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Oticon OPN 1 and TV Streamer

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I just got my Oticon Aids and TV Streamer this week.

I have a couple questions about it.

How do you increase the volume of the streamer without using the phone. On my Resound TV Streamer, I have volume buttons on the TV Streamer. Or is it recommended to set the TV streamer at 80% and then increase/decrease the volume on the aids? I am not sure how to increase/decrease the volume on the tv when using the optical cable unless its the same volume as the headphones jack. I must try that. But again it makes sense to leave the tv at around 80% volume for the headphones out.

I am told that you can disable the mic and just hear the tv. Using the Oticon App, I can adjust the volume of the TV Streamer which I have set to around 80% and then I normally have my normal volume at either 0, 1 or 2 depending on the movie. So adjusting the main volume seems to affect the volume of the tv and the volume of the room environment. Reducing the volume to -8 i.e. muting it also affects the volume of the tv. I am not sure how to mute the mic on the Oticon app whilst increasing the volume for the tv.

I have the optical cable plugged into my tv and the composite cable plugged into my laptop. However, I am finding in order to get sound using the composite cable I have to unplug the optical cable. Is there some way to tell the tv streamer which connection to use?

10 people in this conversation27 min readJump to latest

I assume you are using the Connectline TV adapter 3.0 and OPN ’s.
There is no switch to select the input ie… Optical/Headphone/RCA on the adapter or in the Oticon phone app.
The output from the TV is normally a constant .5 ~ 1 Volt and is not variable via the TV volume control. The volume to the HA’s is controllable via the buttons on the HA’s or with the Oticon app on your phone. Easier to use the HA’s buttons, to me.

I remembered that I received a manual. It says tv adapter 3.0 so I assume that I have the connectline.

As you say, I can’t change the source input, so I will have to unplug/plug the cables. Not a big deal.

According to my manual, I can mute the mics by pressing the volume button in the app. This will mute the mic, but not the tv. I will test this later.

Thanks

Edited

Okay, so let’s ask your questions one at a time (for example; volume without using the phone);

Short-Press the left hearing aid button for Volume-Down or Short-Press the right hearing aid button for Volume-Up.

Does that work for you? If Yes, let’s move on to your next question. If not, (perhaps you may not like this method because it also lowers your microphone volume in addition to your streaming volume) then maybe we need to talk more about raising/lowering volume.

Or, maybe you prefer to ask your questions in one big jumble as you did in you OP? Good luck on getting a response from someone who understands the interactions that each setting, from each component (and fitting software settings) has on the other settings from each of the other components (and fitting software settings).

If that is what you are looking for may I suggest that you discard you complicated questions. Instead, perhaps you should ask about a recommended solution for your (hopefully easily described) goal. In other words, what would you like to accomplish?

First, let’s cover the situation where you use the composite cable plugged into your laptop first. This is my primary connection used with my TV Adapter 3.0. In this scenario, the first stage of volume control is from your laptop. You’ll find that you’ll need to set your laptop to a certain minimum volume level (as displayed on your laptop) before it will trigger the TV Adapter from being in standby mode (red LED) into the operation mode (2 green LEDs). You can reduce the volume on your laptop and still be able to hear it on your OPN, but if you reduce it too much, after about 5 minutes, the TV Adapter will go into standby mode (red LED) because it doesn’t detect enough volume that surpasses its minimum volume threshold level going into the TV Adapter from the laptop. In this case, you’ll have to raise the volume on your laptop to a certain point, and you’ll notice that the TV Adapter shows 2 green LEDs again, and you’ll hear the sound streaming to your OPN again.

But let’s say at this minimum volume threshold level set on your laptop to keep the TV Adapter from going into standby (red LED), it’s too loud for you and you want to adjust down. You can do it a couple of ways. Either use the ON app (if you have an Android phone) or the volume button on your OPN to turn down both the streaming volume.

The side effect of this is that the environment mic volume will be turned down as well. This may or may not be desirable. If you don’t want this side effect (you want the default environment mic volume), you can turn down the laptop volume instead to a more comfortable level. However, the side effect of THIS is that after a few minutes, the TV Adapter will go into standby mode, and you’ll need to “wake it up” by increasing the laptop volume until there are 2 green LEDs and streaming resumes, then turn down the laptop volume again into a comfortable level again, and repeating this cycle, which is a nuisance.

