Benefits of a Soundbar when using Phonak Marvel with TV Connector

Thanks for your opinion.

Our TV connector (version one) using optical is not compatible with our Sonos Soundbar which must be plugged into an HDMI arc. The pass through for the optical does not work with the HDMI arc soundbar. Very disappointing. So it’s not possible for us to use the TV connector for hearing aids simultaneously with the Sonos soundbar.

Our TV is a new Samsung QLED.

Does the tv itself have an optical out? Or even audio out? The TV Connector can take a 1/8" (3.5mm) audio cable too. Is there an option in the tv menu to control any audio outs?

The TV Connector is using optical out. It works with just hearing aids. Pass-through is not compatible with our Sonos soundbar because it requires HDMI arc. This Samsung TV doesn’t have another audio out option.

I have a Sonos (Beam) sound bar and the equivalent TV Adapter 3 for Oticon aids so I can only offer my experience but it may be applicable for your case.

According to the manual for the Sonos Arc (for large TVs) and for my Sonos Beam (for smaller TVs), an optical to HDMI adapter is provided with the sound bar in order to connect to a TV optical output, especially if the TV does not have an HDMI arc port. So, in my case, I plug the optical cable into the TV and my Oticon TV Adapter, then plug the Sonos optical to HDMI adapter into the optical output port of my Oticon TV Adapter, and the the HDMI cable into the Sonos adapter and the Sonos sound bar. I get sound direct to my aids from the Oticon TV adapter and the Sonos gets the same signal via the Sonos adapter/cable. I can adjust the Sonos volume with the cable or TV remote and the aid volume separately using the phone app, aid buttons, or hearing aid remote.

As far as I know, the Phonak TV Connector does not have an optical output but you could acquire an active optical splitter that would plug into the TV optical output and provide two (or possibly more) optical outputs. You could plug your TV Connector into one output and the Sonos optical to HDMI adapter into the other. That should allow for both your aids and the Sonos to use the single TV optical output.

Note - there are passive optical splitters that some have been able to use but the signal at each output is weaker than that from an active (powered) splitter and may or may not work correctly. My Oticon adapter effectively contains an active splitter to power the output port. An active splitter is typically a bit more expensive and requires a small amount of power but, in many cases, that can be provided by a USB port, possibly one that your TV might have. As I don’t need a splitter, I have not used one so cannot provide an example of one that might work.

Settings, All Settings, Sound, Expert Settings - Simultaneous Optical Output
Can your tv connector lights display green, red, blue or just green?
There might be a problem with Dolby on versions 1 and 1.1. Particularly 1.1 (only green). This would mean that with other audio output going out the hdmi that that makes all audio output be dolby. Look in the other settings in that expert menu.

One issue with using simulteneous optical output on the TV into the TV Connector, while using HDMI output to a soundbar (or reciever) is that any processing on the HDMI audio may introduce a sight delay which will not be present on the optical feed. This is a problem I’m running into now. Unless I set my reciever in “direct” mode (no EQ or other processing), the speakers have a slight delay which makes the TV Connecter audio very difficult to listen to. There are ways to address out-of-sync optical audio in TV settings, but these often only work when optical is the “primary” audio feed, not when you’re using it as a secondary, “always on” audio source as I am. Never a dull moment…

If you dig deep into sound settings you should be able to tweak ‘audio delay’