TV Adapter 3.0

Hearing Aids
#1

I purchased the TV Adapter 3.0 for my OPN hearing aids off Amazon for $200. I’ve been streaming from my iPhone previously mostly to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime, but I do like to watch live sporting events or CNN occasionally.

I’ve had the TV Adapter now for about 2 weeks. I must say the connection is rock solid and the sound is definitely better than the IPhone or iPad direct. Not a huge difference, but it seems louder and clearer in most cases. When streaming with my iPhone I usually keep the closed captions on to make sure I don’t miss anything (which I inevitably do), but with the TV Adapter that has not been an issue (relatively speaking). As for the volume, I’ve never had to increase it on the adapter where with iPhone streaming I’m about 75% of my ceiling.

I’m planning on trying this to listen to some calls on my laptop as a small part of my job entails doing quality assurance on recorded phone calls which I usually do with a pair of over the ear Senheisers, but would love to stream via my OPNs directly.

#2

I would agree that rock solid connection is the way I would describe my TV Adapter 3.0 connection to my OPNs as well. I do have the OPN rebooting by itself (without me having to do a forced reboot on it) occasionally (actually more like every few days) while connecting to the TV Adapter, but I’m not sure if it’s due to the OPN or due to the TV Adapter. Sometimes the OPN reboots when NOT connected to the TV adapter as well, so I’m inclined to think that it’s entirely due to the OPN.

As for the sound quality between the iPhone streaming and the TV adapter streaming, I’ve tried doing A to B comparison between the 2 on the same content, in this case a music video of some soft music (not rock & roll type) that has clarity and richness, to see how they compare. The TV Adapter in this case is connected to and driven by the laptop. The video player is VLC on both the iPhone and the laptop, the exact same mp4 video file with the exact same audio. I’m also mindful to keep the volume level about the same during the comparison as well. I can tell the difference between the sound coming from the iPhone and the sound coming from the laptop/TV Adaptor combo. I wouldn’t say that one sounds better than the other. But I would say that the same music from the iPhone has clarity, and the music from the laptop/TV Adapter has a little more added richness and coloration to it. I would guess that people usually associate added richness and coloration as being better, maybe. But I can also see the argument for simply clean clarity as being quite exquisite. To me they’re subtly different, but one not necessarily better then the other. And it’s not just on this exact A to B comparison of the exact same content. This observation is consistent in general with most of the contents that I watch/hear as well.

I also agree that the TV Adapter seems to have more headroom on the volume compared to the iPhone streaming. I’ve had cases where I’ve had to increase the volume on the iPhone to near maximum on some content that has weaker volume level. But on the TV Adapter there’s always plenty of volume and usually I have to turn down the volume on my OPN to keep it at a comfortable level.

I also must say that I never get any kind of artifacts (clicking sounds and noises, etc) coming from the TV Adapter, but I do get sound artifacts from the iPhone quite regularly.

$200 for the TV Adapter 3.0 from Amazon is not bad at all. I had my audi call up Oticon to inquire about the price and she told me she can sell it to me at her cost for $200. The one I bought from eBay was listed originally for $175. Maybe the owner got it as part of a package (I heard from a poster in Canada that his OPN package came with a free TV Adapter 3.0), decided that they didn’t need the TV Adapter so put it up for sale to make some money. I was able to make an offer for a lower price and they took it, but I think I was just lucky there that they just wanted to get rid of it. BuyHear.com used to sell it for $299 (List price is $349), but now they’re selling it at full $349 retail price. Maybe they’re low on supply or something. I checked out FactoryDirectHearing.com and they don’t sell Oticon accessories, although they sell the OPN1 for $100 cheaper than BuyHear.com.

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#3

Yeah I did forget to add the one negative is that occasionally one aid doesn’t connect and I have to open and close the battery door. I did ask BuyHear about matching the price on Amazon and that was below their cost.

#4

The only time this happens to me is when the battery is low on one of the HAs. I would start hearing the low battery warning chime, and shortly later, that HA would no longer connect to the TV Adapter. But I’ve never had it happen on a full battery or before I start hearing the low battery chime.

