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So how easy to connect HomePod minis to ATV for tech-challenged?
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Here's the relatively simple steps.
However, if you happen to have (or want to get) a Receiver, you'll get superior TV sound from even a 3.1 setup:
HPs can sound great too but they are stereo as a pair. Enjoy them for what they are best at: music playback, perhaps in other rooms if you choose to go this alt way. HPs are basically 2.0 (channels) vs. 3.1 or 5.1 or more.
Home theaters work in 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, 11.1 (and all of those can involve twin subwoofers if desired: 5.2, 7.2, etc) and ATMOS- all of which revolve around placing speakers all around your main seating position. Your ears would absolutely hear the difference if you have sound coming from speakers around you vs. only 2 out front.
Even if you want super simple, that 3.1 setup would likely make you happier, as a dedicated center channel speaker owns the dialogue while the HPs will have to "fake it" by creating a virtual center channel. Your ears would easily hear this difference too.
Similarly, movies & TVs love some deep bass and even the bigger HPs can only generate so much bass. A subwoofer would hit the low, low notes. Here's the setup...
A BIG bonus in this particularly for you is that a wired setup will not eat up some of your scarce wifi bandwidth. Else, you will be allocating even more wifi than you do now... to two wireless speakers.
However, all that offered, if you want to make it work with HPs anyway, just follow the steps at the link and see what you think. Two HPs WILL sound much better than TV speakers. However, you have a relatively easy and not that expensive way to fully "home theater" your setup if you want.
However, if you happen to have (or want to get) a Receiver, you'll get superior TV sound from even a 3.1 setup:
- 3 "dumb" speakers (left, center, right) and
- 1 subwoofer.
HPs can sound great too but they are stereo as a pair. Enjoy them for what they are best at: music playback, perhaps in other rooms if you choose to go this alt way. HPs are basically 2.0 (channels) vs. 3.1 or 5.1 or more.
Home theaters work in 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, 11.1 (and all of those can involve twin subwoofers if desired: 5.2, 7.2, etc) and ATMOS- all of which revolve around placing speakers all around your main seating position. Your ears would absolutely hear the difference if you have sound coming from speakers around you vs. only 2 out front.
Even if you want super simple, that 3.1 setup would likely make you happier, as a dedicated center channel speaker owns the dialogue while the HPs will have to "fake it" by creating a virtual center channel. Your ears would easily hear this difference too.
Similarly, movies & TVs love some deep bass and even the bigger HPs can only generate so much bass. A subwoofer would hit the low, low notes. Here's the setup...
- AppleTV HDMI OUT to Receiver, Receiver HDMI OUT to TV.
- Speaker wires out of Receiver to the various speakers.
A BIG bonus in this particularly for you is that a wired setup will not eat up some of your scarce wifi bandwidth. Else, you will be allocating even more wifi than you do now... to two wireless speakers.
However, all that offered, if you want to make it work with HPs anyway, just follow the steps at the link and see what you think. Two HPs WILL sound much better than TV speakers. However, you have a relatively easy and not that expensive way to fully "home theater" your setup if you want.
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Just do a internet search (google) on "How to setup HomePod Mini", and then search on "How to connect HomePod Mini to Apple TV".
Kinda makes me wonder if I should just get a Soundbar for my tv - lol. I don’t really know what is too much in the way of bandwidth, and I’m working with Starlink. We are planning to upgrade the Starlink router, so we can hardwire the ATV to the router, but I guess that’s not gonna help with speakers that still require Wi-Fi.
My TV is at least a 10 year old Sony Bravia (maybe older), but it has a beautiful picture, and I really don’t care to try and replace it at the moment - I just want a little more sound.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I recall your "boonies" reference and the Starlink (only) option. That's why I offered that input.
