Up until the latest OS version updates on HomePod & Apple TV, one bugbear of mine seemed to have been fixed. That was needing to reselect the HomePod as the audio output instead of the TV speakers every time I woke the Apple TV from standby. Also the HomePod would occasionally vanish from availability & the thing would revert to the lesser TV speakers.
Now with both running variants of tvOS 14.1 it’s even worse.
I’ve been binge watching a few series of YouTube episodes & when I move from one video to another, the bastard thing drops the HomePod selection in favour of the rotted TV audio. It’s quite intermittent & unlike when watching catch-up TV, there’s no simple swipe on the remote to access audio/video settings without leaving the view &getting into the settings app menu.