TV Speakers & Headphones to work simultaniously

Carmen8781

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could help with a solution to my problem.

I want to plug in wireless headphones into the tv, and the tv speakers to still work.
At the moment, when I plug them in, they cut the sound off on the tv completely. Which is no good to me.
My flat mate is hard of hearing. So when we want to watch tv together, she will be using the headphones, at a volume she can hear, and I want to listen at a normal sound, via the tv speakers.

I was wondering does ayone have this system set up in their home? and if so what do I need, please.. I have googled, and googled, and not found anything.
I have seen something called 'tv ears' that are meant to do this. But on reading reviews it says they do not work on digital tv, only analogue. Which is no good.
Any help much , much appreciated.
Thank you.

InsideInsurance

What source are you using? Sky? Built in freeview from the TV? Multiple sources?

What TV do you have?

You should be able to do it, possibly with just cables but may need to buy a box of tricks

Darksun

Not an ideal solution, but you could get a headphone splitter, plug the transmitter for the wireless headphones into one socket and then get additional speakers and plug those into the other socket

Cash-Strapped.T32

Not quite as "clean" as what you wanted which for most TVs would probably mean modifying the hardware or firmware, but have you considered a simple 3.5mil "Y" splitter cable, coming from the TV's headphone jack, one end connected to headphones, and the other connected to some PC speakers?

Possibly basic ones, but you can get really nice multi-speaker sets that don't cost much & are as good as many expensive TV speaker setups.

Because the PC speakers are separately powered, their volume can be independently controlled meaning it won't blow your ears out.
.

I have never looked into it, but the TV-ears device you found sounds like it has it's own receiver & outputs the audio separately to the "main" TV, like some kind of audio-only tv running next to the main one?

Does digital TV have to be decompressed like digital radios? (where the "lag" can differ form device to device)
If so, then I would not be entirely surprised if the above solution is unworkable, although again I admit this is all just guessing.

*EDIT* Gah cross post, beaten to it

googler

If the TV has audio outputs at line level, independent of the headphone output, then you could take a feed from those to the wireless head amp.

What make/model of TV do you have? Do you have any other audio gear, such as a HiFi, in the same room?

Is all your TV coming from a Digibox, either Freeview or Sky? If so, you can take the audio output from this for the head amp

What can you afford to spend, or want to spend, to improve the situation?

Carmen8781

Thanks for the replys guys, much appreciated. Will def look into this 'Y' splitter cable. The TV is a samsung. with just a sky+ box attatched to it,
Ive been through the sound setting. But it only lets me select 'external speakers' or 'tv speakers'

googler

Carmen8781 wrote: »

Thanks for the replys guys, much appreciated. Will def look into this 'Y' splitter cable. The TV is a samsung. with just a sky+ box attatched to it,
Ive been through the sound setting. But it only lets me select 'external speakers' or 'tv speakers'

If all your TV is coming from the Sky box, then take the audio outputs from the box to the head amp, leave the connections to the TV untouched, and use the TV speakers for your listening

Carmen8781

Thanks googler, could go up to £100 to sort it. When googling something sennheiser headphones, that said they did the job im after, but they was £300.

Edit
Thnaks again googler will give that a try

InsideInsurance

If it is just the Sky box then it is fairly straight forward to deal with. Would need the model number of the TV if you are wanting its built in freeview or also DVD players etc that all go into the TV

Does your house/flat mate have their headphones already or is the £100 including buying the headphones? If they have the hphones then do you have a make & model?

googler

If you don't mind cable across the lounge, all you need is a 5m to 10m twin phono lead coming out of the Sky box, a headphone amplifier to sit next to flatmate's chair, and a pair of standard headphones.

You don't necessarily need wireless headphones (but assume you have them already)

Post the model number of the Sky box and the type of headphones you're using...

Lifeforms

You could look into a wireless microphone, which you can then direct into a headphone set.
I got one years ago (non-wired, half arsed solution;microphone stuck to the speaker, long wire with a 3.5mm socket on the end) for the same problem. Through a Hard of hearing place. Forget who, but looking on RNID:
http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop/products-to-help-hear-tv-and-music/tv-listeners.aspx

Various solutions there. (some dependent on having hearing aids, but some aren't)