Ethernet connecting the AppleTV is a very good idea... as streaming video is a BIG wifi bandwidth hog. IMO, your ongoing strategy should be whatever you can (ethernet) wire, you SHOULD wire. Think of it like preserving food (wifi bandwidth) for only what really needs a wifi connection. Wherever possible, connect with ethernet.
As to Soundbar, in some kind of IMO hierarchy of home theater speaker setups, it goes like this:
#1 is also highly flexible (add speakers as you can) and wide open (no walled garden at all, pretty much the opposite of #4-5): hook almost any source of audio into that Receiver and you'll enjoy audio on the best speakers in the home. The "dumb" speakers attached will not be "vintaged" because they do not depend on "smarts" tied to hardware likely to be vintaged. Good "dumb" speakers can easily last a few DECADES, which I completely doubt will prove to be the case with #4-#5 (example: gen 2 can't even stereo sync with gen 1).
#2 narrows the audio input flexibility to whatever the soundbar and TV can take as audio input. It is superior to #3 because it has the flexibility to work with other speakers like a Subwoofer and rears to deliver a good approximation of #1's true surround sound. If this option, I strongly favor Sonos Arc because of it's generally highly rated, terrific incorporation of Apple-specific benefits- Apple Music, HomeKit and Airplay 2 native- and it offers "just works" software for home theater additions. It feels very Apple-like in many ways.
If you want a great home theater now with a soundbar as a core, consider their Arc + two 300's + Subwoofer package. Arc (soundbar) goes under/over the TV, twin 300s go back behind your prime seating position (good speaker stands on Amazon) and Sub can go anywhere. That combination is "latest & greatest" and sound VERY good for home theater and music. You can even replicate #4-5 "smarts" (Siri) control by issuing Siri commands to your other Apple stuff: phone, iPad, AppleTV, Mac.
Alternatively, there are other soundbar "home theaters in a box" that usually involve bar + sub + 2 rears too. Many cost less than that one, but trade off features as part of costing less. Sonos is compatible with about EVERYTHING, plays about EVERYTHING and works very well with key offerings from Apple too.
This would also be a "just works" setup you could turn on/off and control volume with your AppleTV remote or any other remote. AppleTV HDMI out to TV HDMI IN... TV HDMI ARC jack out to ARC soundbar HDMI IN. With CEC turned on, it should all turn on/off together.
#3 is the same as #2 but dumps the other speakers and lacks the option to add sub and rears later. These will be the "bargain” soundbars. I consider this towards the same as #4 because sound will come from only out front of you... and you have no way to add other speakers to build out surround sound home theater on down the road.
A lone soundbar of some quality will do a SUPERIOR job with video dialogue because the audio is coming right from very near the TV. However, it will likely be INFERIOR in terms of stereo separation vs. #4. In other words, for ideal sound you want your stereo (left & right) speakers to spread out, so that left channel is obviously left and right channel is obviously right. A soundbar can't generally spread out beyond the length of the bar which is often not wider than the width of the TV. Yes, some tech trickery can try to fake the spread a bit but good ears will easily hear the difference of actual stereo separation vs. technical trickery faking it.
Relative to #1, this option is like buying a center channel speaker that also offers some left & right channel audio too. Dialogue will be towards great but stereo separation is hard limited to width of bar.
#4 sounds fantastic but is limited to stereo at best. Spread them out a bit for good left & right separation... but that will weaken the faux center channel dialogue. Bring them closer together near the TV for better dialogue... but that will weaken the stereo separation. HPs need (new product creation in the form of) a center channel HP... and an HP sub... and HP rears (but nary a hint of a rumor that Apple will ever go there).
In your situation, their wifi dependency will eat wifi bandwidth vs. #1-#3 which can all be wired and avoid biting into the wifi pie. Personally, I see HPs like audio iMacs. With iMac, the tech gut "smarts" will die or be "vintaged" long before the screen is ready for retirement. Per this analogy, I strongly suspect the HP "smarts" will die or be vintaged long before the "dumb" speaker parts themselves need replacement. Both are a "throw baby out with the bathwater" products.
