Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Yes, I have removed the RCA cables but then I do not even get the cable tv stations thru the hearing aid with the optical alone connected to the tv. I also tried to connect the RCA cables from the adapter to the tv but again, no sound of any kind to hearing aids. The cable box itself is connected to HDMI 2 on TV.
I have another identical opticon adapter in another room . That TV is connected to cable box via HDMI 1. However everything else is the same. the RCA cables run from adapter to cable box but it wasn’t until I connected toslink cable from adapter to TV as well that we were able to get sound for apps (netflix, amazon etc ) thru an apple box to the hearing aid as well.
Two things are different between the two set-ups
Room 1 (the room where the cable stations can be heard thru hearing aids but the apps cannot be heard ) has a smart tv with apps included with TV ) also for some reason when cable person hooked tv up he connected it to HDMI 2
Room 2 Both cable stations and the apps can be heard thru the hearing aids via hearing aid adapter. Again, the RCA cables are connected from Adapter to Cable box and the toslink cable
is attached to TV. However, it is not a "smart tv and the apps are run thru an Apple box. Further the cable company has connected the cable box to HDMI 1 .
I am starting to wonder if there is a difference between the HDMI?