Headphones and HomePods

Think_differently123 wrote:

[...]

When watching something through the latest AppleTV (the hardware product) is it possible to have the sound output from HomePods AND AirPods Max at the same time (to improve the listening experience for someone who is hard of hearing).

It appears that you can't set that up directly - you can either use headphones (Bluetooth-connected AirPods for example) OR speakers (HomePods are considered either default audio output speakers or temporarily-connected AirPlay speakers). But you can't select a pair of headphones AND a set of speakers at the same time.

You can select two pairs of AirPods to play simultaniously using the "Share Audio" feature.

Also, to get what you asked for, you can select your HomePods and additional AirPlay speakers to play at the same time. Since my Macbook Air shows up on the ATV4K's list of AirPlay speakers, I tested playing the Apple TV audio to my HomePods (as default audio output) and simultaneously to my Macbook via AirPlay. I then connected my AirPods Pro to the Macbook, and presto! The audio sync listening to the cascade-connected AirPods was OK too.

So... yes! You can do that (in a roundabout way) if you [think differently and] have a Mac available to channel the AirPlay audio to your AirPods :-).

Think_differently123 wrote:

Thank you very much for this and apologies for the slow response.

How do you get your MacBook Air to appear as an airplay speaker please? Will that work with a Mac running Catalina?

It looks like the "AirPlay Receiver" feature appeared with Monterey. It was apparently turned on for access by my own Apple ID by default, as I first learned about the feature when I saw my macbook on the list of speakers available to my Apple TV 4K :-). See Set up your Mac to be an AirPlay receiver - Apple Support.