I wear hearing aids – as you know if you’ve read my post here. Even with my hearing aids, hearing all the dialog in a movie or TV show is challenging. My wife and I argue over the volume level of the TV, and I’ve resorted to closed captions which annoys her and makes it difficult for me to have a conversation while watching TV, because I’m busy reading.
Streamers
I came across hearing aid streamers recently. These are devices that attach to the TV and send the sound directly to my hearing aids, while also playing sound through the TV speakers. The purpose is to allow everyone in the room to hear the TV at a comfortable volume while I get the TV sound directly to my hearing aids. The sound I hear is incredibly clear and I can control my volume separately.
Quick note: Hearing aids are a big improvement for TV watching, but I still miss quite a bit. The acoustics in the room, distance from the speaker and TV manufacturer’s insistence on focusing on enhancing surround sound v. dialog makes it difficult for me to catch all of the spoken words. I use closed captioning, but I’m looking for a better way.
Resound TV Streamer 2
I have the Jabra Enhance 500 hearing aids which are fantastic. Read more here (same post linked above). These are made by Resound, a leader in hearing aids for many years. I purchased the Resound TV Streamer 2 on Amazon for $233. I was hoping this would allow me to turn off the closed captioning, help me hear everything through my hearing aids, and allow my wife to choose a speaker volume that was comfortable for her. We all win.
Set Up
Set up was a piece of cake. Plug the Resound Streamer into a power outlet, connect to the TV sound output via either digital optical (TOSLINK) or analog (RCA or headphone jack). The streamer comes with the cables and adapters for all 3.
Pairing is a breeze. Put the hearing aids in their case to power them off, press the pair button on the back of the resound streamer, watch for the flashing light, take the hearing aids out of the case to power them up, see the light glow constant for a few seconds and Bob’s your uncle.
I open the Jabra app on my phone and I see a TV streamer bar at the top. I press it, and I hear the TV directly in my hearing aids and also through the TV speakers. A dream come true.
Not So Fast
This is how it worked on my bedroom TV. The living room, where we watch TV together is a bit ore of a challenge. As I’ve mentioned in several posts, My wife and I cut the cord over 10 years ago. No cable. Yay!
We use a Roku soundbar attached to our TV. The Roku has a digital optical outlet in back. I connected the Resound streamer to this, but no luck. The digital optical outlet on the Roku seems to be for input not output.
Next Try: The Roku connects to the TV via HDMI/ARC. This led me to hope that I could use the digital output on the TV to connect to the Resound Streamer. My hope was that the HDMI/ARC would send sound from the ROKU to the TV, as well as the picture. I could them use the TV’s digital audio output to send sound to the Resound Streamer. No luck here either.
Finally, I tried the TVs analog outputs. Same disappointment.
After several hours of trying different sound settings and searching the web in vain, still no luck.
Roku Private Listening
And then I came across Roku private listening. Download the Roku app, connect to the Roku, and I have a Roku remote on my iPhone along with the ability to click a button to stream directly to my hearing aids. This works fantastic except that it ONLY streams to the hearing aids. It silences the Roku speaker.
This morning, I turned off the closed captions and used Roku private listening and it was outstanding. I heard things I never hear before, even with the volume turned up.
Now I just need to get this to work simultaneously with the Roku speaker – should be easy, right?
I had used private listening before years ago. At that time, there was a headphone jack on my Roku’s remote. I plugged in headphones and listened to audio and then via a web search, I found that by pressing the Roku remote volume button Up Up Down Down Up Up Up Down Down Down, sound magically appeared on both the plugged in headphones and the speaker.
Alas, this does not work for wireless.
A few hours of web searching found lots of complaints but no solutions.
Help Me
I am going to keep working on this. The improvement using hearing aids directly is so huge that it is worth it to me. I’ll post updates, but if anyone has found a solution, please post it in the comments.
More to come.
But Wait, There’s More…
I spent the past 24 hours (not all of them, but some) looking into this.
Roku
I posted a question on their blog about how to get simultaneous sound.
Brian: I am trying to connect a Resound TV Streamer 2 to my Roku Streambar SE so that I can simultaneously listen to the TV through my hearing aids while other family members listen through the Streambar speaker. The optical plug on the Roku seems to be an input and not an output so it does not supply sound to the Resound Streamer 2. I had hoped that because HDMI/ARC is a 2-way connection, that the Roku Soundbar sound would flow back to the TV and I could use the TV’s digital output, but no sound there as well. I’ve seen the suggestion to use private listening. This works fabulously if I am watching alone, but doesn’t help when other people watch with me, as private listening mutes the Roku speaker. Has anyone found a solution that allows simultaneous listening through hearing aids and the Roku Streambar speaker?
Roku: Thanks for bringing this unique setup suggestion to your Roku Streambar SE with simultaneous listening to hearing aids. Please be advised that this feature is currently unavailable to use with any of our Roku Streambars. We’ll take this as feedback from you and make sure to pass this on to the relevant team for review. For more information about Roku’s anticipated updates, visit our Roku Blog. Let us know if you need more assistance; we are willing to help you in any way we can.
Strike 1
TV
I spent more time on the solution of Roku sending sound back to the TV through the HDMI/ARC and somehow getting the TV to output that sound to the streamer. There is no sound coming back to the TV from the streambar. Interestingly, I tried my old Roku Ultra streamer (with no speaker) and that sends audio back to the TV. The Streambar does not. Thanks to Mike T for the suggestion.
Even with the Roku Ultra, the TV itself only allows me to choose a single output. I can get output to the TV speakers or an output connector, but not both. I cannot play sound over the speakers and send that sound to the Resound Streamer.
Strike 2
Wrap-Up
Thank God for Amazon. The Resound streamer goes back today. While I love the product, I’m amazed that my TV and the Roku are so limited in their output abilities. I’m sure there is a good reason, but still…
Technology moves fast, especially with all the headphone/speaker makers like Bose and Jabra jumping into the hearing aid segment. I’m sure it won’t be long until a wireless alternative shows up. Check out Auracast at hearingtracker.com. This is a new technology that goes way beyond what I’m asking for. Pretty cool.
My Jabra Enhance 500 hearing aids support Auracast, unfortunately, the technology is so new, there are few devices that I am aware of that broadcast. But I’m ready when they do.
I did see the Resound TV streamer + on the Auracast list so I’m looking into that next. Stay tuned.
Strike 3
The Resound TV Streamer + broadcasts using Auracast, however, it still requires a hard wired connection to the sound source. Bummer. I’ll keep searching.