How-to
How to split AirPlay video and audio: step by step
The three routes that actually separate the picture from the sound — an Apple TV, an HDMI audio splitter, or an Xbox running Xaar — and the exact steps for each.
Quick answer
Plain AirPlay cannot split a mirroring stream: video and audio travel together to one destination, and choosing a second AirPlay target for the sound stops the picture. The split happens on the receiving end instead. An Apple TV 4K does it natively through Settings → Video and Audio → Audio Output, an HDMI audio extractor pulls the sound out of the cable on its way to the TV, and an Xbox running Xbox Advanced AirPlay Receiver (Xaar) shows the mirrored video on the TV while sending the audio to your AirPlay 2 speaker in perfect lip sync.
Can you split AirPlay video and audio?
Not from the sending device. When you mirror an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, AirPlay packs the picture and its sound into one stream and delivers it to one receiver. There is no second field in the Screen Mirroring sheet for a speaker: choose a speaker in the audio picker while a mirror is running and the mirror ends, leaving only the audio. An AirPlay 2 TV cannot rescue this either, because a TV does not, in general, re-route its own sound to AirPlay speakers.
The split therefore happens after the stream has arrived, on the receiving box. Three boxes can do that: an Apple TV 4K, with a built-in audio output setting; any HDMI source followed by an audio extractor, which separates the two signals physically in the cable; and an Xbox running Xaar, which receives the mirror and sends its audio onward over AirPlay 2 by itself.
The three routes compared
| Route | What you need | What it costs | How sync is handled | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple TV 4K | An Apple TV 4K and a HomePod or AirPlay 2 speaker | The price of an Apple TV 4K | By tvOS, with a Wireless Audio Sync calibration in Settings | Everything the Apple TV plays, including mirroring it receives |
| HDMI audio extractor | Any AirPlay receiver with an HDMI output, the extractor, and a wired speaker or amplifier | Roughly $15 to $40 for the box | Nothing built in; the sound lands before the picture until you add a delay | Whatever the box in front of it outputs over HDMI |
| Xbox running Xaar | An Xbox One or Series X|S, any TV, and an AirPlay 2 speaker such as Sonos or HomePod | A one-time purchase on the Microsoft Store | Lipsync delay switch plus a 1 ms trim, remembered per device | Whatever is on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac screen: videos, browser content, photos, presentations, apps |
Route 1: Apple TV 4K and its Audio Output setting
If the box under your TV is an Apple TV 4K, the split is a menu item. Open Settings → Video and Audio → Audio Output and pick a HomePod, a stereo pair, or any AirPlay 2 speaker on your network. From then on every sound the Apple TV produces goes to that speaker, while the picture stays on the TV over HDMI.
That includes AirPlay the Apple TV receives: mirror your iPhone or Mac to it and the mirror's audio follows the same setting. tvOS keeps picture and sound together, and Wireless Audio Sync in the same menu calibrates the offset with an iPhone if a speaker needs it. Xaar exists for the households whose box under the TV is an Xbox instead.
Route 2: an HDMI audio extractor between the receiver and the TV
An HDMI audio extractor is a small powered box with an HDMI input, an HDMI output, and an audio output: optical, coaxial, or a 3.5 mm or RCA analog pair. It sits between your AirPlay receiver and the TV, passes the picture through untouched, and pulls a copy of the sound out of the HDMI signal for a soundbar, an amplifier, or a speaker with a line-in.
Two things to know before you buy. It is not an HDMI splitter, which duplicates the whole signal to two screens and separates nothing. And the audio leaves as a wire, not as AirPlay, so an AirPlay-only speaker cannot be the target.
The setup is short: receiver into the extractor, extractor into the TV, audio output into your speaker, TV speakers muted. Then the catch appears. The TV spends tens of milliseconds processing each frame while the extracted audio reaches the speaker almost instantly, so the sound arrives before the picture. Some extractors carry an audio delay switch for exactly this; otherwise the TV's game or low-latency picture mode shrinks the gap. Neither adjustment is exact.
Route 3: an Xbox running Xaar, step by step
Full disclosure: Xaar is our app. It turns an Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S into an AirPlay receiver with full support for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, shows the mirrored video on the TV, and sends the audio to your AirPlay 2 speaker. It works with Sonos and HomePod, and the TV needs no smart features, since it only shows HDMI from the console.
- 01
Install Xaar from the Microsoft Store Open the Microsoft Store on the Xbox, search for Xbox Advanced AirPlay Receiver, and install it. One-time purchase: no subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads, no accounts.
- 02
Launch it While Xaar is on screen, the console announces itself on your local network as an AirPlay receiver. Keep the sender, the Xbox, and the speaker on the same network; Ethernet behind the same router is fine.
- 03
Mirror from Control Center On an iPhone or iPad, open Control Center → Screen Mirroring; on a Mac, click Screen Mirroring in the menu bar's Control Center. Pick the Xbox. Your screen appears on the TV with its sound.
- 04
Pick the speaker in Xaar's menu Press Y to open the menu and choose your Sonos or HomePod from the output list. Discovery is automatic, with no PIN or pairing step. The audio now plays on the speaker while the video stays on the TV.
- 05
Switch on the lipsync delay Turn on the lipsync delay row in the same menu. Xaar holds each video frame back by the speaker's audio delay, so lips match words.
