How to listen to the TV via headphones?

Factual Questions
1

A seemingly common problem, yet none of the strores I checked with had a decent answer.

I just want to sit in the living room with the TV on and listen to it over earphones so my kids can go to sleep.

One guy sold me a simple “earbud” on a wire, which plugged into my audio out. First off it was too short to be comfortable, and second, there was no way to control the volume. He said there’s no extension cords nor volume controls available.

A second guy sold me an elaborate transmitter, that looks like rabbit ears, sits on top of the TV, sends an infrared signal to headphones that look like those of a WWII fighter pilot, with a cigarette-box size receiver. And when you move your head you lose the signal.

This can’t be the normal way to do it.
What’s the right way?

2

The guy who sold you the earbud was on the right track, but totally wrong.

Do you have a headphone jack on the TV? If so, you’ll need a) an ordinary pair of headphones b) a minijack to minijack patch cord of whatever length and c) an inline volume control. Plug the headphones into the inline volume control and plug that into the patch cord.

This is exactly the setup I have in the bedroom for when the missus is out and I can’t sleep. All of this is readily available and cheap at a Radio Shack or similar.

If you don’t have a headphone jack, it’s going to be a little trickier. One thing you can try is getting an RCA-minijack patch cord and plugging it into the switched audio output on the back of the set. Then you can mute the internal speakers. However, if muting the internal speaker also mutes the switched audio out, It’s going to get a little trickier.

3

If you want to go wireless, forget infared - it stinks.
Go with RF like these.

4

My TV is connected to my stereo and my VCR is wired to run through the stero. I bought a pair of wireless headphones on eBay and plugged the base into the stereo, and when I want to use the headphones, I make sure I’m watching TV through the VCR. The sound quality is not great, but good enough for watching regular TV.

5

My setup

from back of TV: “OUT” (RCA Plugs) to the Stereo tuner. Set tuner to ‘source input’ or similar. Insert trusty headphones into stereo.

6

I use a Y cable from the audio outs to a single 20 foot line. Then I use Philips noise reducing earbuds with inline volume control.

I tried two pairs of wireless headphones. Intermittent signals and poor quality convinced me to stay wired, even though it can be a pain.

7

Forgot to put in links!

Y adapter
Philips Noise Cancelling Earbuds

Don’t think you need a link for the wire.

8

If your TV has a genuine headphone jack, you wouldn’t even need an inline volume control, would you? Just adjust the TV’s volume as normal.

The TV we had when I was growing up had a headphone jack that worked like that: whatever would have come out the TV’s speaker came through the 'phones instead. But that was a while back; said TV also had channel knobs that you had to physically turn. Apparently they don’t make TVs with headphone jacks as much any more.

9

Our son is hearing impaired, but he loves to watch TV–more than any of the rest of us do. He also loves totally inane shows, and even with his hearing aids, he tends to turn the volume very loud.

We got him a set of IR headphones for Christmas last year. The transmitter plugs into the TV sound stereo port on the side of the TV, and he can sit anywhere in the living room to listen to his TV show. As an added bonus, we can plug the transmitter into the stereo in the living room, and he can listen to whatever CD or radio station he wants to. Volume and channel/band settings are set using the normal remote controls or device buttons. The headphones work with any device that has a standard stereo headphone jack, with the only restriction that you have to be able to see the transmitter, and the batteries in the headphones have to be charged up.