Well, that’s a thought. From memory they are cheap enough. I’m giving thought to using an optical digital splitter, sending one feed to the Yamaha and the other to something that will drive the headphones.
4 Likes
I’m not using a soundbar. I’m feeding the sound from theTV to a receiver coupled to a speaker system. The receiver does not have a 3.5mm input (nor the larger type), only HDMI Arc . What I appear to need, (but have to do more of a search to see if such a thing exists) is either an HDMI or a digital optical splitter with a 3.5mm analog output + an HDMI or digital optical output port. Otherwise, as soon as I connect anything to any of the TV outputs, it cancels the headphones (apart from the one setting “wired headphones +internal speakers”).
5 Likes
Another choice could be to use a 3.5mm male to female Y splitter, one feeding to the headphones or the headphone sender, the other to the receiver.
Some loss will be observed by as you are amplifying the receiver should have enough signal to produce decent output.
4 Likes
I think I have found what I need after a search. There are quite a few about. it’s an HDMI Audio Splitter/extractor with ARC. So it has an HDMI “In” and the one that interests me has 2 HDMI ports “out” plus an analog RCA L/R connection which I can convert to a 3.5mm socket using a “Y” cable adapter. Approx $50. There is also a cheaper model with 1 HDMI output and a 3.5mm socket, which is also a possibility. There are more expensive ones but I don’t know whether the quality is much better. Most of them just seem to have more HDMI output ports. I’ve asked for confirmation that the unit in which I am interested will do what I need it to do.
6 Likes
I can’t see that that would work, because there are no 3.5mm or RCA inputs at the back of the receiver. But see my later post below, because I think I might have found the solution: an HDMI audio splitter/extractor with ARC.
4 Likes
HDMI is notorious for being temperamental. It was originally designed to provide on a single output high quality digital content to multiple connected devices. It also incorporates a digital solution intended to avert content copying. The standards provide for two way communication (aka handshaking) between the source and all connected devices. Hopefully the supplier of your suggested device can offer some assurance their solution delivers.
It will be great to hear that it works out for you.
In our experience an older Sony smart TV and similar vintage Sony 5.1 AV sound system needed some smarts to get to work reliably. Rule one was always leave both powered in standby mode and use only the AV controller. Power outages can be a problem. A Teac recent smart TV with LG sound bar and bass speaker has proved more difficult. It works only according to some unknown astronomical star cycle.
YMMV.
As Cnet says in general advice about anything HDMI,
In theory you shouldn’t have copy protection issues… in theory. You should be able to send any content you want through a splitter to multiple TVs. That’s not a guarantee you’ll be without issues, though. HDCP “handshakes” are black magic that sometimes can only be resolved by dancing around an HDMI logo painted on your floor in unicorn tears. This is especially true of older displays and sources.
Note HDMI is a universal solution for video and sound systems. Both rely on handshaking between the source and device to work out what device/s are connected. Hence the type of data and format.
5 Likes
On the face of it an HDMI splitter seems doable. One output into the normal AV system and speakers, the other into a simple amplifier for analogue output for heaphones, headphone socket, or left/right RCA.
I think I have seen these with a volume control. Or the headphones have a volume control.
5 Likes
Well I’ve ordered a splitter which I am assured will work. Still awaiting its arrival. I’ll post a report when I’ve set it up. Should be here next week.
6 Likes
Sony customer service advice of 24 October 21
“I appreciate you explaining the situation for me regarding
your Sony product. Regarding your concern, it is still not
possible to output sound on both TV speakers and
Bluetooth device if the headphones is directly connected to
the TV via Bluetooth.
The only way to output sound on both devices is if you
acquire a Bluetooth transmitter which you can plug in to the
optical audio port of the TV, then you connect the
headphones to the Bluetooth transmitter.”
My question is will this work using Sennheiser Bluetooth transmitter with an optical audio connection plus Sennheiser Bluetooth headphones as Sony only list their own headphones as compatible?
2 Likes
Bluetooth uses a standard to ensure products are made to meet that standard ie be Bluetooth compatible. So if a product states it uses Bluetooth as a feature it should be compatible with a transceiver of Bluetooth.
2 Likes
It should, but I have experienced BT products that connected, disconnected, reconnected, has less than good audio quality, included erratic pauses, and all sorts of things. For clarity those were BT hearing aids connected to a Sony TV and a Windows PC. Works perfectly with an Android phone 
The optical out removes BT from the equation and adds the optical channel. The optical channel is another standard and I have not personally heard of any optically equipped device that had a problem with that. The Sennheiser BT transmitter should work perfectly with a Sennheiser BT headset.
