I wonder if there’s some kind of on/off device you can put in series with your optical cable to avoid plugging/unplugging it each time you switch to the composite connection or not. You would think that since the optical signal is just a light beam, a simple on/off switch to block or unblock this light beam can be easily/cheaply made and sold. Although I don’t know how common it is for people to need plugging/unplugging optical cables like that on a regular basis.
That’s not a bad idea. I will see how it goes. It’s not the end of the world. I also need to investigate my tv instruction guide as the headphones out volume does not affect the volume of the optical out connection. Maybe it can’t be adjusted. But I have the TV manual somewhere so I will investigate
Usually based on my experience, optical output is at a fixed level. However, some TV may have an option to make it adjustable. Another option is just to use the composite output from your TV instead of the optical, if the composite output is adjustable. Then use an A/B composite line switcher between your TV and laptop to the TV Adapter.
While you’re supposed to get higher audio quality from the optical line than the composite line, for hearing impaired folks like us, we may not be able to discern a difference between them anyway.
That’s the reason I went with Optical - better sound quality. Whether we can hear it is another thing though lol.
I am not that fussed. I can just increase the volume of the hearing aids if it comes to that. But I will look at the tv manual and see. But I suspect you are right - it’s a fixed level as presumably it is meant to output to an AV Receiver which would then handle the volume
I have been thinking about getting an av receiver that I can use midnight mode because even my sister who has very good hearing complains that too many dvd’s have the sound effects too loud and the volume of dialogue a lot lower. DVD’s are designed as if people live in Cinemas.
I think your issues may be resolved by changing the settings within your TV set. Look at your TV manual or find it online, and set the parameters step by step, especially the input and output. You will have to make the settings for EACH input (source) for example Computer - Cable Box - Apple TV, etc. if you use these.
Set the output to TV speakers. The Optical Cable will be plugged into the Oticon TV Adapter. When you switch to the TV Adapter Program either by ON App or press on Hearing Aids, you should hear the TV sound streamed to your hearing aids, and the sound will also be transmitted to the TV speakers. The TV speaker volume will be adjusted by the TV remote control and will not affect your TV Adapter volume and vice versa. The volume control is independent.
No need to unplug Optical Cable or use AB Switch.
If you plug TV Adapter into the headphone jack, only the TV Adapter will receive the sound. If you want to do this, you will need to get a splitter and plug in a speaker - like a Beats - for others to be able to hear the TV. Volume control is not completely independent.
The key is telling the TV what you want to accomplish on each and every input. For me, I want to output by optical Cable to TV Adapter and also sound out to speakers for others. When I watch alone, I mute the TV speakers sound (TV remote) and Mute the HA mics so only the streamed sound is heard in my ears.
This is how it works for my TV’s. You need to get the sound working on both the TV and the TV Adapter at the same time, then you will be able to adjust the streamed sound quality with your Audi.
The mic volume on mine is set to 64% on both for P1. On P2 with speech rescue, it is 64% for my left and 70% for my right. The latter also applies to the music program.
My Audiologist said it was an indication of reserve gain, so I have less reserve gain in my right ear due to a bent ear canal.
Surely it should apply to P1 too or perhaps it is because I have speech rescue applied to P2? And the music program, not sure why it also has the mic volume at 64%/70%, maybe due to how it processes and pushes the sound for me?
My right hearing is worse than my left so I only have 7.5 dB reserve gain on my right and 10 dB reserve gain on my left. You can see it on the screen shot below (on the upper right and upper left corners). BUT, my default volume is 64% on both left and right side in ALL 4 of my programs. So what happens is that as I increase the volume, both my left and right volume would increase in concert with each other, but I can only go up 3 more notches before my right OPN stops increasing (because its reserve gain has been exhausted). Meanwhile, I can go up another notch on my left OPN before it’s maxed out. It’s very obvious to see this via the ON app on the iPhone.
NOW, if from this point of max volume where both the right side and left side volume are now skewed by 1 notch, I decrease the volume on both side, their volume level will continue to be skewed by 1 notch all the way back to default, and continues to be skewed if I continue to decrease the volume down all the way to 0.