If you want to raise the streaming volume instead, I’d suggest you raise the volume of the laptop going into the TV Adapter, instead of using the ON app or the OPN volume button to raise the volume. The advantage of this is that you will be able to avoid raising the environment mic volume up in conjunction with the streaming volume. As long as the laptop volume is not too loud to cause distortion (and it shouldn’t be), then it’s all good.

The ONLY way to INDEPENDENTLY control the streaming volume and the mic volume separately is if you have an iPhone, and you use the iPhone’s MFI volume control menu. In this case, the iPhone MFI volume control gives you 2 separate controls, a Mic volume slider, and a TV Box 1 Volume slider. If you leave the Mic volume slider at the default level, the TV Box volume slider will vary the streaming volume independently and the mic volume remains at the default level (which is 64% in my case, yours may be different). If you hand mute the Mic volume by the OPN volume button (via a long hold on the button until the mic is turned off), the TV Box 1 volume slider will also operate independently while the mic volume is being mute. BUT, ONLY IF you HAND MUTE the mic volume via the OPN button.

This is where it gets confusing. IF you adjust the mic volume SLIDER, it NOT ONLY affects the mic volume, it’ll ALSO affect the TV BOX 1 streaming volume in parallel. For example, my default mic volume is at 64%, This is also where the default volume streaming volume is at. In another word, the Mic volume represents both the volume of the mic and the volume of the streaming. The TV Box 1 volume slider is only 0-100% of this default streaming volume.

So for example, if I reduce the mic volume down to 30% (from the scale of 0-100%), that means that my mic is at 30% volume (where default is 64%), and my streaming volume is also reduced to 30% of its max streaming volume (where the default streaming volume is 64%). By now, the TV Box 1 volume slider operates between 0-100% OF THE 30% streaming volume. It’s like a slider within a slider…

In a way, this Mic volume slider is equivalent to the combined volume control either on the ON app, or on the OPN button, where both the streaming volume and the mic volume go together in CONCERT.

So in a way, the TV Box 1 volume slider is not really totally 100% independent from the Mic volume slider. It is a 0-100% scale adjustment of whatever the streaming volume is, as set by the Mic volume slider, which controls both the streaming volume and the mic volume together.

Before I go on, I need to say that MUTING the mic by long pressing the OPN volume button IS NOT THE SAME as sliding the Mic volume to 0%. That is because the earlier (long pressing the OPN volume button) PRESERVES the current value of the streaming volume and only mutes the volume of the mic. As opposed to when you slide the mic volume slider to 0%, what you inadvertently do is to not just reduce the mic volume to 0%, you’re also reducing the streamer volume (not to 0%, but to a very low streaming volume level, another quirk, I guess).

Now, having said what I just said in the above paragraph, the most volume you can get downstream for streaming (assuming that the input level to the TV Adapter is at a fixed volume) is by increasing the Mic volume slider to 100% (to get the streaming volume to 100%), then manually mute the mic by the long press on the OPN volume button, THEN control the streaming volume with the TV Box 1 slider.

If you don’t have an iPhone, then you’re really limited to using the ON app to control the streaming volume, in conjunction with the mic volume, and they’re not separable. If you have an iPhone, you can have better control of both as described above.

In the end, if you’re using the composite cable connection from your laptop (or whatever) and you don’t have an iPhone, the best bet to control the streaming volume and leaving the mic volume at the default level (or even when muting the mic by a long press on the OPN volume button), is to vary the volume from the laptop. The trade off is if you vary the volume from the laptop downward too low, you may risk putting the TV Adapter box into standby after a few minutes if the volume output is below its threshold.

Now I don’t have a setup where I use the optical cable so I can’t talk in details about that situation. But I’d imagine that although you don’t have the situation of risking the TV Adapter go into standby due to being lower than a threshold level, if this optical signal is a fixed volume input into the TV Adapter, then you’ll run into the same issues as explained above about the limitation of using the ON app or the OPN volume button to control the streaming volume, vs using the iPhone MFI volume control with both a Mic and a TV Box 1 volume slider.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Work was so busy the last couple of days.