HPs are thoroughly walled garden. You can't make anything play on them unless you can make that anything play through an Apple device (to then airplay to them) or connect to a TV with eArc with HDMI cables. Aunt Meg brings over that ancient VCR for home movies from way, way back? Good luck getting that thing playing on the home theater HP speakers. Want to hook up that old turntable and play some out-of-print vinyl albums? The turntable better have a HDMI port, Airplay, and/or a way to push audio into an Apple device that can then airplay it to HPs. Friend back from their travels and wants to show you a funny video they shot on their Android device. It better be able to airplay or they better have brought over a dongle to yield an HDMI port. Cousin found the "lost family trip DVD"? How do you get disc audio to HPs? Etc.
IMO: best use for #4 & #5 is for the original intended use: MUSIC in rooms where you desire it but don't want to hook up a traditional stereo system. And that music had better be narrow choices Apple has approved, else you will be tying up another device (and wifi bandwidth) to airplay other sources to them. HP-like Sonos offerings will natively play about everything... and include various inputs to easily incorporate old sources lacking airplay or HDMI, etc.
#5 is just about the opposite of the typical Home Theater goal because it is a mono speaker with all sound coming from a single spot. Yes, since there is more than one speaker in that cylinder, one can make a case that each is a stereo speaker. However, stereo jammed into a tiny space will- to human ears- sound like a mono speaker in the same spot. If there's no separation, stereo left & right basically sounds "center" to ears. IMO: best to put this in other places to enjoy very easily played music. It's great for THIS purpose.
#6 is bottom of the barrel because TV speakers tend to be last resort on a quality scale.. almost an afterthought addition to the screen, pinched (quality of sound) by trying to generate audio from relentlessly-thin space in TV frames. In general, ANYTHING is better than leaning on TV speakers.
Now Apple fans will likely jump in here to prop up HPs as superior in every possible way to any other source of sound. Expect passionate arguments about convenience and deep integration, etc to fly- and even have a little merit in niche ways- but there's no getting around their maximum potential is a stereo pair (2.0)... when a "WOW!" home theater begs for something towards 5.1 minimum.
If you already own those Minis, you already have some sense of "walled garden" and maybe a want to play something from some bit of technology that simply can't get its audio to them (lack of an AUX in port is a fundamental speaker benefit lacking here). I'm nearly an Apple everything guy myself and readily admit that HPs can generate some fantastic sound... but they are not really intended to be Home Theater speakers and trying to use them in that way is somewhat forcing them into that use... and absolutely settling into a "good enough" mentality instead of going for true home theater surround sound.
I hope this is helpful. You can make your "boonies" theater sound incredible for the next few decades for about a good iPhone or new MB budget... or start such a system for the price of about a couple of HPs and add the rest over time. IMO: great sound is as important as great picture. And with speakers easily outlasting all of our favorite Apple tech stuff, a good suggestion is to budget accordingly. By the time good speakers need replacing, you'll probably have purchased 5-10 more iPhones, 3-5 Macs, etc. A budget of 1 or 2 of those can buy a system to delight your ears for the next 20-30 or more years.
Ethernet connecting the AppleTV is a very good idea... as streaming video is a BIG wifi bandwidth hog. IMO, your ongoing strategy should be whatever you can (ethernet) wire, you SHOULD wire. Think of it like preserving food (wifi bandwidth) for only what really needs a wifi connection. Wherever possible, connect with ethernet.
As to Soundbar, in some kind of IMO hierarchy of home theater speaker setups, it goes like this:
- Receiver + "dumb" speakers
- Soundbar system capable of surround sound
- Soundbar
- HPs in stereo
- Single HP
- Use TV Speakers
#1 is also highly flexible (add speakers as you can) and wide open (no walled garden at all, pretty much the opposite of #4-5): hook almost any source of audio into that Receiver and you'll enjoy audio on the best speakers in the home. The "dumb" speakers attached will not be "vintaged" because they do not depend on "smarts" tied to hardware likely to be vintaged. Good "dumb" speakers can easily last a few DECADES, which I completely doubt will prove to be the case with #4-#5 (example: gen 2 can't even stereo sync with gen 1).
