HomePods as a sound bar

TidBITS Talk
21

I was intending to do this as well, but I heard something that made me pause … can anyone confirm or deny that to use the HomePod or HomePod mini, that you need to have two factor authorisation enabled? I don’t use it (long story, lol) but I’d like to buy a pair of HomePod minis if they wil work without it.

22

I have 2FA enabled for my iCloud account but it wasn’t needed to set up the HomePod minis. Just a sign into my iCloud account on screen.

23

thanks for the feedback :slightly_smiling_face:

That would seem to be suggestive, without actually being conclusive though (considering you did have it enabled when you were setting up the HomePod).

24

Can these work as wired units? We have a 2015-ish Vizio and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have bluetooth although it does have wifi.

Thanks
Diane

25

Hi. No unfortunately not.

26

Too bad, but not surprising sadly!

Has anyone tried them on an older TV? I suppose I can do the buy/return thing but would rather not.

Thanks
Diane

27

Finally sitting down to research this. My TV has wifi but not bluetooth. Can the HomePods work in this case or is it only BT?

And you really need to use an iPhone or iPad to set them up initially?

Thanks
Diane

28

Do you have an Apple TV? I use an Apple TV to send audio to the HomePods via AirPlay. I don’t think you can directly connect them to your TV. (I may be wrong.)

29

No Apple TV. Just a Vizio that’s a few years old.

Diane

30

I’ve been using a single full-size HomePod as a speaker for my Apple TV, since my projector audio is terrible. It works shockingly well! But of course, the problem is it only accepts AirPlay input. There’s an HDMI Arc trick the newer Apple TVs can take advantage of to output all audio through the Apple TV, but my projector doesn’t support that.

31

I’m using the HDMI/ARC set up and it works both on terrestrial TV and via Apple TV on my mini HomePods - however I never watch live TV now but use BBC iplayer to catch up any programmes I want to watch.

32

I’ve put my Soundcore Flares near the TV now and when I HDMI a show from my laptop, I can connect to them via bluetooth on the computer. The TV doesn’t have BT outputs unfortunately. That works great but it means stealing the Soundcores from my office, and it only works when watching a show through the laptop. I suppose I could treat myself to HomePods for my office but I don’t expect the Soundcores to last forever and then I’ll be in the same boat.

Diane

33

Josh I am also listening to a single full size home pod and am extremely happy. Could you please expand on the HDMI ARC setup as I am seriously thinking of buying a new Apple TV.

John

34

My setup is a Casio projector (now discontinued - see separate discussion :slightly_frowning_face:), Apple TV 4K and twin (stereo ) Original Homepods. Works great.

I do watch live (Australian) TV via an HDHomerun TV tuner for my home network and its Apple TV app. There are also apps for iOS devices and Macs (eg watching live TV on an iPad). Not sure if the HDHomerun hardware supports US TV.

I also have the small regular TV connected to the Apple TV via an HMDI splitter and can watch either or both TV and projector.

In fact I haven’t used a “real” TV for live TV since I started using a Mac and EyeTV tuner many years ago (in the days of Front Row and remotes for Macs).

35

I do have an HDHomeRun sitting on my desk and it can be called up from anything in my house Including a Smart TV) that has a screen and is network connected. It also feeds into the Plex server (got a lifetime subscription for under $100 years ago) running on my desktop computer.