Widex TV PLAY

Assistive Listening Devices
#22

Many posters here claim the Phonak TV connector has minimal drain on batteries. Possibly due to the fact you don’t have to pair your Phonak aid to the TV connector itself.

#23

In case anyone is still interested, on latest June 2019 firmware, TV PLAY can now be accessed via button control on hearing aids as well as by the app. You can switch to/from without faffing around finally!

#24

How do I upgrade to the latest firmware? Is it available on the Widex site or do I have to make an appt w/ my audiologist?

EDIT: I answered my own question – I just needed to update the EVOKE app on my iPhone (via my “App Store”). Thanks for the tip, @anon70092419!

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#25

Is anyone happily using the TV Play with a computer (using an audio jack to connect the pc headphone jack to the TV Play). I was able to get this working for short periods of time (a few minutes), but it kept cutting out. (When I pulled the audio plug out of the computer, I could hear the sound, so it was the transmission to the aids that was cutting out.) I watch training videos and participate in Skype conference calls a lot more than I watch tv–so in theory this device would be helpful. In practice–well, either I’m not doing things right or it’s not useful for my purposes.

#26

I use the TV PLAY exclusive with 3.5mm inputs from computers as well. The timeout is ~30 seconds from last received audio. For optical input, I think this timeout doesn’t happen providing there’s an optical connection active, although I’ve only done very limited testing as I have nothing that uses optical here.

Playing a 20kHz tone from the computer constantly stopped the timeout, whilst being high enough not to cause any issues/be reproduced by the Evokes although I haven’t for a few months and just accept it as a ‘feature’.

I suspect a really short burst of audio every 20 seconds would probably also work but no idea how long it would need to be or whether it would be annoying etc.

#27

Thanks! Wonder what I’m doing wrong. I was testing by listening to a video and listening to a podcast, so I don’t think I was getting 30 seconds of silence. When you plug in the TV-Play, your computer probably asks you what the connection is. I was choosing “headphone”–is that what you did?

#28

I don’t use Windows, but headphone should be fine!

#29

I have the opposite problem with my TV set. When I first put on the hearing aids, if the TV is on, the hearing aids automatically go into TV play mode. I have to go to my iPhone in order to change the mode to universal. I don’t want this and I would like to know how to disable this function because It chews up battery life.

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#30

The Widex TV PLAY actually does have a optical out port for passing through audio to e.g. an soundbar. The optical out is however not very well documented. You will need an optical TOSLINK to optical jack cable. Like this one: Køb Optisk MiniPlug / Toslink digital kabel - 2 m på Av-Cables.dk
The Widex TV PLAY will detect if the jack connector is an analog in (with metal sleeve) or an optical out (plastic sleeve).

#31

Oh yeah, oh yeah :slight_smile:

Yellow Submarine. John sings on the right channel, instrument plays on the left.
Perfect song for testing strereo transmitting, is true or false.
Listen it when unplug the right channel. Do you recognise it? :slight_smile:
On the right channel is acapella, on the left is karaoke :slight_smile:
Swap the channels! This will be very weird.

#32

Soren, I can’t for the life of me find this information. Where did you source this?

#33

Ok I admit this is a well hidden fine-print detail. http://webfiles.widex.com/WebFiles/9%20502%204886%20001%2001.pdf
The text says “one 3.5mm TRS jack analogue stereo/optical output”. So if you plug in this 3.5 mm optical plug in the analog in port you will see the optical output light up. Hope this information helps!

#34

Ok, so I have checked and double checked. The document you have referenced, is a misprint. The Widex Play device does not, in any way shape or form, have an audio output either analog or digital.

#35

Just trying to help you. I’m using the Widex TV Play daily and know this feature well. The “analog in” plug doubles as an optical out provided that you use the correct optical cable. I use this feature for the specific purpose to pass optical audio through the Widex TV Play on to a soundbar. The optical cable cost less than $5, so if you ever get hold of one I can only encourage you to try it out. The bottom of the analog in connector actually does have a LED that repeats the optical in signal. The technical term for the connector type it supports is Mini - TOSLINK. Sometimes used for laptops as well.
Cheers!

1 Like
#36

Correct my old Mac mini used this for TOS link.

#37

Soron
Thanks. This was my biggest question. One more question is the mini to toslink connection back to the sound system always hot; in other words I don’t have to be using hearing aids for the pass through to power the audio system if I am not in the room.

#39

Yep, having just tried this it does pass through, providing there’s an input signal, regardless of whether Evokes are on, actively using, or off.

#40

Dear All, I’m new to this forum, but apparently not the first to have trouble with WIDEX TV-Play. The multiple distortions & echoes of 2 TV-Play prompted me to call on WIDEX. I wonder if they will try to solve this problem. While waiting for a hypothetical answer, I use my old WIDEX TV-Dex. Do you have any news on your side? Thank you !

#41

WIDEX did answer and provided 2 possible solutions :

  1. Check your wired connection between TV Play and TV. You would notice there are two connection options- optical (Toslink) input or analog input. If you are using analog, and CAN switch to optical- please do so. Sometimes the optical input offers better sound quality
  2. Check your hearing aids. Sometimes the 2.4GHz converter inside the hearing aids can be damaged. Please visit your hearing care professional to check the functionality of the connection within the hearing aids.
    MY ANSWER :
    as suggested in your mail, I went to my audiologist for a review of my hearing aids (I shared your mail).
    Apparently they couldn’t find anything, and they have your contact details to send you their test results.
    In the mean time, I checked for possible interference’s between the home WiFi (2.4GHz frequency band) with the Bluetooth (same frequency band of 2.4GHz). Please refer to Apple’s document “Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference” on Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference – Apple Support
    To perform the test, I disabled - on the WiFi modem - the wireless 2.4GHz frequency band, and forced the wireless 5GHz frequency band.
    Unfortunately, the result was not up to my expectations: the problem persists.
    Since the very beginning, I use the optical (Toslink) connection between TV Play and TV.
    Tomorrow I am going to test with a Samsung smartphone the Bluetooth transmission of a phone call to my hearing aids, because I find the sound quality with my iPhone 6 to be rather poor.
    Do you have any other information for me ?
    NO ANSWER
    NEXT MAIL TO WIDEX :
    finally, under TV-Play, I found a way to adjust, individually, the sound level for “tv-play” and “surrounding”. This is really much better, but I still have the sound quality problem …
    Regarding the possible interference between the WiFi 2.4GHz channel and the 2.4GHz channel of Bluetooth, I forced most of our devices to connect to the 5GHz channel; there is only one printer left on the 2.4GHz WiFi channel. But that doesn’t change the sound quality of TV-Play.
    One note, however: the sound quality of TV-Play only deteriorates after a certain time; let’s say between 15 and 30 minutes. Does this ring a bell ?
    I was unable to test the Android smartphone for streaming audio or phone calls.