#2 narrows the audio input flexibility to whatever the soundbar and TV can take as audio input. It is superior to #3 because it has the flexibility to work with other speakers like a Subwoofer and rears to deliver a good approximation of #1's true surround sound. If this option, I strongly favor Sonos Arc because of it's generally highly rated, terrific incorporation of Apple-specific benefits- Apple Music, HomeKit and Airplay 2 native- and it offers "just works" software for home theater additions. It feels very Apple-like in many ways.
If you want a great home theater now with a soundbar as a core, consider their Arc + two 300's + Subwoofer package. Arc (soundbar) goes under/over the TV, twin 300s go back behind your prime seating position (good speaker stands on Amazon) and Sub can go anywhere. That combination is "latest & greatest" and sound VERY good for home theater and music. You can even replicate #4-5 "smarts" (Siri) control by issuing Siri commands to your other Apple stuff: phone, iPad, AppleTV, Mac.
Alternatively, there are other soundbar "home theaters in a box" that usually involve bar + sub + 2 rears too. Many cost less than that one, but trade off features as part of costing less. Sonos is compatible with about EVERYTHING, plays about EVERYTHING and works very well with key offerings from Apple too.
This would also be a "just works" setup you could turn on/off and control volume with your AppleTV remote or any other remote. AppleTV HDMI out to TV HDMI IN... TV HDMI ARC jack out to ARC soundbar HDMI IN. With CEC turned on, it should all turn on/off together.
#3 is the same as #2 but dumps the other speakers and lacks the option to add sub and rears later. These will be the "bargain” soundbars. I consider this towards the same as #4 because sound will come from only out front of you... and you have no way to add other speakers to build out surround sound home theater on down the road.
A lone soundbar of some quality will do a SUPERIOR job with video dialogue because the audio is coming right from very near the TV. However, it will likely be INFERIOR in terms of stereo separation vs. #4. In other words, for ideal sound you want your stereo (left & right) speakers to spread out, so that left channel is obviously left and right channel is obviously right. A soundbar can't generally spread out beyond the length of the bar which is often not wider than the width of the TV. Yes, some tech trickery can try to fake the spread a bit but good ears will easily hear the difference of actual stereo separation vs. technical trickery faking it.
Relative to #1, this option is like buying a center channel speaker that also offers some left & right channel audio too. Dialogue will be towards great but stereo separation is hard limited to width of bar.
#4 sounds fantastic but is limited to stereo at best. Spread them out a bit for good left & right separation... but that will weaken the faux center channel dialogue. Bring them closer together near the TV for better dialogue... but that will weaken the stereo separation. HPs need (new product creation in the form of) a center channel HP... and an HP sub... and HP rears (but nary a hint of a rumor that Apple will ever go there).
In your situation, their wifi dependency will eat wifi bandwidth vs. #1-#3 which can all be wired and avoid biting into the wifi pie. Personally, I see HPs like audio iMacs. With iMac, the tech gut "smarts" will die or be "vintaged" long before the screen is ready for retirement. Per this analogy, I strongly suspect the HP "smarts" will die or be vintaged long before the "dumb" speaker parts themselves need replacement. Both are a "throw baby out with the bathwater" products.
HPs are thoroughly walled garden. You can't make anything play on them unless you can make that anything play through an Apple device (to then airplay to them) or connect to a TV with eArc with HDMI cables. Aunt Meg brings over that ancient VCR for home movies from way, way back? Good luck getting that thing playing on the home theater HP speakers. Want to hook up that old turntable and play some out-of-print vinyl albums? The turntable better have a HDMI port, Airplay, and/or a way to push audio into an Apple device that can then airplay it to HPs. Friend back from their travels and wants to show you a funny video they shot on their Android device. It better be able to airplay or they better have brought over a dongle to yield an HDMI port. Cousin found the "lost family trip DVD"? How do you get disc audio to HPs? Etc.
