Earphones to optical output (nub question?)

[Shadowrun]

Hi, first post! I tried searching the forum but didn't find what I was looking for. Also, keep in mind that I'm from Sweden, in case something doesn't make sense...

Anyway, I bought a new TV today, but I noticed that there was nowhere to plug regular earphones. There is an optical digital audio out however, so my question is if I can Somehow convert this with adapters or whatever, so I can use my regular earphones?

I have googled for more than an hour but I feel kind of lost. All help will be appreciated, thanks!

EDIT: Maybe they're called Headphones :P

[chrisgeary]

Hi and welcome

Optical digital (and for that matter coax) outputs are purely for connecting to a device that can interpret those signals. These are usually AV amplifiers, processors or stand-alone DACs (Digital to Analogue Converters). These devices turn the digital signal into an analogue one.

Your best bet is to find a cheap AV amp with an optical input and headphone socket. you need not spend more than £100 or so on a second hand one from 5 years ago.

Hope this helps.

[trailer]

If it has phono stereo outs you can get an adaptor to the headphone plug.

[NicolasB]

If you were to invest in a Dolby Headphone system - something like the Philips SBCHD1500U or Pioneer DIR2000SE - you could get very nice results from the optical output. That would not only give you stereo headphone sound, it would also give you a pretty good simulation of 5.1 sound using Dolby PLII, and possibly even Dolby Digital (depending on what sort of output you can actually get from your TV).

You could also possibly invest in a stereo DAC that has a headphone socket.

However, neither of these options is particularly cheap. What's your budget?