Old TV and Bluetooth Headphones

[dank69]

I have an older Samsung HDTV, circa 2012. I also have a pair of Bluetooth headphones with a USB dongle. I bought the headphones hoping I could just put the dongle in one of the TV's USB ports, but that didn't work. TV audio out settings are only "TV Speakers" and "External Speakers"

Does anyone have a clever trick to get the output through to the headphones?

 

[mindless1]

Do the headphones have a volume control on them? I'd imagine the USB dongle is only connected to the battery charge circuit +/- contacts, unless they got fancy and hooked the data pins up to allow firmware updates or something. Regardless the TV wouldn't have built in driver support.

If the TV can't change the volume level of the "External Speakers" then you'd be stuck with what is probably going to end up as a fairly loud, line level signal getting to the headphones. On my about-that-age Samsung TV (6030 series), the manual states that external speakers don't have volume or mute control through the TV.

Besides that volume issue, you might be able to do it with an analog (or SPDIF digital) to bluetooth transmitter. Some of those may have a remote control (or just knob) for volume control if the headphones themselves don't.

Amazon.com : Bluetooth Transmitter headphones

I am merely assuming that your TV's external speakers are only supported by analog outputs (RCA jacks?), but if the TV has bluetooth then you might need nothing added. It might support SPDIF digital output.

 

[dank69]

Do the headphones have a volume control on them? I'd imagine the USB dongle is only connected to the battery charge circuit +/- contacts, unless they got fancy and hooked the data pins up to allow firmware updates or something. Regardless the TV wouldn't have built in driver support.

If the TV can't change the volume level of the "External Speakers" then you'd be stuck with what is probably going to end up as a fairly loud, line level signal getting to the headphones. On my about-that-age Samsung TV (6030 series), the manual states that external speakers don't have volume or mute control through the TV.

Besides that volume issue, you might be able to do it with an analog (or SPDIF digital) to bluetooth transmitter. Some of those may have a remote control (or just knob) for volume control if the headphones themselves don't.

Amazon.com : Bluetooth Transmitter headphones

I am merely assuming that your TV's external speakers are only supported by analog outputs (RCA jacks?), but if the TV has bluetooth then you might need nothing added. It might support SPDIF digital output.

The headphones have volume controls. TV is UN46C6300SF.

These are the outputs it has:

 

[mindless1]

Okay so looks like a Toslink optical and a 3.5mm aka 1/8" stereo analog jack.

The bluetooth transmitters with only the analog input are cheaper, usually, then if it doesn't have a 1/8" stereo plug but instead RCA sockets, then you'd get a 1/8" to 2x RCA patch cord. Some transmitters may come with one.

Spend more and you get the optical Toslink input to the transmitter and possibly can do both that and analog input.

I don't know which transmitters are best, or cheapest. I didn't even realize there were so many of them these days, pages and pages on amazon and ebay by searching toslink bluetooth transmitter. You just need the toslink input and/or analog and possibly adapter cable, and at least as high a bluetooth standard as the headphones support would be good too.

 

[dank69]

Okay so looks like a Toslink optical and a 3.5mm aka 1/8" stereo analog jack.

The bluetooth transmitters with only the analog input are cheaper, usually, then if it doesn't have a 1/8" stereo plug but instead RCA sockets, then you'd get a 1/8" to 2x RCA patch cord. Some transmitters may come with one.

Spend more and you get the optical Toslink input to the transmitter and possibly can do both that and analog input.

I don't know which transmitters are best, or cheapest. I didn't even realize there were so many of them these days, pages and pages on amazon and ebay by searching toslink bluetooth transmitter. You just need the toslink input and/or analog and possibly adapter cable, and at least as high a bluetooth standard as the headphones support would be good too.

So like this guy?

https://www.amazon.com/TROND-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Receiver-Simultaneously/dp/B01N9PI9T6/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

 

[mindless1]

That should work, though there may be some out there cheaper than $40.

 

[BoomerD]

Telme2 tvSoundCast – super TV sound in stereo with no sound delay

tvSoundCast. Tosblue bluetooth adapter and BHX headphones with aptX that give you perfect individual TV sound. Best choice for streaming tv audio to bluetooth headphones. Enjoy super TV stereo sound, even for the hearing impaired.

www.telme2.com

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have to look into what BoomerD is suggesting, but he basically can use a Bluetooth TRANSMITTER with 3.5mm stereo input. His TV has a ;3.5mm female "port", obvious from the photograph.

This unit is about $17+ .

My situation is different, because my TV is new and has built-in Bluetooth transmitter. If I wanted to use a conventional 2.1 PC speaker system like the Klipsch Promedia, I would need a Bluetooth receiver, which has output for both 3.5mm and RCA cable. The PC speaker system uses 3.5mm stereo.

I would not have thought that you could buy a transmitter that would fit an optical audio Toslink port; you can look. But I'd be pretty sure the unit I suggested would work.

The OP has an 11-year-old Samsung. Four months ago, explaining to my brother that my LG 43" LED_LCD Smart TV was either 12 or 13 years old and had been running (I said "ON") for 24/7/365 but for power-outages and brief maintenance, Bro urged me "get a new TV". Four months later -- more than a week ago -- the LG started acting flaky like the HAL 9000 computer at the end of "2001". I wish I had taken more time to research and locate the replacement, but I followed my brother's example. He had gone through two new Samsung replacements at COSTCO, and finally decided on a 2022 Sony Bravia model. But he had 70+" and I wanted 43". When I told him I bought an X85K, he insisted that I didn't have "the best display technology". A week later, he told me he'd researched the specs and that I DID INDEED have the best display technology.

My Bluetooth earbuds, about four years old, don't want to pair with my new TV. Guess I'll buy a new set of earbuds, then.