Under Settings > Playback > Advanced you can change Audio Driver to Experimental for better Airplay2 support. But that driver has some bugs which cause problems if you change channels rapidly.
Just made that change and it does appear to fix the issue with the audio continuing to play for a. Few seconds and the delay in starting to play. I’ll continue to use it and let you know if I see any problems. Thanks for the quick response!
What a lifesaver. Great tip. This was driving me crazy. Working much better with experimental driver.
Just had the app crash. v12.9.1807. Not sure if it’s related to the beta or the experimental audio drivers. Diagnostic from the client submitted.
Update to latest TestFlight
1807 seems to be the latest so far as I see.
Using the experimental driver worked ok at first - except for a crash or two - but since TVOS 14.4 the original behavior has returned.
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I have recently purchased 2 x HomePods (2018 version) to add to one of my Apple TV 4Ks. After an initial woeful setup with audio lags on a number of apps, I ended up doing a full nuke of my setup and reset both Apple TV and HomePods.
Since the full reset, I now no longer have an audio lip sync issues except with the Channels app. Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon etc all are now thankfully in sync. Channels is not.
Any fixes on the horizon to sort this out?
I’ve been advised to try experimental for audio which seems to have worked. I’ve also set it for video but not sure what that will do. 
After a few days of using the experimental driver I find that it seems to get progressively worse as it relates to buffering the audio. I’ve seen the audio continue to play even after have exited the Channels client completely.
So, this is not a workable solution in my eyes to the problem, unfortunately.
I'm seeing a new issue that I can't determine is related or not. I am playing all of my audio through Stereo Homepods and I also hear audio for a few seconds when I leave a program and return to the guide. However, once the audio stops, the app "locks" up for 5 to 10 seconds and I can't move up or down the guide or select another program. The "clicks" are being accepted and will perform the requested function once the app is freed up again. This is a very recent issue.
Not sure if this is your issue or not, but I’ve been having all sorts of trouble with my Apple remote on our main TV - the one with the HomePods. It was lagging behind significantly and would appear to navigate somewhat randomly. Clicking an item was very hit or miss - even for an apple remote.
We don’t watch a lot of TV outside of channels so it took a little bit to fully understand what was happening.
After some time I did come to see that it is only channels that has issues with the remote. Netflix, etc are fine.
Realizing this led me to toggle the audio feedback to off on the apple remote. Doing this has returned the apple remote to its normal lousy functionality in all of the apps.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm having this issue with my Apple remote, my Function 101 remote and even an old Tivo remote I have set up. Not sure if it's related to an update in Channels or the update to TvOS.
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@tmm1, just wondering if any work is being done to improve the client audio with the HomePods. The experimental driver really doesn’t address the out of sync issue and it or the experimental video driver cause the app to crash periodically.
As in the past, I’m happy to test any builds you’d like.
I updated to the latest FW for the 4K this morning - 20210105 - and now w/ the experimental audio driver things seem better. Getting L & R audio out of WTVD and audio stops immediately when exiting a channel.
The biggest issue I am seeing with AC-4 audio and the experimental driver is that the volume is much lower than on non-AC-4 broadcast so it needs to be adjusted when switching channels. This is not an issue for the default driver.
I did some testing yesterday with a stereo pair of HomePods running the latest Channels TestFlight release.
HomePods w/ experimental driver the audio was perfectly in sync. However you pay a penalty in tuning both video and sound. Video took 3-4 seconds to come in, with audio starting at around 7-8 seconds. Switching to my standard surround sound, video tunes in 1-2 seconds with audio only about a second later. In total about a 5 second penalty every time you tune a channel using the HomePods.
Additional note, the experimental driver on the TestFlight did not work well with with my regular surround sound, there was pretty consistent cut outs every couple seconds.
I’m having the same issue on tvOS14.4, HomePod 14.4, and Channels 4.4.1. Has worked perfectly for a year, now back to the old sync issue.
I was not using the experimental driver and my audio with HomePods had been fine. Recently the delay came back after various Apple updates (tvOS, HomePods, etc.). I've just switched to the experimental driver and it seems better, but unfortunately it introduces other drawbacks.
Please try the latest TestFlight build (via getchannels.com/beta). I've made some improvements to the default audio driver for better sync.
Thanks @tmm1 for working on this. I’ll start by saying that you should take my feedback with a grain of salt because I am presently running TVOS 14.5 and also the same on my HomePods so there could be issues because of that.
That said, this beta has definitely improved the audio sync situation. Prior to this beta I was forced to use the native TV speakers and turn off the HomePods completely because sync was off on OTA channels and audio only played for a few seconds on TVE channels before the sound just cut out altogether. Note, that this was only in Channels; Netflix, ATV+, Disney+ etc all worked fine.
With this beta the audio syncs pretty well. It does seem ever so slightly out of sync but a huge improvement over the prior release. I have seen that the audio stutters/chirps every once in a while - almost like it’s resyncing or catching up. And, I’ve also seen the audio cut out once (after playing for 10+ minutes). Exiting and restarting the show corrected this.
As I said at the beginning though I’m on 14.5 so it’s possible that some of what I am reporting is related to that. Either way, this is an improvement. Hopefully, others who are still on 14.4 can give more reliable report on the impact of the changes you made today.
Thanks though still for putting effort into this issue.
I ordered two HomePod minis and will try to reproduce the issues.
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