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I run into the same issues. I wear hearing aids, and I use a tv streamer which wirelessly conncects my hearing aids to the tv. Essentially they become headphones.
My home theater receiver doesn't have an audio out I can use for my streamer, so I can't watch tv in the living room if someone else wants to hear sound too.
"Oh. Um, l-- look, i-- i-- if we built this large wooden badger" ~ Sir Bedevere
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We have one TV and it is downstairs. We’re asleep five minutes after our heads hit pillows.
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Location: Ra-cha-cha, NY
On our Panasonic, the TOSLINK output is independent of the volume setting. I run the audio through a HT setup (but not the picture). I just turn the audio on the TV all the way down to zero and use the HT receiver, which can decode the 5.1 or 7.2.
In your case, you could use one of these to convert to analog.
https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Amanka-...1769&psc=1
Tom
“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
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I just bought a set of Sharper Image own zone headphones that may work for you.It has many different types of hook ups and I can hook up to the cable box and mute the tv
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I listen to TVs almost exclusively with headphones as otherwise I am playing the TV way too loud.
I have a headset that plugs directly into the TV. The volume is controlled by the TV remote. It blanks out the TV's regular speaker. It is an old Beats headphone and the sound is very good (but not as good as my Bang & Olafsen headphones).
I also have a Sennheiser
wireless headset:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TOT...UTF8&psc=1
It plugs into the cable box. The volume is controlled by buttons on the headphone and the TV's speakers can play as well as the headphones.
The linked headphones are "open", that is they allow you to hear outside sounds. If you are planning on having the TV's speakers play as well as using the headphones, then you want to look for their "closed" system so you don't get both sounds at the same time.
The Sennheisser is by far the best I've used. I've had TV ears. The headband, made of plastic, ages and cracks. And the earplugs have to be replaced regularly--and ongoing expense. Long term, the Sennheisser will prove to be more economical. They can get warm in the warm weather--a consideration. But, when it came time to buy headphones for my second TV I bought Sennheissers too.
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Location: Western NY
I cannot hear the TV, or at least I cannot understand a thing coming through the TV speakers. I purchased a ZVOX sound bar (
https://zvox.com/ [I have no affiliation]) which uses hearing aid technology. The "Accuvoice" can be turned on or off, but in my case I always use it.
I just checked, and my TV also does not have an analog audio out, so whatever speaker I added did have to be digital.
I tried not believing. That did not work, so now I just believe
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(03-15-2019, 07:45 AM)Wild Turkey Wrote: Follow up to "Home Theater" thread
We bought a new flat screen TV for the bedroom, nothing huge but better than what had just died.
LOML loves everything about it. What I don't like is some of the programs she loves -- especially the dramas at bedtime -- so we thought we could get a set of wireless headphones so she could listen and I could ignore.
OOPS.
New TV came with ONLY digital audio output, nothing for the old analog sounds systems. AND it won't mute sound when you plug in the "audio out" plug, meaning even if we found a set of headphones it wouldn't stop the sound.
We are getting ready to build a new house and when we go shopping for a BIG TV I will carefully check the audio outputs because I have a pair of speakers I built that have incredible sound (parts ran over $900!) that I want to use.
So if you're going shopping for a new TV make sure you understand what the set has in audio outputs and the difference between digital and analog outputs.
(Analog uses the old RCA or stereo {1/8" or 1/4"} plugs, digital uses the "Optical" fiber optic cables)
HTH
Both of mine that I use Sony wireless headphones with (older Sharp and newer Vizio) will send sound to the headphones with the TV volume set to mute.
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Many TVs have bluetooth audio. You can connect any bluetooth headset to them and many sound bars are now bluetooth as well.
For your new big tv you will need a newer amplifier or a bluetooth or fiber to analog converter. Those will give you better sound than analog outputs but a new reciever is the best way to go.
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I recently went through this as well. I ordered a converter much like the one someone else linked to on Amazon. At first I didn't think it had worked because when I plugged it into the tv it didn't mute the tv speaker as I was used to with a set of headphones doing. I was about to send the converter back when I figured out that you have to go into the tv sound settings and set it to external speaker in order to use the optical output. There might have even been an option to select where both the tv and headset play sound. When using the optical output the volume and mute buttons no longer do anything on the tv, it's all controlled by your headset.