If you have not purchased the Sennheiser kit be sure to ask the shop’s view on compatibility and check the returns policy just in case. If I had to punt I would expect a
Sony TV → optical out → Sennheiser BT transmiiter → Sennheiser BT headphones
to work fine and with excellent sound.
2 Likes
There’s also a question of Bluetooth profile. In other words, yes, they may be compatible at the lower levels of the Bluetooth protocol and able to communicate wirelessly but then in order to do anything useful with that communicated data requires the two ends to have a compatible profile.
So, for example, if you configure your TV BT audio out to communicate with a Bluetooth keyboard, you wouldn’t necessarily expect a great deal of success. OK, that’s a slightly silly example but even among audio devices there are a range of profiles.
Strangely, the originally complained about problem
my TVs will not function with their inbuilt speakers and bluetooth headsets at the same time
or, more accurately, a related problem seems to be less an issue than it used to be.
It used to be almost certain that as soon as you plugged in headphones or other wired audio sink, it would cut the audio to the built-in speakers.
I don’t know whether there was a really solid reason for that but on my current TV that doesn’t happen. Output to the speakers is completely independent of output via the headphone jack. You can have one, the other, both or neither. This is the sort of annoying detail that you can’t readily get out of the salesman in the store before you buy.
I must admit I am not sure whether my TV even supports Bluetooth for audio output but if it does, I surely haven’t tested it.
2 Likes
I have no idea where to put this diatribe. Perhaps one of the moderators can sort that out?
Recently I came within a whisker of handing over the cash for a good second hand LG smart TV to replace my dumb TV.
A few nanoseconds before parting with my cash, it occurred to me to check if the TV had *audio return sockets on the back. I quickly discovered that it did not have audio return OR headphone sockets and put my cash back in my pocket.
As a hearing impaired couch potato, I use headphones to listen to my TV and these require either an audio return socket or headphones socket (audio return is preferred).
I suppose cost saving is the reason some TV sets do not come with this feature.
I don’t know if choice takes this feature into account when reviewing TV sets, but for those of us who are deaf as a block of wood and use headphones, it’s a very important feature.
*audio return is a line output level set of 2 x RCA sockets (red and black) which can be used to drive headphones, sound bar, external speakers etc. It is preferred to headphone socket as headphone sockets usually disconnect the TV speakers.
BB
3 Likes
Often that is the case but maybe more recently less so. Certainly on my main TV the mute button on the remote control operates on the speakers only and that result is completely independent of whether something is plugged in to the headphone socket. (We have cordless headphones plugged in to the headphone socket permanently which means in effect we have headphones operating permanently as far as the TV is concerned.)
So for your specific requirements you would need to check the detail of that for any given TV if it doesn’t have audio return.
Another option could be a sound bar with digital input if the TV has digital audio output - and assuming in particular that the sound bar allows headphones without disconnecting its own speakers.
Then there’s subtitles … 
Well my dumb TV has digital toslink cable audio output which I can plug into my cordless headphones BUT I am stuck with whatever volume the program material dispenses to the digital output (ie I cannot amplify it before feeding it into the cordless headphones).
Whereas with analogue audio return output I can feed that through a small amplifier before into the headphones and this is sometimes necessary depending on the original program material audio levels.
Subtitles are also helpful BUT not all programs have them (usually the ones that don’t have subtitles are the ones which also have the worst audio quality) and often subtitles are way out of sync with the actual audio making the whole experience less than satisfactory - typically with live broadcasts such as news.
I can’t understand why the subtitles are often so far out of sync with what the newsreader is reading from the autocue. Why can’t the autocue also be used to generate the subtitles?
BB
1 Like
Good question. I don’t know but my guesses are
- the autocue only exists in specific situations e.g. news - not all live programs
- the subtitles are out of sync because they are being automatically (computer-) generated in real-time from what is actually being said (hence why they are not only out of sync but also sometimes embarrassingly incorrect).
2 Likes
We used to look for RCA audio out sockets, but it was many years ago. They started to go when digital TV arrived. However we still look for headphone sockets.
Exactly the reason. Some may be automatically computer generated, others will still be done manually. SBS gives a good synopsis…
1 Like
Many TVs have an optical out, an optical to audio converter can be had for some $20 and the derived audio is independent of the TV volume control. This allows other people that require normal audio levels to listen to the TV sound normally and the headphone person to adjust their level independently.
Search optical to audio out on ebay.
1 Like