- 06
Dial the trim If your TV or speaker adds a fixed lag of its own, adjust the lipsync trim: −500 to +500 ms, 1 ms per press, 10 ms when held. Xaar remembers it separately for each output device, so you set it once.
How to change where screen mirroring audio plays
The sending device never offers this choice while a mirror is running; the receiver does.
- Apple TV 4K: Settings → Video and Audio → Audio Output. Pick a speaker, or TV Speakers to move the sound back.
- Xbox running Xaar: press Y and click the TV or the speaker in the output list. One click, mid-session, and Xaar reconnects to the last speaker at the next launch.
- HDMI audio extractor: the routing is physical. The sound goes wherever the audio cable goes.
- AirPlay 2 TV: in general there is no setting. The sound plays on the TV or on whatever the TV is wired to over HDMI ARC or optical.
Why the sound and the picture need lining up afterwards
Any split creates two paths of different length. Over AirPlay 2 a speaker buffers audio before playing it, and Sonos owners see the effect as sound running roughly two seconds behind a video that plays elsewhere. Through an extractor the mismatch runs the other way.
Xaar treats this as the core of the job. The speaker leg is a real AirPlay 2 sender, and AirPlay 2 schedules playback at exact timestamps with a declared latency, so the delay is known, not guessed. The audio buffer row exposes the speaker's total delay, 250 to 2000 ms in 50 ms steps, and the lipsync trim covers the last fixed milliseconds of your specific TV and speaker. Dial it in to the millisecond once and it stays there.
Explainer
Sonos AirPlay delay: why it happens and how to fix it
The mechanism behind the two-second offset, why player-side offsets drift, and how one receiver closes the gap.
What Xaar adds beyond the split
- Full playback control from the Xbox controller: X plays and pauses, the left bumper skips back, the right bumper skips forward. The commands go straight to the player on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
- The speaker's own controls reach the player too: press pause on the Sonos or the HomePod and the video on the TV pauses.
- One volume, every knob: change it in Xaar's menu, with the Mac's volume keys, or on the speaker itself, and every control stays in sync, including the Mac's own volume slider, which Xaar shows on the TV.
- Lip-sync trim to the millisecond, remembered separately for each output device.
- Hardware video decoding on the console, H.264 up to 1080p at 60 fps, with frames shown on the sender's own timeline.
- One-click switching between the TV and the speaker, mid-session; Xaar remembers your speaker and reconnects to it at launch.
- Speakers are optional: with none chosen, the audio plays on the TV with the picture.
- Everything stays on your local network: no accounts, no analytics, no cloud, no ads, one-time purchase.
Keep reading
Explainer
Can AirPlay send video and audio to different places?
The yes/no explainer behind this page: what AirPlay does with a mirror and which receivers can route the sound elsewhere.
How-to
How to AirPlay to an Xbox
The base procedure for Xbox One and Series X|S, plus the fixes when the console does not show up.
FAQ
How do I split AirPlay audio and video?
Do it on the receiving end, not on the iPhone or Mac: plain AirPlay sends the picture and the sound together to one destination. On an Apple TV 4K, open Settings → Video and Audio → Audio Output and pick a speaker. On an Xbox running Xaar, mirror to the Xbox from Control Center, choose your AirPlay 2 speaker in Xaar's menu, and switch on the lipsync delay so the picture waits for the sound. An HDMI audio extractor is the wired alternative for a soundbar or amplifier.
Is there an AirPlay splitter that separates sound from picture?
Not as an AirPlay accessory: no box takes one AirPlay stream and hands the audio to a second AirPlay speaker. The closest hardware is an HDMI audio extractor placed after any AirPlay receiver, which pulls the sound out of the HDMI cable onto an optical or analog output; a plain HDMI splitter only duplicates the whole signal to two screens. The software version of the splitter is an Xbox running Xaar, which receives the mirror and sends its audio on to an AirPlay 2 speaker itself.
Does an HDMI audio extractor work for AirPlay mirroring?
Yes, as long as your AirPlay receiver has an HDMI output, because the extractor never sees AirPlay at all; it only sees the HDMI signal leaving the receiver. It gives you a wired audio feed for a soundbar, amplifier, or speaker with a line-in, not an AirPlay connection to a wireless speaker. Expect the sound to land slightly before the picture, since the TV processes frames more slowly than the wire delivers audio, and correct it with a delay setting on the extractor or the TV's low-latency mode.
How do I change where screen mirroring audio plays?
The sending device offers no such choice while a mirror is running, so change it on the receiver. On an Apple TV 4K it is Settings → Video and Audio → Audio Output. On an Xbox running Xaar, press Y to open the menu and click the TV or a speaker in the output list; the switch takes effect mid-session and Xaar remembers the speaker for next time. An AirPlay 2 TV generally cannot move the sound of a mirror to network speakers.
How do I fix the sound arriving before the picture after splitting them?
Delay the sound or delay the picture until they meet. With an HDMI extractor, use the audio delay switch on the extractor if it has one, and put the TV in its game or low-latency mode to shorten the picture's path. With an AirPlay 2 speaker the gap usually runs the other way, sound after picture, and an Xbox running Xaar closes it for you: switch on the lipsync delay and Xaar holds the video back by the speaker's known audio delay, with a trim of 1 ms per press to settle the last few milliseconds for your specific TV and speaker.