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#5

I’ll ditto the above comments on the TV adapter 3.0 - good stuff.

I haven’t figured out how to use the OPN’s with both the TV adapter AND also to amplify room sounds simultaneously.
When someone talks to me with the TV adapter connected I need to change programs or turn the TV volume down and not use the HA’s to listen to them.

#6

Most apps will let you control volume/mute for stream and ambient separately.

#7

Check out post #6 on this thread http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?21732-Please-Help-Wife-has-new-Opn-miniRITE-HAs. It’s easily doable if you have an iPhone.

Without an iPhone to control this, I think your OPN mic is still turned on at normal level if you switch to the TV mode. BUT, the caviat is that if your TV level is too loud when you switch over to the TV mode and you have to turn down the volume on your OPN to a comfortable level, this action by default also reduces the volume of the OPN mic as well. If you can leave the OPN volume untouched and lower the volume from the TV that’s driving the TV Adapter (if it’s the RCA connection), then you can hear the surround room sounds just fine. The caviat with this as I find out for myself is that the volume from the TV (or in my case, my laptop) coming into the TV Adapter’s RCA inputs will be below the threshold to keep the TV Adapter being active, so after so many minutes, the TV Adapter goes into standby mode due to undetected threshold level. I don’t know whether it’d behave differently if you use the optical SPDIF/Toslink connection or not.

I haven’t tried the ON app for Android phones to control this like how you’d do it on the iPhone. Maybe you can control it just the same on the Android ON app as well.

#8

I think in the fitting software you can change the microphone sound to be lower in streaming mode, or equal the volume of opn mode, that could be checked if you’re not in low mic mode while streaming.

#9

I think that’s how my OPN are set (not in low mic mode while streaming). However, I think a lot depends on the input level coming into the TV Adapter that would have to meet the threshold level so the TV Adapter won’t go into standby after a few minutes. If this input level into the TV Adapter makes the streaming sound pretty loud, then you’re going to have to lower the streaming volume to a more comfortable level As soon as you start lowering the streaming volume, the mic volume gets lowered in tandem as well. By the time your streaming volume is down low enough to be comfortable for you, the mic volume will become too low to pick up outside sounds. Well, at least that’s been my experience.

#10

Hello everyone, I am new here.
I have been ‘lured’ into this FORUM by the many interesting conversations that popped up while searching for “OPN1 bluetooth problems” on Google. I thank you all so much for providing your experiences with those specific hearing aids because the way it seemed to me was that I had defective products and everyone else was perfectly happy.
I have disconnects with my OPN1 very frequently, auto reboots for no reason from time to time, and almost constant crackling when switching between apps in my iphone.
I noticed that toggling on/off the Bluetooth helps with resetting the HA so the crackling stops, but there is no guarantee it will not start again right away.
On a positive note, I do love the streaming from the TV adapter and it is, in fact, the only real reason why I am still holding on to these hearing aids. Most other brands give terrible TV experiences, so I admit I use OPN for TV watching and Widex Beyond for everything else. Phone conversations with Widex Beyond are amazingly clear and I never even need to adjust the volume.
That was quite an expensive investment but so far, it is giving me the best experience.

#11

Thanks for sharing here, Cucciolit. I never get any crackling when just switching between apps in my iPhone, so that’s a new one I just heard. But I do get crackling (or what I would describe as a recurring click click click noise) when I’m on the phone, maybe about 30% of the times. In that case, just switching on/off the Bluetooth setting, or by switching over to speaker mode or regular phone mode, then switch back to OPN connection, I can clear the click click click noise. Or sometimes it just goes away on its own as well. I do admit that it’s annoying, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. Because I never have this issue when streaming from the TV Adapter, only on the iPhone, I’m not ready to assign blame entirely on the OPN on this. It’s more likely an iPhone issue in my opinion. But then again why you don’t have that issue on your Widex Beyond but you have that issue on the OPN for the same iPhone you use, I don’t know. This would imply an OPN issue, not an iPhone issue. So it’s a new interesting data point that implies that Oticon still needs to improve its connection experience with the iPhone. Maybe it uses a different Oticon propriety communication protocol with the TV Adapter, and not the same Apple proprietary protocol with the iPhone, which is entirely possible. Obviously the Oticon protocol with its own TV Adapter is a lot more robust than the Apple protocol.

