I have now been back to the audiologist and things are worse than before.
The audiologist says that for the streaming, she cannot adjust the suppression of the microphones more than 6db. The software will not allow it and she confirmed that with Phonak. The streaming to the Phonak remote can have microphones shut off but that doesn’t help for the TV issue. Turning down the volume with either the app or on the aids themselves turns down both the streaming as well as microphone volume equally so that is useless.
After adjusting the settings, the app is worse than ever. Instead of 10-20 seconds to connect to hearing aids while connected to the TV, last night it took about 15 minutes and I had to constantly hit the RETRY button. Worse, when connected, I can adjust the balance to make all sound come from the mikes but when I move it to the right to set it to completely suppress the mikes, it does not suppress them at all.
It is obvious to me that the app is a piece of junk software and Phonak has no idea how to write apps and should have either paid someone capable of doing an app or not using an app at all. It has all sorts of “features” but they forgot what the app is supposed to do - provide the ability for the user to customize the settings of the hearing aid. In that, regard, they have failed. Promising a fix in the future means that they are just pushing out junkware to impress their customers without providing a quality product.
So now my choice is to skip streaming to the TV or to go back to using the V90s with their bluetooth to telecoil converter. It worked!
I now have to decide whether to return the P90s as not being an improvement to me or to carry two sets of hearing aids around - one with rechargeable batteries and one that works best for me. I’ll give the VA one more try and make yet another appointment for sometime net month or the next (depending on their availability) and drive the 2 hour round trip to see them.
At this point, I’d like to meet the Phonak reps responsible for the app and the overall bluetooth design so I can shove both down their throats.