As the owner of an Apple HomePod and a recent version of the Apple TV media player, you can now link the two products together for better audio from your television. You can read exactly how to do that in this article.
There is now a special situation. Because Apple no longer produces HomePods, but the company still provides new functions for the smart Siri speaker. Recently, HomePod supports Dolby Atmos content. When you connect one speaker or one pair to the Apple TV 4K, you can enjoy much better audio quality in the living room than before. Unfortunately, Apple’s HomePod Mini does not support Atmos. The option to pair the speakers has been around since the fall of 2020. However, there are probably now more people with a suitable Apple TV media player with support for this function. Reason enough to look at how exactly you establish the link.
Pair HomePod to Apple TV
Because the second-generation Apple TV 4K media player offers support for HDMI ARC over HDMI 2.1, it’s possible to send all audio from the TV to the speaker – so it’s about more than just the audio you send from the Apple TV 4K. Of course, your television must also have support for HDMI ARC, because otherwise it will not work. Let’s start with the basics. We will walk you through the steps below.
Go to the settings application on your Apple TV 4K. If you still have a red dot in the options for home kit and Airplay, then it is important that you click on it first and follow the steps on the image. Now go to the audio and video settings and click on the default audio output option. You will now see a list of available HomePod speakers. If you don’t see the speaker, go to the Home application on your iPhone and select the Siri speaker. Now go to the settings and make sure the speaker and media player are in the same room. (This is also where you pair two HomePods together as a stereo pair, by the way.)
Then we now have to check the sound settings. Normally, the option for television speakers is on, but you want to have the second option in view: your living room. If you have the most recent version of the tvOS, then under that option is the beta feature we’re looking for: Audio Return Channel (ARC). Select that option and press OK on the next screen. The screen will go black for a while, but that is normal. If the image returns, the Apple TV 4K will now play all audio from the TV through the linked HomePod speaker(s).
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