The only way to undo the volume skew once it gets skewed is to switch to another program, then the volume gets reset to the default 64% in the new program, and they move in concert again with the same volume level, until/unless I go all the way to maximum again and cause them to be skewed again.
I don’t think that the use of Speech Rescue is causing a reserve gain difference like what your audi said. From what I can tell, I didin’t have a reserve gain difference until I started running the feedback analyzer. As you can see on my screen shot below, the feedback analyzer causes the margin between the amplification and the gain suppression for feedback removal to shrink considerable on my right OPN, while there’s still plenty of margin left on my left OPN. From what I can tell, THAT’s what creating a reserve gain difference in my case.
Also, I have this reserve gain difference for all my 4 programs, despite the P4 being the Music program and therefore does not have Speech Rescue turned on. I can toggle Speech Rescue on and off in any of my 4 programs in Genie 2 on the fly and I don’t see the reserve gain change at all.
He ran the feedback program the first fitting. He did however a couple of days ago lower the loud/ moderate/ soft section in the 1 - 1.5 frequencies as it was a little over amplified in that area after doing the REM test. He tried bringing it down 3 notches down but it was a little too much, so brought it up 2 notches and it is good now. After he did this, the mic volumes went down to 64% both sides from 70%. Except on P2 and the music program where it went down to 64% on my left and remained at 70% on my right. P3 is a custom made car program.
So maybe that influences the mic volume as well? And depends on how the sound can quickly reach your ears? So for my right, it takes longer than my left due to my weird bent ear canal. So I’m thinking that’s why the mic volume is higher for my right than my left.
Otherwise I’m a bit confused as to why the mic volume differs in P2 and the music program compared to the general program? I would expect it to be 64% on both L and R in all programs. 
I’m not sure if you can help me, Volusiano, but it seems worth a try, even though I’m replying to a very old thread. I have the new Philips Hearlink 9030s, with a TV adapter that appears identical to the Oticon TV Adapter 3 (not surprising, since both are Demant companies). If they’re not identical they seem to function very similarly. My problem with the Philips transmitter is that the default volume is much too loud and zaps my ears each time the TVA program comes on or is resumed from streaming pause. I have complained to Philips and to my Costco HAS, but so far they seem unable to offer a solution. The HAS was told by Philips to lower some setting in his fittings, but only had a couple of presets to choose from, and so far the difference is negligible. Why should it be so hard after all this time with problematic TVAs for Oticon and now Philips to lower the default volume so this situation can be avoided? Adjusting the app slider on my iPhone or the buttons on the HAs provides a temporary fix but the problem returns and blasts my eardrums over and over again.
I never used the Philips TV adapter or poked around that part of the fitting software, however, I assume it’s similar to the Oticon Genie2 software and there certainly should be a setting in the accessory section of the Philips HearSuite software to lower the TVA volume even more. I couldn’t imagine there being no way to adjust the volume from the software so it doesn’t kill your ears. Your fitter probably needs to set it down lower than he or she did already.
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@piques46 I don’t have the Philips Hearlink 9030 but I did download its HearSuite software to verify some features before.
Below is the screenshot for the TV Adapter in the Philips HearSuite software. The first row -> TV Adapter level -> 0dB should be moved to the left to either -3 dB or -9 dB to in order to lower the volume coming out of the TV Adapter. You can also adjust the other ones to your liking as well.
Although this HearSuite page looks different than the Genie 2 page, the controls are basically really identical.
If your audi already had it to -9 dB and it still sounds too loud for you, then the next question is whether the audio level at the input to the TV Adapter from your TV or audio receiver is coming in too hot. You didn’t say whether you have Toslink or RCA level input from the TV into the TV Adapter. Usually these levels are “nominally fixed” but it’s not always so necessarily, depending on how the TV or the audio receiver is configured. Sometimes they can be varied and in that case, maybe yours is set to too high a level coming into the TV Adapter.
Good point, maybe he’s using the headphone out jack, which could be the issue.
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There is no headphone out jack on my TV. I’m using the toslink.