IMO: best use for #4 & #5 is for the original intended use: MUSIC in rooms where you desire it but don't want to hook up a traditional stereo system. And that music had better be narrow choices Apple has approved, else you will be tying up another device (and wifi bandwidth) to airplay other sources to them. HP-like Sonos offerings will natively play about everything... and include various inputs to easily incorporate old sources lacking airplay or HDMI, etc.
#5 is just about the opposite of the typical Home Theater goal because it is a mono speaker with all sound coming from a single spot. Yes, since there is more than one speaker in that cylinder, one can make a case that each is a stereo speaker. However, stereo jammed into a tiny space will- to human ears- sound like a mono speaker in the same spot. If there's no separation, stereo left & right basically sounds "center" to ears. IMO: best to put this in other places to enjoy very easily played music. It's great for THIS purpose.
#6 is bottom of the barrel because TV speakers tend to be last resort on a quality scale.. almost an afterthought addition to the screen, pinched (quality of sound) by trying to generate audio from relentlessly-thin space in TV frames. In general, ANYTHING is better than leaning on TV speakers.
Now Apple fans will likely jump in here to prop up HPs as superior in every possible way to any other source of sound. Expect passionate arguments about convenience and deep integration, etc to fly- and even have a little merit in niche ways- but there's no getting around their maximum potential is a stereo pair (2.0)... when a "WOW!" home theater begs for something towards 5.1 minimum.
If you already own those Minis, you already have some sense of "walled garden" and maybe a want to play something from some bit of technology that simply can't get its audio to them (lack of an AUX in port is a fundamental speaker benefit lacking here). I'm nearly an Apple everything guy myself and readily admit that HPs can generate some fantastic sound... but they are not really intended to be Home Theater speakers and trying to use them in that way is somewhat forcing them into that use... and absolutely settling into a "good enough" mentality instead of going for true home theater surround sound.
I hope this is helpful. You can make your "boonies" theater sound incredible for the next few decades for about a good iPhone or new MB budget... or start such a system for the price of about a couple of HPs and add the rest over time. IMO: great sound is as important as great picture. And with speakers easily outlasting all of our favorite Apple tech stuff, a good suggestion is to budget accordingly. By the time good speakers need replacing, you'll probably have purchased 5-10 more iPhones, 3-5 Macs, etc. A budget of 1 or 2 of those can buy a system to delight your ears for the next 20-30 or more years.
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When I set up my full sized HomePods, I think my Apple TV just prompted me to add them as a stereo pair.
If not, it's a quick trip into Settings to fix it. In my experience it's quite solid and I'm very happy with the sound.
Half the time I just direct the audio to my AirPods, though, if it's late at night and I want to watch stuff at a good volume without disturbing anyone.
Yes, but for that to happen (and for the permanent, home theater mode to be available with the apple tv), they -the Homepods and the Apple TV- both have to be in the same room within the Home app. That´s the key part.
What do we have now?
I have 2 HomePod minis that needed just a iPhone to set up.
that was it!
the sound is amazing but not enough deep bass as a subwoofer would produce.
my personally grievances are few if any
I cant watch a sports game mutes while listing to Mozart through the Home system.
If you do purchase a HomePod I would get the larger one for room fill and deeper bass.
BTW:how is Mojave treating you?
I moved to Sonoma but use that OS on 2 intel MacBooks once in. while.
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What @B/D was pointing out, though, is that when you set up the HomePods, you are prompted to tell the Home app what room they're in, and that should be the same room the Apple TV is set to for the HomePods to stay paired to them.
