Airplay 2 out of sync between ATV4K and Homepods

I have tested this extensively, and it is definitely an Airplay 2 issue. I have two HomePods and two ATVs, one 4K and the other latest 1080p version. When playing music to all four devices using iTunes on my MBP and selecting each as a speaker everything is in perfect sync - always. When I attempt to stream the exact same music from my iPhone 8 running iOS 11.4, the two HomePods are in perfect sync, but the ATVs aren't. What's more, the amount that the ATVs are out of sync with the HomePods varies quite a bit. Sometimes it's nearly in sync, but more often than not it's off by enough to make everything unlistenable.

This is not an issue of HDMI latency. There is something wrong with Airplay 2. Using the "old" Airplay method of streaming to multiple devices from a Mac running iTunes works as it always has - everything in perfect sync (with the occasional dropout anyone who's used Airplay is used to). All of my devices are running on the same network using an AirPort Extreme with the latest firmware.

It's a shame that after waiting all this time for Airplay 2 that this is happening.

So I started getting frustrated with this over the weekend.

I started playing around with receiver settings and on my pioneer I had an audio delay/speed up feature while on Yamaha Only delay. My Yamaha was the one delayed so I played with the pioneer delay and once I got it to 125ms delay my music is now in perfect sync at all times.

So I thought maybe it’s gonna make video unwatchable but I honestly can’t see any difference and voice is in sync with video maybe it was out of sync all along and I haven’t been able to notice it while watching tv.

But I’m happy my sync issues have been resolved.

For my setup at least it seems that the issue lies with having the HomePod as the route source of the media you want to play. If I use Spotify on IOS and airplay to the HP and ATV using my iPhone as the source of the media then both HP and ATV are in perfect sync. However, if I ask Siri to play from the HomePod to two speakers at the same time or manually do the same through the music app on the iPhone I have terrible latency. It’s a strange one, just means I’m back on Spotify and not using Siri to play music as much as I would like.

I believe this to be a TV issue. In particular hdmi ARC. My setup - 2 Sonos speakers and Bose soundbar connected via hdmi arc to TV(Sony). The ATV 4K connected to TV.

Using AirPlay 2 via iPhone, iPad, iMac or MBP the soundbar is always slightly out of sync. Tried airfoil on the Mac and made no difference. Used Apple Music, Amazon music and Spotify, all the same.

The only way to sync everything is to play the sound from the ATV from the TV speakers only (changed in TV settings) and not feed to Soundbar. Unfortunately there are no audio delay settings on the Sony TV.

I confirm the same for my setup. Playing Apple Music on HomePod + ATV 4K is generally out of sync by 1/4 second and constantly varies. Playing Spotify or any other non-Apple app via airplay to the same outputs is perfectly in sync.

The simple things like this that Apple drops the ball on just really blows my mind.

I do think this is an airplay 2 issue. My Apple TV 4K is connected direct to the tv using which also has the latest firmware. I then point the apple tv to play sound over airplay to my airplay compatible amp. When navigating the Apple tv menu I hear the menu blips in perfect sync. When I then start a movie, the picture is delayed over the sound. When I point the Apple TV to play its sound direct (ie not airplay) to the tv then both image and sound are in sync.

Looks like this is an issue between original AirPlay (1) and new AirPlay 2. I have 10 AirPlay devices on my WiFi network: 8 older devices that can only run original AirPlay (1) and 2 AirPort Express devices that have the option to run firmware v7.8 which includes AirPlay 2. As long as I keep the AirPort Express devices on firmware v7.6.9 which uses the original AirPlay (1), the AirPort Express devices are in-sync with the other 8 AirPlay devices. But if I upgrade the AirPort Express devices to firmware v7.8 which implements AirPlay 2, then the AirPort Express devices are out-of-sync with the rest of my AirPlay devices running AirPlay 1. The source of my music, iTunes or some other app intercepted by AirFoil, doesn't effect the result. Just need to stick with the original AirPlay (1) until Apple resolves this issue. Oh, and yes, I can run the latest AirFoil that supports AirPlay 2 - as long as my 10 AirPlay receivers are running the original AirPlay (1) all are in-sync.

Use Feedback - HomePod - Apple to let Apple know, they're not listening here.

tt2

The Airfoil app for Macs has the ability to adjust sound sync for Airplay-connected devices but no sure if it works with Airplay2. And of course it only works for audio output from a Mac (which can be sent to Homepods & ATV at the same time using Airfoil)

I have a similar issue.

When using Airplay 2 the latency between the Homepod and ATV (Direct to stereo amp) is 1/4 second out of sync. When using Airfoil on Mac the issue goes away. Makes me think the issue is with Airplay 2 and it's inability to deal with latency issues between HP and ATV. Does anyone have any thoughts on a fix or workaround?

Both routing audio and video over HDMI. I ran more tests last night and playing audio to this mix of devices from iTunes on my Mac everything was synced perfectly. Trying to play the same song from the music app on my iPhone and everything drifts out of sync. Sometimes it’s nearly there, but then drifts and gets worse. Never fully in sync though.

It's out of sync between Homepods and various ATV's. I tried initiating the playback from iPhone, Mac, and Homepod itself- all were off. All software was updated with most recent releases. All Homepods were in sync. ATV's are hooked up via HDMI to TV to Optical to Receiver. Sorta kills the Sonos killer concept. Perhaps Apple should offer a sync control to account for latency or make it actually work between ATV and Homepods.