Using Headphones

[Traveller47]

I have poor hearing and have to use headphones to follow a dialogue while watching TV. With this background, I bought a Samsung 55" QLED model ((QE55Q60RATXXU) which has an optical audio output. I connect this to a Sony soundbar (mainly for my wife) and use the Bluetooth facility of the TV to connect to Bose Bluetooth headphones for myself. All seemed well and good for a while. However, in the last 6 months the Bluetooth module on the TV has failed twice. It is quite expensive to replace because the Samsung engineers said it was "standard practice" to also replace the main PCB. The bill was £127 for parts. I did not have to pay this because the TV was on 12 months guaratee - hence no labour costs. More recently, the Bluetooth module has failed again but the TV is no longer on guarantee - however the replaced Bluetooth module has its own new 12 months guarantee, so hopefully there will be nothing to pay again.

All this is fine but I have lost confidence in the TVs Bluetooth cards and I cannot really use the TV without headphones. How long will it be before I have to pay £250? a time for new Bluetooth modules?

So, I come to my question. Is there a way to connect my older Sennheisser analogue headphones (model TR120 - base station plugged in to TV and RF to headphones) to the TV's HDMI (ARC) output? If I used a DAC such as Amazon product which has a 3.5mm audio socket, would the analogue headphones work?

Comments appreciated.

 

[gibbsy]

@Joe Fernand Can you help?

 

[Rodders53]

That VGA adapter won't work as it almost certainly won't understand ARC from the TV's hdmi in/out socket.

You can find devices that claim to on Amazon Amazon product is one - I've no experience of using such, though.
That could then feed both soundbar and Senheisser analogue. Probably.
EDIT: TV may need to be set to output LPCM or stereo only to work with that. The soundbar may be OK with 5.1 but not that box (from a quick scan read).

Alternative would be a optical toslink splitter plus optical to RCA jack D-A converter box. I can't find an all in one solution like that so far.

 

[Traveller47]

Thanks for the very helpful feedback. I think I'll try the optical splitter and DAC route. It's a little messy as you point out, but if it works....

 

[Traveller47]

Finally, I bought a toslink splitter and a toslinlk DAC.

This system does not work. When I plug the toslink from the tv into the splitter, and connect one of the two outputs from the splitter to the toslink input to the soundbar, the soundbar works normally (although with some sort of intermittent connection issue - ie the sound keeps disappearing and then returning when the connector is touched). However, when I plug another toslink lead into the second toslink output from the splitter, even with nothing connected to the other end, the soundbar cuts out completely.

I am using:
Amazon product
and
Amazon product

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[le4thab]

I cant comment on the problem you are seeing, but if you would like to try your idea from the first post, I have one hidden away in a box that I can send to you to see if it would work?

 

[Traveller47]

Thank you for your kind offer. When you say you have one, what item are you referring to? Do you mean a Samsung Bluetooth module?
I have now concluded that the toslink splitter I bought from Amazon is faulty - it also rattles which is worrying for a sealed item! Anyway, I have arranged to return the item and ordered another one - more expensive and hopefully better.
I will post again early next week once I have received and tried the new splitter.
Comment appreciated.

 

[le4thab]

Thank you for your kind offer. When you say you have one, what item are you referring to? Do you mean a Samsung Bluetooth module?
I have now concluded that the toslink splitter I bought from Amazon is faulty - it also rattles which is worrying for a sealed item! Anyway, I have arranged to return the item and ordered another one - more expensive and hopefully better.
I will post again early next week once I have received and tried the new splitter.
Comment appreciated.

Sorry for the confusion, I ment I have one of these you can try if you would like.

Amazon product

 

[Traveller47]

OK, thanks, your offer is appreciated. However, according to "Rodders53" above, it is unlikely to understand the ARC from the TV HDMI output. I don't personally know one way or the other.

Meanwhile, I have managed to get the headphones working when directly connected to the TV's toslink output via a DAC. That's progress! It it only when I introduce the optical splitter that everything falls silent. I need to have two optical outputs so that my wife can use the soundbar and I can listen on the headphones (which have their own volume control).

I will try the more expensive optical splitter when it arrives, and then post again.
Thank you for your interest.

 

[Traveller47]

I have now received the new optical splitter, and both the headphones and soundbar are working from the toslink - Hooray! Thankyou to all who repsoned and particularly to Ie4thab who offerd to send me a VGA adapter to try - not necessary now but thanks again for the thought.

My remaining disappointment is that Samsung seem, based on an unscientific sample of 2, unable to supply a Bluetooth card that lasts longer that 6 - 7 months! I wish TVs still had headphone jacks!