You *can* still send Apple TV sound to other HomePods in other rooms, but that's a temporary output and will reset itself. I will sometimes add our kitchen HomePod Mini to the mix if I want to be able to run in to make popcorn or something and not miss too much of a movie. Really helpful for sports too!
I might set up a TV with a new HomePod just for the downstairs screened area.
and by pass the tv upstairs which did not go smooth this morning.
after disconnecting the tv, the MBAir could not play music to the 2 HomePods mini.
I think they need to be reprogramed not to link with the TV, I think.
the HOME and HomePods set up is great, but cant be interfered or adjusted at all.
Strange! I don't often AirPlay from my Mac(s), but I do very frequently AirPlay music from my iPhone to the HomePods (first gen, full sized, stereo pair) that are attached to the Apple TV. It works for me fine. The HomePods show up as "Living Room" and have an Apple TV icon. It generally works quite well, but can get glitchy at times.
My favorite little trick is to play something on my iPhone and then hold it up near the top of the HomePod to "hand it off" to the HomePod. You can also do it in reverse and "take playback back" to your iPhone. It works more reliably on my HomePod Mini than on the 1st Gen HomePods.
Thank you for that advice,
I should use my iPhone more music, th sound is better for some strange reason.
several months ago I played the 1973 Pink Floyd "Dark side" and noticed a slight difference.
In the same room both physically and in the Home app. If they are not, home theater mode wont work.
but I know the larger HomePods do some things a little differently than the minis.
They are identical regarding this (not sound wise, of course).
Once set up, if your Internet/Network/Wi-Fi is very solid (and I mean VERY solid, if you can hardwire the Apple TV to the router by all means do that) they are rock solid, no glitches, sound fantastic and just stay paired with no fuss.
Yes of course, but they wont work anymore if you unplug the apple tv from the power, which is what @MBAir2010 did!. For the Homepods to be fully independent again, you need to unpair them from the apple tv. To do so very quickly at any given time, open the home app on your IOS device, tap on your Apple TV card, and scroll down until you see "Default audio output".
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Oh, I did not realize this. This would definitely have stumped me if I was in that situation.
I had some Sony TVs in the past. Totally outclassed by current state of the art OLED TVs.
I’m sure, but right now, just no real need to replace it - plenty good enough picture for me. Just spent a grand getting this Starlink set up so we could finally have internet that actually works - TV is on the back burner. Just figure I could throw an iHome mini or two at it, and that would be a lot cheaper, but I guess if I’d get better sound from a newer TV, maybe I should just hold off and go that route as soon as I can.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I doubt ANY TV speakers will sound better than even those minis. Hook 'em up if you already have them. They should sound better than the Sony you have now and whatever TV you replace it with in the future.
And if you are happy with the picture, focus on the sound. If you start out with minis as your sound, you are not obligated to stick with it forever. At any point in time, they will easily move to another room(s) to put music in places where you don't have it now. If you save up for a new TV budget, consider spending it on audio instead of video. The Ear part of the home theater experience should be towards as important as the Eye part. Professional cinemas have speakers placed all around the theater for a very tangible reason.
If HPs or a soundbar was just as good, it would be so much cheaper for those theaters. So why don't they dump their relatively expensive surround sound and/or true ATMOS setups for a much cheaper speaker or two down front? The actual answer to that question points the ideal way to home theater audio.
And if you are happy with the picture, focus on the sound. If you start out with minis as your sound, you are not obligated to stick with it forever. At any point in time, they will easily move to another room(s) to put music in places where you don't have it now. If you save up for a new TV budget, consider spending it on audio instead of video. The Ear part of the home theater experience should be towards as important as the Eye part. Professional cinemas have speakers placed all around the theater for a very tangible reason.
If HPs or a soundbar was just as good, it would be so much cheaper for those theaters. So why don't they dump their relatively expensive surround sound and/or true ATMOS setups for a much cheaper speaker or two down front? The actual answer to that question points the ideal way to home theater audio.
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