Wireless Audio Sync

[ryansebiz]

I use a HomePod pair as my living room TV speakers. I cannot get Wireless Audio Sync to work with my Apple TV 4K Wi‑Fi + Ethernet 128GB, HomePod (2nd generation) pair, and iPhone 16 Pro running:

• tvOS 18.5
• HomePod OS 18.5 (or whatever OS HomePod uses is called)
• iOS 18.5

I verified my HomePod pair was playing sound through a couple apps, ran the Wireless Audio Sync on my Apple TV, held my iPhone close to my TV, started Wireless Audio Sync on my iPhone, but keep getting this error:

No Tones Detected
Hold your iOs device close to your television, and adjust speaker volume if needed.

Has anyone had any luck getting this working?

 

[B/D]

Try unpairing the HomePods from the Apple TV and running Wireless Audio Sync again.

The utility will play the audio tones exclusively trough your tv internal speakers or wired sound system, not the HomePods. This is as intended.

Here is why:

"The Apple TV already knows how long it takes to play AirPlay audio (otherwise it couldn't synchronize AirPlay across multiple speakers).

What it doesn't know is how long it takes your particular television to process the Apple TV's HDMI signal, decode audio and video, and ultimately play sound out of the television's own speakers.

Let's say that whole slog takes your television 50ms. The Apple TV itself is naturally in sync with the AirPlay speakers, but any audio (or video!) your TV plays is delayed 50ms, and therefore out of sync with everything else.

So you'd hear an echo when you played music across the house, or you'd see lip sync problems when you used AirPlay for movie audio.

When Wireless Audio Sync plays a tone out of your TV's onboard speakers, it's measuring that processing delay, so the Apple TV can do some math to compensate".


If after this it still does not work, reset the Apple TV and try again.

 

[-Gonzo-]

I’ve used it with my JBL9.1 soundbar and have just used it again now as Wireless Audio Sync has changed with tvOS 18.5 as it now runs two tests, one using stereo pcm and another using Atmos.

FYI if this is your first time using it then make sure you run it on every video setting your TV is likely to use when watching different content as it only does the sync test against the video format you’re currently set to.
ie: 4KSDR/HDR/DV @50Hz/60Hz/24Hz etc, also bear in mind that 24Hz and 60Hz have two different versions available.
It’s a bit of a faff but worth it IMO.

 

[ryansebiz]

What it doesn't know is how long it takes your particular television to process the Apple TV's HDMI signal, decode audio and video, and ultimately play sound out of the television's own speakers.

Thank you so much! I had the volume turned down on my TV speakers. After I turned it up it worked perfectly. Thanks again!

 

[B/D]

I’ve used it with my JBL9.1 soundbar and have just used it again now as Wireless Audio Sync has changed with tvOS 18.5 as it now runs two tests, one using stereo pcm and another using Atmos.

FYI if this is your first time using it then make sure you run it on every video setting your TV is likely to use when watching different content as it only does the sync test against the video format you’re currently set to.
ie: 4KSDR/HDR/DV @50Hz/60Hz/24Hz etc, also bear in mind that 24Hz and 60Hz have two different versions available.
It’s a bit of a faff but worth it IMO.

The strange thing is that when using Homepods as the default audio output I never have had any lip sync or audio lag issues. Bluetooth speakers, headphones, and third party Airplay speakers tend to be out of sync for me though, so this utility is useful in those cases.

 

[B/D]

Thank you so much! I had the volume turned down on my TV speakers. After I turned it up it worked perfectly. Thanks again!

Glad to help.

 

[xz8t83]

If one only uses one set of paired HomePod speakers and does not use TV speakers or any other speakers and if there is no lag or latency issues in audio, then this new feature is not necessary to run. Am I correct?

 

[B/D]

If one only uses one set of paired HomePod speakers and does not use TV speakers or any other speakers and if there is no lag or latency issues in audio, then this new feature is not necessary to run. Am I correct?

Correct.