I have a stereo pair of HomePod minis and 1 HomePod gen 1 that I would be interested in using with my Nintendo Switch. I know natively the switch does not utilize airplay, but certain TVs now have airplay. The tv I’m looking at buying is the
TCL 40SF54 which does have airplay.
So if I connect my HomePods via the tv, my HomePods should then be able to transmit the sound from my Nintendo Switch correct?
I looked into this myself a while back, non-TCL, if that matters. I was looking for any way to feed a standard audio soutce to an airplay target.
I understood that eARC -can- work to reverse-feed audio that is input into the TV, and then passthrough this audio to an Apple TV connected to this eARC system (the TV). The AppleTV could then handle this audio source and you could presumably(?) point this audio output to your Homepods.
I started researching the cheapest TVs which supported this function for a non-Video synced solution. I was attempting to find out about any 'gotchas' i would only find after I bought the display. I had all sorts of concerns. Did the display pass audio though in standby? Or was required for the LCD to be 'On'? On a specific input? Was there a process to enable/passthrough audio on the TV persist a power loss? Maybe I can just gut a board from a 'broken' screen, and work around these issues with further Rube Goldberg? Can I even find this display? Much less one on the cheap? Too many unknowns to persue that for me. Wanted to find something repeatable
This functionality could work for you, especially if your TV already supports eARC, and/or you are happy with the way TCL implemented support for passthrough.
The core issue with using airplay2 is latency. going from source -> airplay2 output requires a 2 second buffer to sync and reliably maintain syned playback, and network reliability, it's built into the protocol.
Since i just wanted non-Video synced audio, I didnt care about the buffer. I just wanted a way to go from RCA -> Airplay2.
Attenpting to Using a Nintendo Switch ad an audio source implies (to me) you want to play at the same time, requiring A/V sync. The below probably wont work well.
But! eARC passthrough to an AppleTV May just work since its passthrough to the ATV to process and send to the Homepods. worth a shot, would like to know what you find.
What I ended up using (after many iterations, and attempting different implementations of software and hardware), was:
- Quanta: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quanta-wireless-vinyl/id1600262501
- an iPhone SE 2nd gen (in any working condition, wifi only is fine, broken/blacklisted cellular ok too)
- a specific USB sound card, compatible with iOS. I use a Pro-ject Phono Box USB.
- a USB hub that will allow power injection (or the iphone may not properly enable the sound card)
- a Lightning to USB adapter
- an audio source (I was using a record player so needed phono, cheaper non-phono devices are compatible.
At this point you just need the iPhone connected (or routed) to the same network of the homepods. Quanta detects the audio source and then you choose which Airplay targets to use on the SE within iOS.
Admittedly the initial setup steps to get music started can feel a -little- less than elegant UX than I would ultimately prefer, but it does work reliably. Also, I'm not aware of a better (low-cost) solution to the problem of: native airplay2 multi-room audio from a device/agnostic audio source (RCA).
Its a little... involved. But when my music (even from an obscure source) -just plays- everywhere I can go in my living space, I don't care about any of the complexity!
