Home theatre and headphones.

[OkieDave]

Hi ya'll,

I have searched (Google) for hours looking for a solution, so after getting blank stares at Jap Shack while I was out shopping a few days ago, I have decided to put all the experts here in the forum.

I am losing some hearing and really enjoy movies much more when I can use my wireless headphones. Question is... how/where do I connect these so the entire family can watch a movie at the same time? I got some joy in one config back during the holidays, but there was a delay between the headphones and the sound coming from the speakers. Thus, rendering the headphones, useless. Yeah, I know there is a headhone jack in the front of the Sony receiver, but if you use it, you kill the audio from the mains.

My other half and I both will be very grateful for some help!

 

[ssddx]

i suppose the best option would be a splitter.

problem is.. i think if you had it attached to the back of the receiver you would only hear parts of the audio (left and right channels only).

if you split the cable going to the receiver from the source and adapter-boxed off of that then you can probably get 5.1 on a 5.1 pair of headphones.

just my take on this anyways. i've never done it before myself.

as far as delay...its due to the wireless transmitter/receiver most likely. i know bluetooth headsets do this for phones. perhaps you could run the wire under the floor and put a jack in that you can plug into with a wired set (or buy a non bluetooth version?)

 

[OkieDave]

Thanks for your input. I was beginning to think no one was going to help!

I'll do some testing today, but I don't think the delay is in the wireless. The unit is not Bluetooth either.

Since a splitter is reported to degrade the signal, I abandoned that idea. But what kind of adapter box are you referring to?

I would be more than happy with 5.1 in my headphones. These sound great when I plug them into the headphones jack on the Sony receiver.

I have also bought a very long extension cord for my recording headphones and tried them in the headphones jack. This was before I got the wireless version, and before I realiized that if I use the headphones jack, my speakers go away.

There just has to be some solution to this, as the "baby boomer" generation ages we are losing some hearing! I have heard of guys doing this, but never bothered to ask how? Of course, that was when I didn't need them!

Tell me more about splitting and this adapter box you mentioned!

Thanks again!

 

[ssddx]

getting help can be hit or miss at times. most people only answer a few posts here or there. only a few of us seem to be regulars. if you dont get an answer you can try to bump it a few days later.

hopefully you do not think me an expert. im only giving you my best guess of how it would be done. perhaps this can at least give you some things to think about.

what i meant by only getting stereo sound with missing information is that when the receiver is powering the speakers it sends different signals to the different speakers. this would result in the left and right channels working fine (on a stereo headset) but the center channel (normally voices) not working. if you had a headset that was 5.1 and had multiple-inputs it might work fine this way.

this made me think that if you can split the hdmi cable going to the reciever you could then power the speakers (the av has an amp in it anyways) and find some way to take that hdmi and make it work with speakers. my guess would be some sort of conversion box to take the signal from digital to analog (i know such boxes are made). the trouble with this is would you lose channels like you would with the other option?

perhaps there is a device which can accept hdmi (like a receiver does) but can process and power 2.1 or 5.1 headphones.

i am unsure about is what type of connection a 5.1 headset uses. does it use three 3.5mm cables like pc speakers, hdmi, usb, or some other connection? this would determine if its even plausible.

....or perhaps there is an easy way....

i know some receivers offer a "remote play" which powers speakers in a different room. perhaps you could play your surround over your speakers and hook into the remote play option to play stereo 2.0 (and adapt to headphone 3.5mm) and play the same source over that. you would have to read your manual to see if you can do this.

or perhaps there is a way to disable the plug-in speaker diable option...but my guess is that it shuts off because it cannot decode 5.1 and stereo at the same time? you would have to look into this.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Something like this *MIGHT* be what you're looking for: Monoprice.com 4x1 HDMI switcher.

I know it says, "switcher" in the description, but it does duplicate the audio to the other audio ports. I was using one of these for a time, when I needed to swap audio from my HDTV (via HDMI output) to my AVR (digital). I was thinking HDMI from your video source to this device, then HDMI Output from here to your HDTV and stereo out to your wireless headset base.

Unfortunately, I don't have it set up anymore, so I can't test it out to make sure it does audio over all ports simultaneously, but I seem to recall that it did. I would note that I do not believe this device is fully HDCP compliant. The reason I took it out of the loop was because I had just installed my Ceton InfiniTV4 card and could no longer get an image on my HDTV (HDMI through this device).

Note: This review states simultaneous audio output:

Pros: - much smaller than i expected
- audio plays in sync through all outputs simultaneously
- no sound/video noise

-Wolf sends

 

[OkieDave]

Just to give some closure to this thread... I bought a Western Digital WDTV Live Plus. It is a very tiny box that has Optical audio 5.1 output, Component output, also left/right output, along with HDMI. I now get great sounding headphone audio with no delays. As a bonus we can access Netflix, YouTube, etc, etc etc! Watch our home videos that are resident on 2 different computers. All this for $69.00!

 

[OkieDave]

Best answer selected by OkieDave.