My dad is slightly deaf, which he's entitled to be because he's 92. This means the TV can be on very loudly at times, which annoys my mum, and probably the neighbours too. I looked at branded bluetooth TV listener devices, but I'm reluctant to spend £300+ on a pair untested.
I bought a pair of bluetooth headphones for about a tenner, and I bought an audio to bluetooth adapter which plugs into the TV's audio output (RCA) connectors. The problem is connecting (pairing) the two items over bluetooth. Both items need to connect to a bluetooth device that can input the pairing code (0000), neither has the means to generate or input that code.
Any ideas how I can pair these together, particularly methods with which I can instruct him over the phone, in case they become 'un-paired' in the future? He does not have a smarty-pants phone.
MM
Are you sure these are audio
OUT and not audio
IN?
There are very few TVs made within the past decade which still feature an analogue audio out connection on RCA (phono) connections. Your dad's could be the odd exception of course, or the TV could be old enough that it does have audio out, but it's worth checking. You didn't list your dad's TV model, so it's a bit of a question mark and a possible roadblock to getting BT working for him; or any external audio device via this connection.
Lots of folk assume that the red and the white RCAs they see on the back of a telly will give them a signal out. They don't realise that these connections are directional i.e. if it's marked "AUDIO IN" then it's for getting a signal IN TO the TV. They aren't bi-directional.
The Techwalla article even gets this wrong(!), or at least gives very confusing information, especially if you're trying to get audio out from the TV to a speaker or a pair of headphones
...Most use an RCA connector, which is typically available on both digital and analog TV receivers. An RCA connector, which is also known as a phono connector, is a coaxial cable with three color-coded plugs that connect to corresponding jacks on the television. This type of cable was used in the past to connect VCR players to television sets. Some Bluetooth adapters connect through a 3.5mm audio jack that plugs into the TV's AUX-in port, so make sure you know which type of connector your TV has before purchasing an adapter.
Once a Bluetooth adapter is connected to your television, it should work just like built-in Bluetooth and can be paired with one or more Bluetooth devices. If audio is not streaming from your TV as expected after connecting an adapter, you may need to access the TV's settings from an onscreen menu and enable output to headphones or auxiliary speakers.
Any port on the TV which is marked "
(something) IN" is not a connection for getting anything OUT unless it's the HDMI ARC connection. That's the only modern bi-directional connection. Fully wired SCART - something else very rare on modern-ish TVs - is the other possibility, but only for sound from the internal tuner. It wouldn't work for externally connected sources or streaming apps for example.
List your dad's TV model, and if you want then I or someone else here can check for you.
Checking this is pretty much essential before then going on to try to get BT working. Even if you establish a BT link, if there's no signal getting from the TV to the transmitter then you won't get anything in to the 'phones, and then probably think it's a BT problem when it's really a source signal issue.
