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HomePod Mini Stereo Pair with Apple TV 4K Not Working - Again.

This is, I believe, the third post related to the repeated problems I've had trying to use a Stereo pair of HomePod Minis as the sound output on my Apple TV 4K. When it works, it sounds brilliant. But it will work for a week or two with no problems, then one will stop playing. Or one will start randomly playing something from another source. It's a testament to my patience and fortitude that I haven't simply taken a hammer to my HomePod Minis. Is this a product made by Apple or is it truly made by some other company and sold under the Apple name? Beyond frustrated. Back to using our wired receiver again. Which doesn't sound nearly as good as the HomePod Minis. But THEY DON"T CONSISTENTLY WORK AS A STEREO PAIR!

Posted on Jan 21, 2022 10:04 AM

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Posted on Feb 5, 2022 12:51 PM

Yeah I don’t have WPA3 enabled. I tried the HomePods at another location with a non eero router and the same issue arose. The minis don’t hold a 5ghz connection well. From what I understand though, the minis will default to whatever frequency your iPhone is connected to, which for me is always 5ghz and I’ve never had an issue with my two iPhones 12 on my network.

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Feb 5, 2022 12:51 PM in response to bgmeek

Yeah I don’t have WPA3 enabled. I tried the HomePods at another location with a non eero router and the same issue arose. The minis don’t hold a 5ghz connection well. From what I understand though, the minis will default to whatever frequency your iPhone is connected to, which for me is always 5ghz and I’ve never had an issue with my two iPhones 12 on my network.

Jan 21, 2022 3:03 PM in response to MarkHolmesSD

More details would be helpful. Have you setup your HomePod stereo pair as the ATV4K’s default audio output? Is your ATV4K setup as the [e]ARC sound output for your TV, or is it the 1st gen ATV4K that doesn’t support ARC? Have you verified that both your HomePods and ATV4K are running the latest *OS (v15.2 currently I think)? Have you reset everything including your Wi-Fi/router since getting things updated?


Intermittent failures as you describe can point to network issues. How confident are you about your Wi-Fi setup (WiFi frequencies are often crowded in some neighborhoods)? Can you cable-connect your ATV4K to your Internet router to minimize your local Wi-Fi traffic as a test?


I have a stereo pair of HomePod minis and the 1st-gen ATV4K and when I messed around with the default audio output feature everything worked well (but I use a spiffy Sony soundbar by default. I also read a thread in some forum by a guy who swore it was rock-solid for him for movies and “serious gaming”.

Jan 21, 2022 3:21 PM in response to bgmeek

Yep. Set up as default audio output. It's being fed through a receiver - eArc shouldn't matter should it? Doesn't that control HDMI output? It is fed to eARC on the TV, but the projector doesn't have eARC. If I am simply sending the audio from the Apple TV to the HomePod Minis, why should eARC matter? I have reset the router, I have reset the Apple TV, I have repeatedly updated the software for the Apple TV. I have disconnected/reconnected the HomePod minis. I have returned the Minis for a new pair. I have had recurring problems in variations of TVOS/iOS 14 and 15. The router/wifi is about 20 feet from the Apple TV with one wall separating. The wall is not lead-lined. :-)

This is the only device that gives us WiFi problems. My question is - why do HomePods rely on the wifi system to distribute the sound? The AirPods Pro I use never have any problems. I don't think they rely on the wifi network do they? Why don't the Minis work reliably as a stereo pair when my AirPods Pro never fail? Don't they use similar chips and software?

But my real frustration is that I am even here discussing this. The reason I use Apple for just about everything is the old Apple Maxim: It Just Works. The HomePod Mini's, working as a stereo pair for Apple's own TV device, doesn't. Just. Work.


Jan 21, 2022 4:51 PM in response to MarkHolmesSD

Believe me, I understand the frustration (I’m no Apple fan-boy). “It just works” doesn’t apply to the modern Apple ecosystem as I’ve experienced it, though it may have been an apt slogan in Jobs’ day.


The ARC question was mostly to learn your version of Apple TV 4K and if you’ve got other components in the mix that might complicate things since your initial post only said, in effect, ATV4K + HomePod stereo pair works but with way-too-frequent issues.


Anyway, AirPods use Bluetooth while the HomePods use WiFi for audio streams. Since your ATV4K is receiving a big AV stream via WiFi while simultaneously sending the audio to the HomePods by bouncing it off your Wi-Fi hub, you’re moving a fair bit of traffic around the house. I’ve never dug into it but I’m pretty sure that a stereo pair requires one homepod to retransmit the audio to the other (again through the WiFi hub). Lots of packets flying around all at once. If all your neighbors happen to be doing similar things… the spectrum gets very crowded and errors and retransmissions that normally would go unnoticed cause noticeable glitches.


The cable-to-ATV4K test might shed some light, but you may want to patiently get on the phone with Apple’s ATV4K support folks (if you haven’t already). I’d be curious to hear what they suggest.

Jan 22, 2022 12:59 PM in response to bgmeek

Thanks for the detailed response, and all the info! I honestly am a bit of an Apple fanboy - maybe that's why I expect so much from them. :-)

Very interesting, the mention of use of Bluetooth vs wifi to move the sound around. I keep hoping that a firmware fix takes care of the problems, but maybe it's hardware limited.

All that being said, the HomePod mini sound, especially considering it diminutive size, is fantastic. That's why I keep trying to make this work.

Feb 4, 2022 10:57 PM in response to MarkHolmesSD

I have the exact same problem and it’s infuriating. LG C1. New Apple TV 4K wired to gigabit Ethernet up and down. Tried just using wifi but made no difference. My two HomePod minis (stereo pair) also lose connection to my eero pro 6 router once or twice a day. The router is 15 ft away with no obstructions. The connection on the minis just drops and Siri says it’s having trouble connecting to the internet. Every other device on my network is rock solid except for the minis.

Feb 5, 2022 12:17 PM in response to Skyblueallday

@Skyblueallday, I was curious about your post and googled HomePod Mini + eero pro 6… Apparently you’re not alone in having connectivity issues with minis on modern mesh nets. I gather the mini, for some reason, only supports 802.11n at 2.4 and 5Ghz… On this Reddit thread, the only concrete suggestion was: “Had eero 6 pros. If using WPA3 don’t. It messes with homepods and other devices because it’s not widely adopted yet unfortunately.”

Feb 5, 2022 1:03 PM in response to Skyblueallday

Yeah, this has been a recurring problem for months now and people always start asking about wifi issues. Our ATT Gigabit 1000 up and 1000 down gives us no problems with anything else though. I think I'll wait until there is another version of the hompods that don't rely on a wifi system to move the sound around. This just seems to be a design flaw on Apple's part and I'm not going to spend any more of my hours troubleshooting their tech.

HomePod Mini Stereo Pair with Apple TV 4K Not Working - Again.

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