Thanks for the tip about long pressing the OPN Volume button. I did not realise that this would mute the mic, but preserve the volume of the streamer. My audio guy who I spoke to today, said that I need to increase the volume of the tv which is plugged in using the optical cable. This will be a better way to control the volume of streaming without affecting the volume of the mic unless I mute the volume as you suggest of course.

Which is what you have suggested as well. This makes sense.

So I will see if that is the headphones out volume for the tv.

I don’t have an iphone, but the long press mute is fine for me and adjusting the volume of the tv will work brilliantly for me (or volume of the laptop). That way I can have the right mic volume for listening to people in the room and have the streamer louder by using the volume of the tv or laptop vol controls.

I don’t have the issue of the adapter going into standby mode as the laptop and tv volume is fairly high. My problem is that I have to unplug the optical cable to get sound out of the coax. But it’s not a big deal.

I will have the streamer volume set to 80%, mic to default and increase/decrease vol of tv output. Thank you.

I wonder if there’s some kind of on/off device you can put in series with your optical cable to avoid plugging/unplugging it each time you switch to the composite connection or not. You would think that since the optical signal is just a light beam, a simple on/off switch to block or unblock this light beam can be easily/cheaply made and sold. Although I don’t know how common it is for people to need plugging/unplugging optical cables like that on a regular basis.

That’s not a bad idea. I will see how it goes. It’s not the end of the world. I also need to investigate my tv instruction guide as the headphones out volume does not affect the volume of the optical out connection. Maybe it can’t be adjusted. But I have the TV manual somewhere so I will investigate

Edited

Usually based on my experience, optical output is at a fixed level. However, some TV may have an option to make it adjustable. Another option is just to use the composite output from your TV instead of the optical, if the composite output is adjustable. Then use an A/B composite line switcher between your TV and laptop to the TV Adapter.

While you’re supposed to get higher audio quality from the optical line than the composite line, for hearing impaired folks like us, we may not be able to discern a difference between them anyway.

That’s the reason I went with Optical - better sound quality. Whether we can hear it is another thing though lol.

I am not that fussed. I can just increase the volume of the hearing aids if it comes to that. But I will look at the tv manual and see. But I suspect you are right - it’s a fixed level as presumably it is meant to output to an AV Receiver which would then handle the volume

I have been thinking about getting an av receiver that I can use midnight mode because even my sister who has very good hearing complains that too many dvd’s have the sound effects too loud and the volume of dialogue a lot lower. DVD’s are designed as if people live in Cinemas.

I think your issues may be resolved by changing the settings within your TV set. Look at your TV manual or find it online, and set the parameters step by step, especially the input and output. You will have to make the settings for EACH input (source) for example Computer - Cable Box - Apple TV, etc. if you use these.
Set the output to TV speakers. The Optical Cable will be plugged into the Oticon TV Adapter. When you switch to the TV Adapter Program either by ON App or press on Hearing Aids, you should hear the TV sound streamed to your hearing aids, and the sound will also be transmitted to the TV speakers. The TV speaker volume will be adjusted by the TV remote control and will not affect your TV Adapter volume and vice versa. The volume control is independent.
No need to unplug Optical Cable or use Switch.

If you plug TV Adapter into the headphone jack, only the TV Adapter will receive the sound. If you want to do this, you will need to get a splitter and plug in a speaker - like a Beats - for others to be able to hear the TV. Volume control is not completely independent.
The key is telling the TV what you want to accomplish on each and every input. For me, I want to output by optical Cable to TV Adapter and also sound out to speakers for others. When I watch alone, I mute the TV speakers sound (TV remote) and Mute the mics so only the streamed sound is heard in my ears.

This is how it works for my TV’s. You need to get the sound working on both the TV and the TV Adapter at the same time, then you will be able to adjust the streamed sound quality with your Audi.

Edited

In reply to @Volusiano

The mic volume on mine is set to 64% on both for P1. On P2 with speech rescue, it is 64% for my left and 70% for my right. The latter also applies to the music program.

