One of the most underrated features of the new Apple TV 4K is the addition of ARC support. ARC is Audio Return Channel, an audio link meant to an replace the cabling between your TV and your audio speakers.

Why should you care? As is, if you use HomePod to stream audio from your older Apple TV, your other TV inputs will be streamed though your TV speakers, or some other mechanism.

But with ARC, all the audio that goes into your ARC-ready TV gets piped back out through the TV’s audio return channel. With the new Apple TV 4K, you can pipe ARC from your TV to the Apple TV, and then set the output of the Apple TV to HomePod (or whatever speaker systems you output to).

Follow the headline link to Tim Hardwick’s MacRumors article for more detail, but ARC is a revelation. Once you’ve used it, you’ll be glad you have it.