I do have disconnects with the OPN1 on the iPhone from time to time, too, usually on just one of the 2 HAs, like most people reported. More frequently so in the beginning, but lately not as often. Don’t know why it seems to have gotten better. Or maybe because I know how to fix it quickly with a workaround now so it’s not as annoying anymore when it happens. But it hasn’t happened to me for a while now (over a week).

I also have auto reboots for no reason from time to time. But the OPN is actually a very process-intensive computer in its own right, so I’ll allow random reboots every few days without considering that a deal breaker because the random reboots last only less than 10 seconds and I’m back in business again quickly anyway. The random reboots happen when using the TV Adapter as well.

I’m not constantly on my iPhone for streaming (either for phone calls or music or videos) to the OPNs all the times, so to me these iPhone connection issues are just minor annoyances that I can put up with. But if I stream heavily from the iPhone all day long, I can see how it can be a deal breaker for some who would have to put up with all these issues all day long. But I must say that when it works without any issue, the quality of the connection is pretty good, no complaint there.

#12

I just received the TV adapter 3.0 yesterday and set it up successfully without a problem. I used the TOSLINK connection on my Samsung Smart TV. I felt odd when my audiologist told me the hearing aid will automatically setup a TV program based on my hearing loss. I had a high expectation with this device. However, after trying out for a few minutes, I had to turn it off with disappointment. To me, it’s more like a simple amplifier. It only provided the loudness but not clarify. It hurt my ear and head as it’s too loud and when I turned the volume down, I cannot hear it well. I am wondering if that’s how the TV adapter is? Or, is there a strategy for getting a better sound/speech quality?

#13

I also read a post of Volusiano teaching how to hear the surrounding and the tv at the same time. I remember the instruction book said “Normally”, when turning down the tv volume with the tv remote control will not affect the loudness of the TV program in the HA. So this is against what Volusiano experienced? Or did I misunderstood it?

#14

Volusiano and Cucciolit
I’m sorry to hear that you both are having so much trouble with your OPN1s. I do not have any of those issues: have had one random reboot in 7 weeks, no clicking or crackling. I’d first make sure you are using high quality batteries. My Audiologist gives his patients batteries for the first year free because he has had to troubleshoot so many issues in the past that turned out to be battery related. It takes that out of the equation. He gives us PowerOne batteries. If that doesn’t fix it, I would turn your aids in to Oticon for repair/replacement. There are too many of us that don’t have these problems that you shouldn’t have to put up with them.

#15

Hi Pui106, your audi is correct. By pairing to the TV Adapter, the OPN automatically creates a new TV program for itself, and adjust the amplification in each frequency band to compensate for your hearing loss.

I think you’re right that the TV streamer probably does not process the streamed sound, it only amplifies it. But I think your high expectation is perhaps misplaced. You need to remember that the streamed audio from the video programming is already processed by the producer of the content, and any further processing by Oticon/OPN may go against the intent of how the video producer wants his/her audio to sound like. So it’s not Oticon’s place to judge whether the audio content of video is good or bad because Oticon is not the video producer. Oticon’s job is only to faithfully reproduce exactly what the audio is supposed to sound like as processed by the video producer. The same thing with streamed music -> faithful reproduction is the only acceptable goal here. Any further processing would be deemed unwanted deviation from the true sound and not desired.

But unfortunately, garbage in, garbage out. If the processed audio being streamed is bad/garbage, that’s what you’ll end up hearing -> garbage. But Oticon is not to be blamed, the video producer of the video content is to be blamed. Unfortunately many modern producers tend to add too much sound to their videos, especially busy background music to create and maintain a mood, which very often take away from speech clarity. You should try more video contents and hopefully you’ll run into other video contents with better audio, then you’ll come to appreciate the TV Adapter’s direct streaming more.

