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New Member... Simple problem. Please Help

post #1 of 6
9/9/09 at 8:04pm
Thread Starter 
Hey I'm new here to the forums and I had a question. It seems very simple, but I'm having trouble locating a solution. Maybe you guys can help...

I have 5 Direct TV box's hooked up in 1 room. Its a media/sports room. The reasoning behind this is so we can watch 5 games at once on 5 different TV's. Now, obviously I cannot have all 5 tv's playing the audio, so we have one main TV playing the audio over the surround sound. The other TV's audio are accessed via headphone jacks. Herein lies the problem.... The headphone lines are ran straight from the Direct TV outputs but they put out VERY little sound. I tried switching headphones and everything else. It just seems to me that they must make some kind of single line amplifier for a speaker (headphone). Just something very simple to boost the volume of each headphone line. There is no volume control on the receiver either.

Sorry this question seems long and drawn out, its just I'm quite the hurry because the NFL games start on sunday and we have some people coming over to watch the games!

I've attached  a small photo so you can get an idea of what I'm doing. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,
Curtis



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post #2 of 6
9/9/09 at 9:25pm
Curtis, you are not going to get much sound at all through the headphones because the audio output on the DTV boxes is a low-level, unamplified signal. Also, you correctly pointed out the boxes have no volume control. You need to have each DTV box running into it's own receiver (or equivalent sound processor with a built in amplifier) which will amplify the signal and provide a proper headphone output jack. Something as simple as a cheap "boom box" with L/R RCA inputs and a 3.5mm headphone jack will work. (I'm guessing you don't want to spend a ton of money on an individual receiver for each DTV box.) Other than that, I know of no in-line solution.
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post #3 of 6
9/10/09 at 8:46am
For the do it yourselfer, I googled this: http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

But since you need it for Sunday, Amazon has a boatload of them starting around $30.  Here's two:

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E3-Headphone-Amp-Head-Direct/dp/B001MPWMDA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252597274&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/ART-HeadAmp4-Channel-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B000M0TN6U/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252597274&sr=8-5
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post #4 of 6
9/10/09 at 1:05pm
Any cheapo "stereo" will do.  Just plug the audio lines from a cable box into the cheapie stereo, and plug the headphones into the stereo.  You can find what you want anyplace that they sell radios and whatnot.  You will need one stereo for each channel you want to hear over headphone.
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post #5 of 6
9/12/09 at 10:36am
THESE will be much simpler and cheaper than an actual receiver, which is much more than you actually need.  Plus, they actually let you connect up to 4 headphones, if you want to.  You just probably need a cable to adapt the RCA audio outputs from your tuners to the 1/4" input of the headphone amp.
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post #6 of 6
9/13/09 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 


Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnRice View Post

THESE will be much simpler and cheaper than an actual receiver, which is much more than you actually need.  Plus, they actually let you connect up to 4 headphones, if you want to.  You just probably need a cable to adapt the RCA audio outputs from your tuners to the 1/4" input of the headphone amp.

I actually saw those when I first searched. They seemed a bit bulky and would require 4 different boxes. But I guess they are a good buy for $30 and even allow me space for any upgrades in the future.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Al.Anderson View Post

For the do it yourselfer, I googled this: http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

But since you need it for Sunday, Amazon has a boatload of them starting around $30.  Here's two:

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E3-Headphone-Amp-Head-Direct/dp/B001MPWMDA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252597274&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/ART-HeadAmp4-Channel-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B000M0TN6U/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252597274&sr=8-5

Those Fiio are PERFECT. Small and battery operated. That right there seems to be the perfect solution. I wont get them before sunday, but I'm ordering 4 right now. Thank you so much. I will let you know how it all works out.
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