HomePod Delay on AirPlay

[u/turkogluemre]

Hello, I bought 2 HomePod minis to use as a stereo pair. They’re great for playing music, but when I try to watch a movie from my Mac and route the audio to the HomePods through the Control Center, there’s a significant delay. However, when I try watching using the Infuse app and route the audio through the AirPlay icon, the delay is minimal and not an issue.

So what’s the logic here? Isn’t it using AirPlay in both cases anyway?

I know they’re not designed for gaming, but I also want to route the sound of the games I play to them, yet the delay makes it impossible. How do some apps manage to support this without the delay?

[u/Struggle_Accurate]

AirPlay needs to buffer the audio for a few seconds. When you play a video, you will see that it takes a couple of seconds from the time you hit play until it plays. This is because the OS is smart and knows how to synchronize the playback with the buffering delay.

However, with game audio this cannot be done, hence you hear the audio with lag (a couple of seconds of buffering).

So, short answer, HomePods are not suitable for real time sound (video games, music editing...).

[u/turkogluemre → u/Struggle_Accurate]

So technically player syncs it by delaying video/frame. It makes sense, good explanation thanks!