Thanks for your suggestions and for reproducing the fitting software screen. I did see that screen when my fitter lowered the TV Adapter level by -9db. Unfortunately, that made very little difference. But from the posts in the old thread and from trial and error using the HearLink app I found that by adjusting the mic/tv adapter level it affects the streamer level. Of course the Philips streamer, like its Oticon cousin (or at least I think so about the Oticon), won’t hold a user setting but reverts to default, so I will have to have my fitter try lowering the mic/tv adapter by -03db. I think that may do the trick.
I am using a toslink cable for the audio connection, and there is no volume adjustment for the digital audio out on my tv. It’s a Panasonic plasma set and has no RCA (analog) or headphone audio out. I am also adding a Roku streamer to that tv and have tried lowering the speaker volume all the way to zero with that, and of course I can also mute the speakers when I use the tv adapter. Neither setting seems to affect the tv adapter default volume.
My previous hearing instruments were ReSound Calas, with a TV Streamer 2 and I did not have any volume problems with that setup. The Streamer 2 does have hardware volume buttons, which I think made all the difference, though I set it up about five years ago and don’t remember for sure if I had to adjust that volume down, but I think so. Can’t make the hardware adjustment on the Philips because there is none, and I found the same problem when I trialed the Oticon Opn S and Oticon adapter last year.
Perhaps most troubling of all is the volume ‘spike’ that occurs on unmuting or when first entering the TVA program through the app. In order to avoid the worst of that the default would have to be extremely low, so it would need constant adjustment. Any ideas on what might be causing that or how it might be remedied? Those using Oticon More HAs might have the same problem with their TVAs. I’m curious to know…
I have the OPN 1 and my Genie 2 TV Adapter volume is set to the middle (default) and I drive my TV Adapter 3.0 via Toslink (although mine is volume adjustable from an NVidia Shield TV) and I don’t really have any loudness issue that I’d have to mess around with my volume much right off the bat. I think there might have been a couple of folks on this forum who complained about their TV Adapter being too loud for them, but the majority of TV Adapter users don’t seem to have this issue. You may want to search for those users with the same issue as yours to see if they’ve found a solution for themselves.
First off, I’d do some basic trouble shooting to rule out some stuff. I’d find a source with a headphone jack (like maybe a laptop or a smartphone with a headphone jack) and plug my headphones in them to verify medium volume level, then drive this headphone jack into the TV Adapter RCA input to see if you have the loudness issue still or not.
If no, then it’s likely that your Toslink level is coming in too hot even though it’s a fixed level that you can’t control.
If yes, then it’s likely that your issue is on the receiving end (the HAs) and you may want to check your ON app (or the MFI interface on your iPhone via triple tapping the Home button and see what the volume slider for your TV Adapter/EducMic is set at. Maybe they’re stuck at the highest level for some reason.
OK, so I tried your tests and, sure enough, the toslink seems too hot because the miniplug to RCA from my computer headphone jack results in a moderate (actually a little low) TVA default volume. Since I can’t adjust the toslink (and tried a different toslink cable with no improvement), it sounds as if I can only make this work by getting a TV with either a headphone or RCA analog outputs. One other question: How about a digital to analog audio converter? So I’d use the toslink but run it through the converter and then drive the TVA with the RCA signal. Do you think that would work? Some of them even have a bass and volume adjustment.
As I see it, if that wouldn’t work and I don’t want to invest in a new TV the last recourse would be to adjust the default volume on the TVA to as low a signal as possible without making it undetectable. By the way, the accessibility screen shows the default volume on the TVA at 84.
There are plenty of D to A converters on Amazon for as low as $12 to choose from. But the cheaper ones may not have a volume control on the output, so for those without the volume control, if your Toslink in is too hot, the RCA analog out may be just as hot. So I think it’s safer to get one with a volume control on the output, which may be a little more money.
Great! I was just looking on Amazon and finding quite a few. Guess I’ll also want one with a USB power supply. (5V 1A). Thanks for all your help.
BUT (big but) I am not finding a DAC on Amazon that works with Dolby/multichannel sound, only PCM, so the manufacturers are saying it will not carry streaming audio from Netflix or YouTube. Some users still say it works for them. My TV of course has no way to do anything at all with the digital audio output, advising only that ATSC signals will be carried in multichannel audio and NTSC signals in PCM. Now I’m totally uncertain whether a DAC will serve my purpose if it will limit the channels I can stream.