Forum Discussion

SaintMombo's avatar
SaintMombo
Newbie
9 months ago

Is there any way to have audio from TV and headphones at same time?

Greetings all, I just bought a TCL/Roku TV for my elderly mother. She is also getting rather hard of hearing. What she'd like is to be able to listen through her Sennheiser wireless headphones witho...
renojim's avatar
renojim
Community Streaming Expert
9 months ago

You need a device that connects to the TV that supports Bluetooth headphones (I assume the Sennheiser headphones are Bluetooth).  They make Bluetooth transmitters that connect to the optical audio output.  A quick search of Amazon for "bluetooth transmitter for tv optical audio" shows several.

  • lakensea's avatar
    lakensea
    Streaming Star
    9 months ago
    Using the optical output alone will not work because when you select the optical output, it disables the TV's internal speakers. The only way is to use a wired sound bar. I have done this by using an optical splitter between the TV and the sound bar and also connecting the sound bar to an HDMI port (not the eARC port). The only bug with doing it this way is when powering up the TV, you get a pop-up stating the connect the sound bar to eARC port. I believe a solution to that is to use an eARC splitter instead of the optical splitter. I have one on order to try and will gladly report back with the results.
    • renojim's avatar
      renojim
      Community Streaming Expert
      9 months ago

      lakensea, not on my TCL TV.  The optical output and the TV speakers are independent of each other.  I can disable the TV speakers, but as far as I can tell the optical output is always active,

      • lakensea's avatar
        lakensea
        Streaming Star
        9 months ago

        I stand corrected - thank you!

         

        The actual Roku TV's do not have that luxury.  I also have a small Westinghouse/Roku TV - I'll have to investigate the optical output on that one.