plays comes out through the HomePod, but honestly, the latency is so bad it's just not worth it.
They could easily send audio content to the HomePods but still have system sounds use the internal speakers.
I was hoping that this would be enabled on a M1 Mac, as the processor is closely related to an iPad / iPhone, but still no Airplay 2 support.
Serious question. What audio do you play through your Mac besides TV, or Music that you can’t just ask the HomePod to play itself?
Well yes exactly - so there is latency?! What that means is any time critical sounds will be out of time. It doesn't work "live" it works by buffering whatever you playing and then playing it back at a later date - latency doesn't mean "sync" which you're referring to. It wouldn't work for time sensitive sound applications - or likely anything in safari, or games, or pro apps etc etc.
Multi Room Audio - I have HomePods dotted around the house and it would be great if I could also add my Mac as well, so I can listen to music as I move around the home. I have a some HomePods in Stereo pairs.
Same reason they chose an outdated usb2 port on the latest AirPort Extreme, chose not to support their own display resolutions on the Apple TV, chose to tie the watch to a redundant & unnecessary iPhone, chose to give you 3 hamfisted ways of unreliable file access on iOS without a plain & simple usb thumb drive like option, etc etc etc. The design team designed a product to be used around their vision in ideal conditions, and to get you to use it in that one way, have to eliminate the possibility you’ll use it any other way. This is the main trouble with post-jobs Apple. ...this inflexible approach doesn’t account for other conditions, and leaves you unable to adapt when conditions change.
The podcast and TV app can also be used to configure this instead of the Music app. I found the music app dropped its connection after a while (although did not do the minimise window approach), that the podcast app connection cuts out after two hours but that TV app is the most robust (although does involve starting and pausing a video). Computer sleep (not display sleep) or closing you laptop lid for a period of time may affect your connectivity too.
If you are mostly using passive consumption apps then system wide is still a nice set-up with the paired-homepods but if you are regularly uses apps such as iMovie/Final Cut Pro, GarageBand/Logic or gaming then you will likely want to skip on this set-up.
As well as Safari, Firefox respects the 2 second airplay lag and VLC can be configured to allow for the lag via Window > Track synchronisation (set to -2 secs).
If you are mostly using passive consumption apps then system wide is still a nice set-up with the paired-homepods but if you are regularly uses apps such as iMovie/Final Cut Pro, GarageBand/Logic or gaming then you will likely want to skip on this set-up.
As well as Safari, Firefox respects the 2 second airplay lag and VLC can be configured to allow for the lag via Window > Track synchronisation (set to -2 secs).
I did, but evidently too soon. I can’t link my Sonos speakers to Airplay to get computer sound output. I know that you can do it now, but 4 years ago you couldn’t, and there’s no update for that on the Sonos side.
I hated having to run wires to speakers in my youth, but this is worse. At least running wires worked. Apple’s various “solutions” don’t work for all situations, even the ones most users are likely to run into. And in some instances there isn’t a good solution at all.