Getting headphones to work with smart tv that is hooked up to a AV receiver

[alicat2441]

I'm having problems getting Sennheiser RS175 headphones to work with a Vizio M60-C3 that is hooked up to a Yamaha RX-V679 receiver and external speakers. Ideally I want to hook up the headphones to the tv speakers (via optical) for my dad and I listen through the AV receiver. It seems that the speakers in the tv turn off when an external source is hooked up to the tv (HDMI from AV to tv) and I can't find anything that changes this. The tv and AV receiver work fine together and I have been getting by with hooking up his old headphones to the Directv box. The problem is if we watch a DVD or Netflix (coming from the AV receiver) he can't use his headphones and then I'm almost blasted out of the room.

Do I need a splitter, pass through, etc.? and if so what one? This is driving me absolutely nuts and any help will be extremely appreciated.

 

[americanaudiophile]

I suggest you try connecting the transmitter for the phones to the zone 2 pre out on the receiver.
Set zone 2 to the same input that the TV is connected to. That may not work if the receiver won't convert digital audio to analog for zone 2 but it's worth trying since it's free and simple.
Set the Zone 2 level so it won't overload the transmitter. Headphone volume will be independent of the main volume.
The other way to make it work is to split the optical audio output of the TV. The receiver connects to one output.
If the transmitter will accept a 5.1 input then you can connect it to the other output.
If not then you will need an optical to analog converter that accepts a 5.1 input. That would connect to the analog input on the transmitter.

 

[alicat2441]

Connecting the transmitter to Zone 2 Output and putting it into the "Party" setting solved the issue. It now works great and I don't can watch anything without the volume turned up soo loud I go deaf. I actually completely forgot about the Zone 2. Thank you, thank you, thank you.