Phonak TV Connector

The Kirkland Signature 9 hearing aids have 3 settings for the TV Connector–I suspect the Marvels do as well:

• Autosence, which will automatically connect anytime the TV connector signal is detected.

• Notify, which provides a beep when the TV connector signal is detected. You then have to manually select the signal with your hearing aid.

• Manual, which doesn’t do anything until you manually select the signal.

Your audiologist can select these program settings. I am now using the manual setting, which I prefer. If you use the auto setting and then walk away, once you are beyond about 30 feet you’ll lose the signal, and then reconnect when you get close again. That sounds like a nice feature, and I guess it is. However, if you aren’t the one watching the TV show, it can drive you a bit crazy. For example, I was working in the yard the other day and every time I get near the area of my home where the TV was installed, it would connect (briefly).

That is VERY interesting! I never had to put my aids manually into the TV streaming program, BUT I used to have to press the TV streamer button to get my Marvel or Audeo B-Direct aids to stream.

However, after a software update done in September, I no longer have to do a thing to stream the TV into either of those Phonak aids! I just assumed the software update was the reason why.

@ThomF said:

However, if you aren’t the one watching the TV show, it can drive you a bit crazy. For example, I was working in the yard the other day and every time I get near the area of my home where the TV was installed, it would connect (briefly).

LOL!!! My aids are set to “auto sense” I guess, cuz that’s exactly what happens to me. I like the feature about 90% of the time, so when hubs is tinkering with the TV, checking out movies at Amazon, or some other thing with audio, I just literally UNPLUG my TV streamer from the TV till he’s done.

Low tech. Gets the job done.

Haggis, perhaps you can help me! We also have a Samsung TV hooked up to a soundbar (for better audio). On top of which, my TV streamer is plugged into the back of some intermediate device - NOT the actual TV.

I find that I hear both the streamed TV audio AND the soundbar audio when we watch TV. Unless I jack up the volume on my aids, I get an echo effect with both audio sources competing.

Could you tell me on the back of these shots of my TV where I could plug my TV streamer in? I’ve got all the cables it came with. I’m guessing it’s the Audio OUT as pictured in the closeup shot.

I don’t own a “smart” phone - nor do I intend to buy one any time soon. I’ll stay with my old but decent flip phone, thank you! But I do have an iPod Touch (6G) that uses the same iOS system. I am wondering if the Phonak apps will work on my iPod or do I need to forget about downloading and trying to use it when and if I get a Naida M when Phonak gets around to releasing it?

[quote=“haggis, post:26, topic:46949”]
The idea is we need to connect the TV Connector at a similar point in the chain as the soundbar, with similar connection type, in order to try to match the latency that the soundbar gets with the audio. You could connect to the analog audio out on the bottom, or you could connect to the “Digital Audio Out (Optical)” near the top, but the soundbar may get sound with a different timing.

Ah! You nailed it completely right there! Turns out that our “soundbar” is actually a speaker. It’s hooked up to a Mac mini via a USB connection. My TV streamer is also hooked up to this Mac mini via an analog port. (Hope I got that reasonably correct). So. It appears that this is about as good as it gets then. There’s an infintesimal delay in these sounds coming out … and that is what’s causing the “echo” effect when we’re watching TV.

We have no cable, no satellite, so the term “TV” is loosely applied to watching just DVDs (through a DVD player) or AmazonPrime videos on the TV screen.

Thanks for all the help here!

@TraderGary said:

You can buy a signal splitter for digital (optical) audio or standard audio. Plug your sound bar in one side of the splitter and the TV Connector in the other and the sound should be the same.

Thanks for that tip! Turns out our TV’s standalone speaker is connected to a Mac mini … and so is my current TV Streamer.

To be honest, I’m not sure what the purpose of the Mac mini is in this chain of audio output! That’s a question for my Tech Kahuna hubs.

Hey! I just had a BRAIN FART. I’m going to ask my audi to turn off ALL ambient noise in my streaming program. I forgot that I’d initially set things up that way, then thought I could have ambient noise low enough to not interfere but to let me also talk to folks in the room.

AIN’T WORTH IT! They can wait! The only way I’ll get rid of the echo factor for good is tune out all audio from all sources and directions except for that which my TV streamer sends to my aids.

I have an app’t for a week from today to just that - AND to have Acoustic Phone DuoPhone set up as a program. WooOoOooOOO!

That is a pretty good strategy.

The other thing you might try is to “Y” off the Audio-In jack on the soundbar. You can get a little Y-cable on Amazon; just have to know what ends to get. If the input is 3.5mm headphone jack style, then you just need a Y-cable with 2 females and 1 male, and then use the 3.5-to-3.5 cable that came with the TV Connector. It did have a 3.5-to-3.5, right?

If you do this you’ll probably be able to keep your ambient sound on. I often run this way and I find that the TV connector has very little latency so there’s no echo effect for me listening both through the Marvels and through ambient sound. For me, if fills out the low frequencies.

I’m using the Phonak TV Connector with my new computer, an Asus ZenBook Pro Duo running the latest version of Windows 10 Pro. Every time the TV Connector disconnects it plays a musical sound. The connect/disconnect happens quite frequently and the sound is rather annoying. Anyone else using their TV Connector with their computer? Have you found a way to eliminate the disconnect sound?

Yes, Bluetooth Classic works nicely with my new Asus ZenBook Pro Duo1 with almost no perceptible lag. With the Marvel 2.0 update the PITA is gone!

My Pixel 3 XL phone uses Bluetooth 5.0. My new computer uses Bluetooth 5.0 (and WiFi 6). It’s a damn shame that Phonak used old technology Bluetooth 4.2 for the Marvels instead of 5.0 (which of course would have been backwardly compatible if needed).

Ow. I will share this with my Tech Kahuna hubs. It does sound like a “best case” scenario to have the soundbar, streaming and ambient sound all at once without any irritating echo-effect.

THANKS for this work-around.

This constant chiming in my KS9s in my ears the entire time my 2nd TV Connector is connected to my laptop is driving me crazy, and I can’t stop it! It seems ridiculous that this is not a user-controlled function and that I will have to take it back to Costco Hearing to get it somehow adjusted to stop this! I bought this 2nd one specifically for my laptop and now it is unusable for that purpose.
Who would even want an “optional setting” that makes the Connector constantly chime non-stop in the user’s ears?
(For someone who may not have been following this portion of the thread, I purchased this 2nd unit specifically for my laptop because using its built-in Bluetooth to send to my KS9s was burning through hearing aid batteries almost daily!)

Mine only chimes after I listen to something and the session ends. I’m now expecting it, but there’s no question that it’s irritating. I can’t imagine the designers wouldn’t have a software switch to turn the damn chime OFF!!!