cordless headset for watching tv, help please

[happyhero]

Hi I am fancying one of those cordless headsets for Xmas so I can watch TV when I'm being boring and cant hear due to all my noisy kids etc, but have a few questions, as follows:

When you plug the headset in on a HI-FI it normally goes dead quiet except in the headphones, does this happen with these ones that people get to watch TV, as that would be a problem for us?

Next would you not want ones with a volume control so that you could alter what you heard only ie thats assuming you hear sound in the headset and on the TV at the same time, otherwise every time you tried to turn it up in the headset everyone in the room would suffer.

I have noticed that some say Infrared and some say FM, I assume FM is best looking at the pricing, can anyone tell me any more about this?

Do they all charge themselves on the base?

How clear are they?

Are any of the other features worth having, ie I see some advertising surround sound and 5.1?

Anything else to consider I haven't mentioned?

And finally any recommendations, which to get?

All help appreciated.

 

[PTH]

My father, who was partially deaf had several of these - In answer to your questions:

The sound from the television speaker did not go off when the unit was plugged in - try it with normal headphones the connection is usually the same small stereo jack socket.

The independent volume control is a must the output to the jack socket is not normally regulated by the television volume control.

The infra red ones ar ok for sound quality but ned to be more or less "line of sight" with the sender unit and get affected by people walking round the room, whereas the radio ones have a just have a limiting range and will sometimes even work in adjacent rooms - ie you can carry on listening to the footie results while you're making a cuppa!

Most of them can use rechargeable batteries which charge at the base.

The best ones that that my father had were Sony, still got them somewhere, nearly four years after he died.

Why not try a few out at one of the big appliance stores, then buy the ones you like best at half the price on the web


Good luck with it.

 

[happyhero]

Never know how you are supposed to thank people on this site, some sites have thankyou buttons, but thank you anyway, very helpfull answer PTH.

 

[Diyisfun]

If I plug headphones into my tv I lose the speakers, so not all tv's are the same.
Infrared line of sight
FM radio transmit, can get hiss