My Audiologist said it was an indication of reserve gain, so I have less reserve gain in my right ear due to a bent ear canal.

Surely it should apply to P1 too or perhaps it is because I have speech rescue applied to P2? And the music program, not sure why it also has the mic volume at 64%/70%, maybe due to how it processes and pushes the sound for me?

Edited

My right hearing is worse than my left so I only have 7.5 reserve gain on my right and 10 dB reserve gain on my left. You can see it on the screen shot below (on the upper right and upper left corners). BUT, my default volume is 64% on both left and right side in ALL 4 of my programs. So what happens is that as I increase the volume, both my left and right volume would increase in concert with each other, but I can only go up 3 more notches before my right OPN stops increasing (because its reserve gain has been exhausted). Meanwhile, I can go up another notch on my left OPN before it’s maxed out. It’s very obvious to see this via the ON app on the iPhone.

NOW, if from this point of max volume where both the right side and left side volume are now skewed by 1 notch, I decrease the volume on both side, their volume level will continue to be skewed by 1 notch all the way back to default, and continues to be skewed if I continue to decrease the volume down all the way to 0.

The only way to undo the volume skew once it gets skewed is to switch to another program, then the volume gets reset to the default 64% in the new program, and they move in concert again with the same volume level, until/unless I go all the way to maximum again and cause them to be skewed again.

I don’t think that the use of Speech Rescue is causing a reserve gain difference like what your audi said. From what I can tell, I didin’t have a reserve gain difference until I started running the feedback analyzer. As you can see on my screen shot below, the feedback analyzer causes the margin between the amplification and the gain suppression for feedback removal to shrink considerable on my right OPN, while there’s still plenty of margin left on my left OPN. From what I can tell, THAT’s what creating a reserve gain difference in my case.

Also, I have this reserve gain difference for all my 4 programs, despite the P4 being the Music program and therefore does not have Speech Rescue turned on. I can toggle Speech Rescue on and off in any of my 4 programs in Genie 2 on the fly and I don’t see the reserve gain change at all.

image

Edited

He ran the feedback program the first fitting. He did however a couple of days ago lower the loud/ moderate/ soft section in the 1 - 1.5 frequencies as it was a little over amplified in that area after doing the test. He tried bringing it down 3 notches down but it was a little too much, so brought it up 2 notches and it is good now. After he did this, the mic volumes went down to 64% both sides from 70%. Except on P2 and the music program where it went down to 64% on my left and remained at 70% on my right. P3 is a custom made car program.

So maybe that influences the mic volume as well? And depends on how the sound can quickly reach your ears? So for my right, it takes longer than my left due to my weird bent ear canal. So I’m thinking that’s why the mic volume is higher for my right than my left.

Otherwise I’m a bit confused as to why the mic volume differs in P2 and the music program compared to the general program? I would expect it to be 64% on both L and R in all programs. :thinking:

I’m not sure if you can help me, Volusiano, but it seems worth a try, even though I’m replying to a very old thread. I have the new Philips Hearlink 9030s, with a TV adapter that appears identical to the Oticon TV Adapter 3 (not surprising, since both are Demant companies). If they’re not identical they seem to function very similarly. My problem with the Philips transmitter is that the default volume is much too loud and zaps my ears each time the TVA program comes on or is resumed from streaming pause. I have complained to Philips and to my Costco HAS, but so far they seem unable to offer a solution. The HAS was told by Philips to lower some setting in his fittings, but only had a couple of presets to choose from, and so far the difference is negligible. Why should it be so hard after all this time with problematic TVAs for Oticon and now Philips to lower the default volume so this situation can be avoided? Adjusting the app slider on my iPhone or the buttons on the provides a temporary fix but the problem returns and blasts my eardrums over and over again.

Edited

In reply to @piques46

I never used the Philips TV adapter or poked around that part of the fitting software, however, I assume it’s similar to the Oticon Genie2 software and there certainly should be a setting in the accessory section of the Philips HearSuite software to lower the TVA volume even more. I couldn’t imagine there being no way to adjust the volume from the software so it doesn’t kill your ears. Your fitter probably needs to set it down lower than he or she did already.

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