TV Adapter 3.0

[pui106]

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?

[pui106]

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?

[gdba]

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.

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.

[Volusiano]

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?

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?

[Volusiano]

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?

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.

[Volusiano]

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.

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.

[Abarsanti]

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.

[Gery_R]

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…

[pui106]

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.

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.

[pui106]

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.

Thanks so much for the info. I now understand more how this TV adapter works. I did tune down the volume but as a result, the speech was too soft to understand. I will try something with better audio, such as DVD, later and see if the sound quality would be better.

Also, I am wondering if I can remove the TV program from the hearing aid myself or it has to be done by the audi?

[KenP]

Actually, speech is best understood at monaural, then stereo, and last surround sound. These days sound engineers are big on effects and much of that is in the side channels. Hitachi sound bars and some others have a feature called Clear Speech that emphasizes voice that may be a help when you listen to an ambient sound setup. Setting your TV to stereo rather than surround can improve understanding.

[Volusiano]

Also, I am wondering if I can remove the TV program from the hearing aid myself or it has to be done by the audi?

Good question. I’m not aware of a way to remove the TV Program from the HA yourself. You may need to have the audi remove it for you. I remember that when my audi did the firmware update on my OPNs it did remove the TV program (which is to be expected).

[Doc_Jake]

Well this or at least the hijacked parts are certainly amusing!

[Gery_R]

Thanks so much for the info. I now understand more how this TV adapter works. I did tune down the volume but as a result, the speech was too soft to understand. I will try something with better audio, such as DVD, later and see if the sound quality would be better.

Also, I am wondering if I can remove the TV program from the hearing aid myself or it has to be done by the audi?

pretty sure you can only reset your tv adapter, unlinking all devices it connected to. so I good guess is, it will always stay there unless removed in the fitting software.

[Volusiano]

I have a new question for folks who owns the TV Adapter 3.0. A few times while watching a TV show streamed from the TV Adaptor 3.0, I suddenly hear the sound “come alive”. What I mean is that before the sound is good, but flat, like it’s just monophonic. But when it’s alive, it sounds more stereophonic and has a richness to it. That’s all I can describe. But it would not last long. I may hear this “alive” sound for a minute or two, then one of the OPNs would reboot, and I’m back to the normal flat sound.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m beginning to suspect that maybe the TV Adapter 3.0 tries to stream stereo sound independently to each of the OPN, but for some reason, the OPNs can’t handle the stereo sound and so only accepts the mono sound. But once in a while, the OPNs can accept the stereo sound, so all of a sudden I hear this richness, but it’s short lived because maybe it’s too much information in stereo for the OPNs to handle and overloading the OPNs into the point of a reboot of one of them. Of course, this is pure conjecture on my part.

But I wonder if any folks with the TV Adaptor 3.0 have a similar experience like I have above. I’ve only noticed this a handful of time for the 4+ months I’ve owned the TV Adapter 3.0, and I use it regularly everyday.

[Gery_R]

I might have experienced what you’re talking about, however I didn’t perceive it as better. Sometimes one of my aids still reboots while streaming from the tv adapter. And sometimes I think the stop syncing with each other and the right side kinda sounds different and I would agree with your more richness, volume kinda experience. However overall it doesn’t really sound clearer and I reboot both aids(taking out battery and then switching them on again).

btw streaming is in real stereo. there’s no mono stream with the OPNs unlike older aids.

[Volusiano]

^^^ Yes, you’re right that it doesn’t sound clearer. Just more richness, slightly more volume. Whether it sounds better or not really better is just a personal preference, I think.

[Volusiano]

This “rich” sound effect happened again just now from my TV Adapter 3.0. Then again, about a minute later, one of my OPN1s rebooted. Last time it was the left one that rebooted. This time it was the right one. After the reboot, the sound came back to the normal (non-rich) mode again.

I read online that Oticon licensed the CEVA RivieraWaves BLE technology for use on the OPN. I’m assuming that this is what they use for the TV Adapter 3.0, and possibly for the ConnectClip streamer that was supposed to be out in Q1’17 (but now delayed?).

So apparently they’re dealing with 2 different BLE protocols here, the CEVA one that they license for the TV Adapter, and the Apple propriety for the iPhone/iPad.

[1Bluejay]

I have definitely noticed that my TV streamer + OPn performance gets squirrelly on Day 5 of my PowerOne batteries. Without a lot of TV streaming, these batteries will last into the 6th day, but since I do tend to stream a couple hours of TV each night, typically on Day 5, things start to get squirrelly. That’s when I just go ahead and change the batteries.

Not only does the sound quality shift from that “stereophonic” richness you describe to a flatter, 2-dimensional type sound (albeit still streamed directly into my aids!), but the aids will continuously STOP streaming from the TV, and the program will even go from TV streaming back to default Program 1 like some kind of dumb robot taking charge of my aids.

I actually find the Duracell batteries from Costco TIP-TOP! I’ve been getting them for ages now. But occasionally, if I’m on the road, or lazy, or SNOWED IN, I order batteries online at Amazon.com. Then I’ve tried the PowerOne size 312. But IMO this brand is not significantly better than the Duracells!

Reading about all the problems others experience with streaming from the iPhone, tho, makes me wonder if Oticon has this streaming thing down pat, or if they wanted to just ride the coattails of some BIG NAME like Apple. Users like me, who have an Android device and refuse any IoT of things are left high and dry. I did put an email in to Oticon asking about the status of their clip-on streamer, and know from experience it will be close to 3 weeks before I hear back from anyone there.

One thing I CAN say about my old Agil Pros and the Streamer Pro: BEAUTIFUL connection. Every time. No clicks, drop-outs, buzzing, zero! Just 100% reliable streaming into the aids. Now why can’t Oticon do that with a NEWER model of aids? At this rate, their next introduction will be a tin funnel to place in our ears, and we’ll be told to have those on the phone or in the room just YELL LOUDER. >:-/

I have a new question for folks who owns the TV Adapter 3.0. A few times while watching a TV show streamed from the TV Adaptor 3.0, I suddenly hear the sound “come alive”. What I mean is that before the sound is good, but flat, like it’s just monophonic. But when it’s alive, it sounds more stereophonic and has a richness to it. That’s all I can describe. But it would not last long. I may hear this “alive” sound for a minute or two, then one of the OPNs would reboot, and I’m back to the normal flat sound.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m beginning to suspect that maybe the TV Adapter 3.0 tries to stream stereo sound independently to each of the OPN, but for some reason, the OPNs can’t handle the stereo sound and so only accepts the mono sound. But once in a while, the OPNs can accept the stereo sound, so all of a sudden I hear this richness, but it’s short lived because maybe it’s too much information in stereo for the OPNs to handle and overloading the OPNs into the point of a reboot of one of them. Of course, this is pure conjecture on my part.

But I wonder if any folks with the TV Adaptor 3.0 have a similar experience like I have above. I’ve only noticed this a handful of time for the 4+ months I’ve owned the TV Adapter 3.0, and I use it regularly everyday.

[bchearing]

I apologize if this query is out of line, but this thread seems to have some experienced knowledgable users of the streamer 3. I have mine in order and am curious how the situation works for when someone without hearing issue is watching TV. Do you put the streamer “in line” with the audio output (say one Dogital optical cable to the input on the streamer, and then one from the output on the streamer to the regular spreader setup?). Does the streamer then broadcast audio to the OPN aids, and the stereo broadcasts audio to the room? Just curious how the setup works when watching TV with my wife or others.
Thanks