Great to see progress on this!
Fyi, the audio driver causes crashes often when selecting a channel to watch.
client logs submitted.
thanks.
Crashes should be fixed in latest build.
2 Likes
Thanks Aman!
FYI, the fix introduced a 1 - 3 audio delay. I am using stereo pair new gen homepods.
diagnostics supmitted.
thanks.
@tmm1 the new build fix the delay but I got a few crashes trying to tune to a virtual channel but other channel worked.
diagnostics submitted.
thanks.
1 Like
Cool. We will work on crashes, and stability will improve over time for newly written code.
Is the experience better on homepods compared to the other drivers? I have not been able to try it myself. The code was written based on advice from SiliconDust.
1 Like
The long-standing annoyance with the experimental driver is that VoiceOver would say the current programme playing and ‘jump forwards / jump backwards’ every single time I pressed the left or right buttons on Apple TV remote controller to go backwards or forwards. More recently VoiceOver says repeatedly ‘minimise video’ after seeking stops which is very annoying. This Lab audio driver does not fix that; however, every time I press the buttons on the Apple TV remote controller it takes one to two seconds for the audio to seek. The Lab audio driver fails to seek instantly even after the update with synchronisation adjustment.. Moreover, with regards to the Lab driver, it refuses to play audio after a different track is selected. The annoying aspect of Channels for Apple TV [is the culprit Channels or HDHomeRun?] is the Descriptive Video Service track is selected on a couple of channels by default and I must select the primary audio track. After I do this no audio plays when the Lab audio driver is used. After selection of the primary audio track audio fails to play unless I seek backwards or try to seek forwards when the Experimental driver is used. For me the Descriptive Video Service track is nice in theory; however, the television channels almost never have an actual descriptive track and all audio is always panned to the left channel only. That audio track never plays on both channels but I believe that is fault of the networks.
In essence, seeking takes two seconds still, audio fails to play when the primary audio track is selected [which shall be default regardless of audio driver used], and VoiceOver continues to speak every time seek occurs.
1 Like
Experience is much improved. audio starts when the channel is launched, albeit there is a delay in the picture and audio but it syncs in a second.
trick play also shows the still and audio delay but recovers.
invoking PIP produces no audio and there is no audio when making pip full screen. trick play doesn't bring the audio back either, only way is to close and reopen the stream.
sent a couple of diagnostics if it helps.
thanks.
Same. Audio and video are out of sync.
Will try this out for you tonight. 
Got a stereo pair of OG HomePods as my speaker system.
Edit:
Seems to just use the default audio driver when ‘Lab’ is selected (according to the stats). And the behaviour seems to be the same as the Default driver for me too.
Latest tvOS app and pre-release server.
Wait, WHAT? 
After years of dealing with Channels and the OG HomePods drama I final gave up on the HomePods and bought a new soundbar and now I find out LAB is in development. I guess the HomePods are getting put back on the entertainment center 
1 Like
Too funny as I also just ordered a sound bar to replace my HomePod stereo pair for Channels and now I also see the new lab driver. Oh well, at least we’ll have options going forward…
1 Like
I’ve noticed with AirPods Pro, every audio source is now Stereo. Is that on purpose due to the HomePods? I submitted diagnostics just in case.
Apple has many audio APIs. Each of them work differently with different external devices. None of them does everything everyone wants at the same time. We've found another one and are trying it out to see if the trade-offs work better for some subset of users.
Just like we say that having your DVR connected via WiFi will give you a less reliable experience (because wireless is prone to interference, etc), having your audio connected via WiFi will give you a less reliable experience for the same reason.
We're stuck with APIs we have limited control over and a wireless speaker we have no insight into how they work, so there will always be limits of what we can do, but this is another attempt to see if it gives people better results than the APIs we've used so far.
Thank you Eric for doing all that you can with the little you’ve been given. Personally, I’ve found it to be more trouble than it’s worth using HomePods as a TV speaker and finaly bit the bullet and purchased some Sonos gear. I hope for everyone’s sake you are able to find a workable solution. 
2 Likes
Done a little more testing with the new driver (I’m assuming it’s actually being used - just displaying default?)
So far the experimental audio driver has been a lot better for me, here are my experiences with both with live TV.
Experimental:
- silent start up, need to skip forward 10s for sound to play
- drops about 1fps for half a minute before settling down and only dropping 1 every now and then
- silent when in pip and coming out of pip, skip 10s forward for sound to play again
Lab:
- sound plays straight away
- drops about 5-10fps, never settles
- silent coming in pip and coming out of pip, can’t get sound to start playing again.
- refused to open ABC or SBS (both Aus) - possibly to do the channel having ‘descriptive video service’ as an audio track?
Let me know if you need any additional info or anything else tried out 
@tmm1 looks like another bug. the player crashed on the lab driver when playing what looks like high end audio.
diagnostics submitted.
thanks.
Hi there. I’m an Apple TV + HomePods user, and I’ve also been struggling since the tvOS 17 update. I’ve updated my Channels app to the beta a few days ago and switched over to the Lab audio driver. Generally, it definitely seems to be an improvement. Audio does still occasionally cut out (or the channel will simply go black), but not nearly as frequently. With that said, some channels are worse than others. For me, Food Network is the worst offender and is sometimes almost unwatchable, even with the Lab audio driver. I have no idea why that channel, in particular, is so bad! I feel like I notice the issue frequently occurs during commercials, but perhaps that’s just a coincidence. Either way, it’s definitely been annoying, but I really appreciate all of the work on your part to support us Apple TV + HomePod users. I’m sure it’s been frustrating on your end, as well. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help!
Devices: Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen, HomePod 1st Gen, HDHomeRun PRIME.
Agree. I have similar issues with a few channels that go to commercial and screw up the audio. Been reporting for years.
Updates:
Ignore my frame drop reports - was caused by my Apple TV being set to 4K Dolby Vision.
Will test the Lab driver properly soon and report back.
1 Like