Wireless Earbuds - for TV

[SamSpade]

My MIL wants to be able to use earbuds to listen to her TV. Frankly, without Bluetooth on her TV - I have no idea how to do it.
I do have a device in my room that plugs into the external speaker port and goes to an antenna which I presume functions as the wireless to the headphones that accompany the speaker.

But - it's terrible. AND - you can only use it IF you change the speaker output to the external. At that point, the TV speaker is silent. So my poor MIL will have to constantly switch if she goes that route. PLUS - the sound quality is awful, as the link isn't very reliable.

Of course, I looked up videos showing "wow, you can hook your airpods to the TV". Yeah - IF YOUR TV HAS BLUETOOTH.

I don't want to disappoint her, but I sure don't want her to say she has to switch TVs just so you can use earbuds.

 

[Ken King]

Here is something to checkout - https://www.lifewire.com/add-blueto...o TV,though this depends on your ... See More. Of course it might still require unplugging the adapter to resume use of the internal TV speaker.

 

[SamSpade]

There was something on that page I'd forgotten about, and I am thinking it could be a solution - possibly. And that is that Roku has remotes with a plug in for earbuds. I have one, but my MIL has a Roku TV, so I'm trying to figure if I can do it with a different TV remote. I used to use it, but I would keep forgetting to remove the earbuds, and I would drain the remote batteries. I might be able to replace her existing Roku remote with one of those, and that would solve the earbud idea.

I think she simply saw a commercial where someone used an earbud to watch TV, and didn't realize that without Bluetooth on the TV, it's not going to connect.

I did try the Bluetooth transmitter idea once - for myself - and as the article reminds me, the sound quality can be less but I also noticed latency - as much as a half second to a whole second delay from what I see on screen, and in a lot of TV, that's awful, especially in fast paced scenes. The solution to THAT is a Roku Bluetooth Soundbar, but that is a lot of money for a sound system, when all you want is remote listening.

THANKS for the link - it gave me an idea I hadn't thought of until now.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

My MIL wants to be able to use earbuds to listen to her TV. Frankly, without Bluetooth on her TV - I have no idea how to do it.
I do have a device in my room that plugs into the external speaker port and goes to an antenna which I presume functions as the wireless to the headphones that accompany the speaker.

But - it's terrible. AND - you can only use it IF you change the speaker output to the external. At that point, the TV speaker is silent. So my poor MIL will have to constantly switch if she goes that route. PLUS - the sound quality is awful, as the link isn't very reliable.

Of course, I looked up videos showing "wow, you can hook your airpods to the TV". Yeah - IF YOUR TV HAS BLUETOOTH.

I don't want to disappoint her, but I sure don't want her to say she has to switch TVs just so you can use earbuds.

Get her a nice set of headphones with a long connection cord and plug it into the speaker-out port of the TV. This way you also don't have to worry about the constant charging of the ear buds. Problem solved.

Here's an example: Avantree HF049 16ft / 5M Extra Long Cord Over Ear Headphones Wired for TV

 

[SamSpade]

To all who wrote - thanks for the ideas. I went with the newer Roku remote with earbuds that attach to the remote. Good enough that I got one for myself as well. Sound quality is fine, and I didn't notice any latency. Plus, because it's Roku and not some other manufacturer, the TV sound goes out the moment the headphones/earbuds connect to the remote -it's obviously made to go with their product.

DOWNSIDE is - it has a rechargeable battery that you cannot remove. So like charging wireless earbuds - you must charge the remote. From experience with a regular Roku, you need to unplug the headphones when you're done, or the battery will drain quickly (IF you're like my wife who never turns off the TV but merely mutes it).

Anyway - thanks for the ideas. Really helped, and MIL likes it very much.