Has anyone set up a tv connection to their hearing aids with our the expensive Phonak TV Connector???
I want something that would allow me to still use my soundbar that is hooked up the the HDMI along with the Bluetooth box, so that my wife can hear the tv through the soundbar and I can her in my hearing aids.
I have a open optical connection.
Is it even possible to do this without Phonaks tv connector?
Thank you
Most TV’s have both an optical connection and a traditional RCA plug connection (red and white sockets). I have my sound bar connected to optical and my Phonak TV Connector connected to the RCA connection. My TV keeps both active so this allows me to listen through the TV Connector and my wife through the sound bar.
My other TV has bluetooth built in so I can actually connect the TV directly to Lumity. Only issue is that turning on the Bluetooth connection turns off the TV’s external speakers. For this TV, I have the Phonak TV Connector connected to the optical out and the TV’s internal speakers stay active.
Jordan
Yeah you can use the older phonak or Unitron version of TVLink II, its a straight bluetooth connection, they go cheap on ebay from time to time.
Are you sure it is bluetooth …?.. It does not seem to use batteries like bluetooth .
Yeah the older versions used classic 4.2, so now since the Marvel platform phonak HAs use 4.2 as well.
I think it will depend on the TV. My Samsung has an option buried deep in one of the menus that enables BT as well as sound from the speakers or soundbar. If I simply enable BT in the sound menu it turns off the speakers.
You may have to check your tv’s handbook to see if it is even possible.
Regards
I had to buy the TV connector thru eBay and was worth it. When l leave my TV room, hearing aid is automatically set to automatic mode. When l walk in my TV room, the TV sound is transmitted to my hearing aids without the TV volume on. The wife has her own TV so there’s no conflicts unless both of us want to watch the same TV program.
You need a TV with optical output.
Some modern TV’s have bluetooth, a lot are receive and not transmit unfortunately especially for audio, tv link or tv connector is a better way at the moment, when LE Audio is widespread we’ll be able to do so much more without having to get extra accessories.
Used Phonak v2 connectors are going on ebay for $80 to $125. I got one for $100 a while back. Works great.
I plug an optical splitter (easily found on Amazon – I found the powered version was the best) into the TV, so both my soundbar and the TV connector have a good quality connection.
For me, the RCA plug connection was crackly and bluetooth had an annoying lag as well as burning up batteries.
Bought TV Connector on ebay like others for about $80. Best investment in regards to hearing aids I think. As others said, use an optical splitter. Mine runs audio into the surround sound system and into the tv connector at the same time. You can mute the surround sound and just listen through hearing aids if you want, or if I am watching with wife I tell her to set the surround sound volume to her liking as the sound is automatically going to my aids and doesnt get impacted by the surround volume. Works beautifully.
One of the reasons for picking Phonaks to replace my oldish hearing aids (HAs)were the absolutely raving reviews on their Bluetooth (BT) capabilities. And I have not been disappointed with my Audéo P90Rs. They switch effortlessly between my phone and TV BT sources. What is really great is that they also still amplify ambient sound, so you are not a zombie when, e.g., listening to your podcasts in the street. And when there is too much ambient noise (traffic), the HA buttons will quickly rebalance the sources. Need to talk to someone? Just tap your ear, and the podcast stops. You can also use BT to listen to music, but HAs do not reproduce basses (pop) well. To do this, I prefer dedicated earbuds (Soundcore Anker Liberty Air 2 are pretty loud, esp. when pushing up all freqs in the app), or use headphones. Incidentally, you can increase the volume of all your mp3 files batchwise using Mp3gain freeware, using a target of 94 db or so. Or/and get an mp3 player that allows bypassing EU volume controls, such as a SanDisc Clip with US/World firmware.
At home I use BT to listen to TV (AND still be able to talk to others). The slight problem here is that Phonak still uses an oldish BT version 4.2, when all modern stuff (our BT-connected TV speakers) use version 5.x. So you hear a horrible, unbearable echo. You can buy a Phonak TV connector, which has great reviews and appears to have less delay, but it is really expensive, and you cannot control the lag. So what I am using is two separate BT sources, with one of them having the sound delayed using a LINDY Lip Sync Corrector. This only allows stepwise control (50 ms) but it does solve the problem at lower cost.
There is no lag with the TV Connector, it is not using standard BT.
That Lip Sync Corrector is listed on Amazon at $112, that is more expensive than the TVConnector I bought.
Glad you found a solution that works. I agree the P90s are incredible when it comes to BT connectivity. The audiologist tried to sell me Oticons and I am so happy I researched and opted for the P90s…
Thanks for the feedback! I read that bluetooth 5 produces a 20-40 ms lag, so a small echo from a Phonak TV connector with zero delay that runs in parallel would probably be just acceptable. Incidentally, I bought my lip sync device from Amazon Germany for 73 EUR.