My partner is eager to buy homepods to use for audio around the house. I am not because I keep reading of problems synching audio with video using AppleTV. We don’t have AppleTV. If we have HomePods for streaming music, are we then going to have to use a different system-i.e., soundbar, speakers/with woofers for streaming sound synched with videos?
I have two pairs of (original) Homepods around the house. They work well as stereo speakers in separate rooms.
Video/audio sync with Apple TV was an issue several years ago but was addressed in software updates. Hopefully a future update will not break them again!
There are several advantages of having Homepods around the house. They can be used as intercoms, they can be set up to answer phone calls, the Minis have temperature and humidity sensors (that can be used to trigger Homekit automations) and all Homepods can be used to control Homekit devices.
Having said this, some people have had a very frustrating time getting Homepods to work with their home wifi.
Your concerns are well founded. I have seven HomePods and sorry I bought them. They just do not work well together and will leave you frustrated. Every time there's a firmware upgrade they start failing and rebooting and reconfigurations don't help. And forget about getting technical help on this forum. The most you'll get are generic responses steering you to the official Apple methodologies.
With that said, if you buy them get no more than one or two. I recently disabled all but two and they seem to be functioning well. Time will tell...
To HomePod or not to HomePod
