Hard of hearing, 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.

Lum

There's various methods and bodges that I can think of but it depends a lot on your setup.

Are you using an external digibox such as freeview or sky?
Any external speaker/amp/receiver setup?
Is this a fully integrated TV that you plug nothing into except a TV aerial and a power lead?
What model of TV?
Does it also need to work with a DVD/BluRay player? Games Console? Sky?

naf123

Assuming your flatmate has hearing aids with the T coil - worth installing this

http://www.hear4you.com/product_detail.cfm?id=18

can get it for free from some councils....

Carmen8781

Thanks for the replys guys, much appreciated. The TV is a samsung. and connected to it, is a sky+ box, nothing else.

L0RRY

have a look through the settings on the menu on your tv, you may find separate volume controls for the tv & audio output

Lum

If you can't find the setting L0rry refers to, then one option would be to buy a headphone amplifier and connect it to the audio line-out on the Sky+ box.

Something like this and an appropriate lead should do the trick.

Carmen8781

Thanks guys, will look into that. Sadly there is nothing on the tv for the sound settings. To let me have them both playing sound out

StephenM_2

It depends on the TV. My Panasonic TV has a separate volume control for the headphone socket, but most TVs cut the sound off to the speakers if you plug anything into the headphone socket.

However, I prefer to use one of these.

http://www.connevans.co.uk/store/viewProduct.do?id=2012024

More comfortable in than headphones and more portable than naf123's recommendation. You can plug it into the headphone socket, Scart socket, red and white phono socket (that's my method), or if necessary stick a microphone supplied with it next to the TV speakers - I've used that method in hotels where the other methods didn't work.

Using the red and white phono sockets I can hear the TV when its on mute - great when the mother in law comes round in the middle of a football match.

I'd recommend getting an extra battery, though.

StephenM_2

Note that's the version for hearing aid users. There's a version with a headset for non-hearing aid users.