How can I connect headphones to my TV/soundbar setup?

[nathan.boenders]

My current setup is an Apple TV, Xbox 360 Elite, and an Android box that connect to the three "HDMI IN" ports on my Sony HT-CT380 soundbar. The single "ARC HDMI OUT" port connects to my Samsung UN50H6203 TV's "HDMI IN 1 (STB)" port. Essentially this lets me keep the TV on HDMI 1 and cycle through my apple tv, xbox and android box inputs with my soundbar remote, with the audio playing from the soundbar and the video going to the TV.

What I would like to add to this setup is a headset (something similar to the Sony RF995RK wireless home theatre headphones). I want it connected in a way that I can relatively easily play audio from the headset instead of the soundbar while maintaining the function of selecting the source (apple tv, xbox or android box) via the soundbar.

My questions are:

1. Does my current hardware (soundbar and TV) have the capacity to be able to somehow pass audio through whatever it needs to in order to achieve my goal?

2. Assuming that there is a way, what headphone product(s) do I need to buy for it to work?

My impression is as follows:
- the soundbar properly plays the audio and properly relays the video to the TV.
- the TV only receives video from the soundbar, even though the soundbar's HDMI OUT is ARC, because the TV's HDMI IN is not ARC.
- if I were to purchase a headphone, I would likely try connecting to the TV's "AUDIO OUT" or "DIGITAL AUDIO OUT (OPTICAL)" to the input of the headphone dock, which would transmit the audio wireless to the actual headset.
- would the TV pass the audio through from the soundbar to the headphones??
- is there a way to test this before I buy any headphones?
- if it doesn't work, is there another way to connect stuff so that it does?

 

[americanaudiophile]

I suspect that the soundbar won't send audio into the TV from its' HDMI inputs.
Only way to check that would be to see if you can turn on the digital audio output while leaving the ARC on too. Then connect the optical audio out to another system or soundbar to see if it works the way you need.
there are other options to get it working.
1. If you don't need to get audio from the TV tuner to the soundbar there is no reason you need to connect it to the HDMI-ARC input. Connect it to any other HDMI input. Use the optical audio output to run the headphone transmitter.
2. Use the TV to do your HDMI switching. Use an HDMI-ARC audio extractor to provide audio outputs for the soundbar and headphone transmitter.