Headphones to TV with no headphone jack? (1 Viewer)

[Andy_Bu]

My dad is losing his hearing.

As such he has to keep turning up the volume on his tv to the point where its driving my mom crazy.

I want to get him some headphones that he can wear so that the sound only comes through the headphones.

The TV does not have a headphone jack though, but does have rca audio outputs (the white and red jacks).

Do they sell headphones that would fit the RCA outputs and would it also stop the sound from going to the TV speakers so that the sound will only come to the headphones?

It does not need to be fancy (ie wireless), so even a simple wired version would be fine.

Any suggestions?

Andy

 

[John S]

Any stereo reciever would give this functionality. Even used from a pawn shop.

 

[Andy_Bu]

He does not want a receiver. He just wants to be able to plug in a headphone jack.

I had hoped there would be some sort of simple adapter or Y cable to allow headphones to connect to RCA jacks on the back of a TV set.

Andy

 

[chuckg]

The "level" of the sound from the RCA jacks is too low for headphones. What the previous post was suggesting was that you connect a cheap stereo to the RCA jacks on the TV. Then plug the headphones into the jack on the stereo. The stereo amplifier will boost the level to that required by the headphones. Pawn shops often have stereos for ultra low prices, down in the garage-sale range.

The stereo volume control will determine how loud the sound is in the headphones, and the TV volume control will still change the sound level from the TV speakers. So, if your dad wants to watch TV with you, he can have it nice and loud in the headphones while you have it normal from the TV. If he is watching alone, he can leave the volume on the TV way down so it doesn't bother anybody while still having it loud in the headphones.


Hope that helps!

 

[Andy_Bu]

Thank you for the information! I think I understand what you are saying.

While I was awaiting answers I did find a wireless unit online that seemed to connect to the RCA jacks. From your post it seems like this might be a bad thing to purchase?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...#more-pictures


Andy

 

[JohnnyG]

I bought my Father a pair of RCA wireless headphones and they included an RCA->1/4" adapter. Just plugged right into the TVs audio output jacks. Works great.

edit: Ummm...just like the picture in that link!

 

[Andy_Bu]

That is great! Thats exactly what I am looking for.

Did the headphones allow him to reduce the volume all the way on the TV and just control the volume through the headphones or do you actually use the volume control of the TV to set the volume for the headphones only (ie no sound comes through the TV speakers)

Andy

 

[chuckg]

The wireless headphones will work great! They are basically the same solution as using the stereo, jst without the wire in betweeen the headsets and the stereo.

The volume on the TV will control only the volume on the TV speakers. The headphone volume will be controlled on the headphones. They are completely separate controls. (the RCA jacks put out a constant volume, in other words, which does not change when you change the TV speaker volume)


- - and the price is decent!

 

[Andy_Bu]

Thank you to all for your help!

Andy

 

[Ted Lee]

i would also double-check the tv to see if it has a "fixed/variable" option for the line output of the tv.

you'll want to make sure that you can set the output to "fixed". that way, even if you lower the volume all the way on the tv, the line-out (from the back of the tv) will not be affected.

if the tv only does variable, then the output from the back of the tv will be affected by the volume control.

alternately, see if you have the ability to turn the speakers off from the tv menu.

 

[Yee-Ming]

FWIW, when I changed displays from an old CRT to a plasma, ironically the plasma's tuner box did not have a headphone jack, so I couldn't connect my wireless headphones -- a necessity for late-night viewing so I don't disturb the wife. As it turned out, I was able to get a Y-adaptor that plugged into the RCA outputs of the tuner box, with a female headphone socket that I could plug the jack of the lead from the wireless base unit into. Works fine for me.