I think a big part of your issue is that the incoming audio to the TV Adapter is too loud, and that’s an instant turn off and naturally will not sound clear. The same happens to me (although I didn’t use the Toslink connection, I use the RCA connection on mine). Just remember that you can always turn down the volume on your OPN (via the volume/control button on your left OPN) to a comfortable level. Did you try lowering the volume to a comfortable level already?

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#16

Yes, I think you misunderstood this, Pui106. Let me clarify.

What the instruction book is talking about is TV volume control (of your Samsung Smart TV) vs the streamed audio from the TV Adapter. The Toslink (optical audio) signal sent from the Samsung TV to your TV Adapter is a fixed volume digital signal via optical laser light. So if you’re watching TV with somebody else, they hear from the speakers of the Samsung TV and you hear from the streamed audio from your TV Adapter to your OPN and these 2 volumes can be adjusted independently. So if your TV partner likes to listen at a very low volume level, he/she can turn the TV speakers volume down, and you still hear the same (louder) volume level from the TV Adapter to your OPN. That is because the Toslink connection sends fixed volume out and not variable volume out that is tied to the TV’s volume. They control their own volume from the TV, and you control your own volume from the OPN.

What I’m talking about is entirely different. It’s between the volume control of your streamed audio from the TV Adapter to your OPN, and the volume control of your live surrounding sound picked up by your OPN’s mics to your receiver. It’s so that you can hear people or sounds around you ON TOP of hearing the streamed audio if that’s what you want. Or not hear surrounding sound (in case it’s just noisy dishwasher or washer/dryer nearby) while you watch TV. If you use the volume buttons on your OPNs, there’s only 1 set of volume buttons, so it controls both. So if the streamed audio is too loud (like in your case), and you want to turn it down using the OPN volume button, you’ll also in tandem, inadvertently, turn down the OPN mic’s volume, even if you don’t want to. So now you can’t hear live people talking around you while watching TV anymore. So what I was telling the folks on this forum is that the iPhone Hearing Devices setting has 2 separate volume control sliders, one for OPN Mic, and one for the TV Box 1 (TV Adapter), that you can play around with to be able to have better control of these 2 volumes independently. If you use RCA connection to the TV Adapter, that’s a third variable audio input you can fiddle with, in conjunction with the 2 volume sliders on the iPhone, to achieve the best balance. But if you use the optical Toslink audio connection to the TV Adapter, that’s a fixed audio input, so you don’t have a third volume control to fiddle with.

#17

Hey, gdba, good suggestion on the batteries. I’m currently using the Costco batteries, and I do notice that the original 2 sets of batteries that came with the OPNs (don’t remember what brand) would last another good half a day after the low battery chimes start going on. But with the Costco batteries), they would go out about an hour after the low battery warning goes on.

The Costco batteries come out to around 17 cents each, while the PowerOne batteries come out to about 28 cents each, so there’s probably something to be said about the PowerOne being higher quality batteries.

#18

Pui106 - do you hear better when streaming a phone call or streaming media through your iPhone or iPad? Just wondering if you see a difference in quality vs. the tv Adapter.

#19

I gues it always depends on your hearing loss, I think the streaming programm works according to the settings in program 1 open mode. you do hear more clearly if there is disbalance in your settings. I can clearly hear that my left ear was pushing certain frequencies too loud while streaming, while wearing I would have not noticed, so settings are very sensitive while streaming, might wanna revisit your guy a couple of times, however with my loss streaming is by far better than headphone use…

#20

My word recognition is very poor. I usually have difficulty with phone conversation and cannot watch any video without subtitle. The OPN streaming from iPhone has improved the situation a little. Even though I still cannot understand completely but it’s an improvement from my previous Widex Mind. I only tried the TV Adapter for a few minutes and the sound quality wasn’t great. It’s loud enough but couldn’t provide the clarity in speech. So, for now, I will say the streaming from iPhone works better for me. However, like Volusiano said, if the original sound quality wasn’t great in the first place then I will only hear “garbage”. That might be the case of mine. I will give it a try again later.