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Thread: Cannot understand dialogue on TV--------what to buy

  1. #1
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    Cannot understand dialogue on TV--------what to buy

    My hearing is deteriorating and I have trouble watching movies on TV.......should I buy a soundbar........or something else

  2. #2
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    I've lost over half of my hearing so I feel your pain. Sound bars will raise the volume so you can hear but it makes it uncomfortable for those who can still hear. Look for a Blue tooth
    capability for headphones for you. You can hear and the people around aren't annoyed with a loud volume.

  3. #3
    I agree with Ralph, headphones are a good way to go. You have lots of good choices to set them up. I am considering a Rouku device that lets you use headphones, provides you with lots of tv channels and costs far less than most sound bars.

  4. #4
    Well, I was trying to find a link to the "TV Ears" product I'd seen on TV. But oddly, a number of BBB complaints came up for that one. I'd go with headphones too.
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  5. #5
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    Get the Bose noise cancelling headphones. The noise cancelling is amazing. My issue is different- my hearing is so good that outside noise makes it difficult for me to hear phone conversations. I can hear a pin drop 100 feet away- which is great, but when on the phone I hear every outside sound over the person talking. I bought a set of noise cancelling headphones and was in love with them. I decided to get a more quality set and got the Dr. Dre Beats headphones with noise cancelling. I hated them. Next I got Bose and oh my- like night and day to the other two. I fly a lot on prop planes from small cessnas to turbo prop Saab and Fokkers (extremely loud) and I put on the headsets without connecting them to anything- just to cancel out the noise. They are also very comfortable to wear.

    Agreeing with above replies- a headset lets you tailor the sound for you without interrupting others.

  6. #6
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    These are expensive, but work like a champ. The RF has much better range and robustness than bluetooth or infrared versions we've tried. Sound quality is excellent. They are pretty much everything "TV Ears" are not.

    I no longer have to retreat to far corners of the house when DW is watching the TV, we can actually be in the same room, which is nice!

  7. #7
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    Mom and dad finally found relief with wireless, full cup headphones. Unfortunately the only ones still around that we can find are some Sony's. The headphones are fine but, the ear pads only last a couple of years. The replacement pads are almost as much as the headphones. I think they have bought 4 over the last decade. At their age and the usefulness they get out of them, we figure it is worth $200 every couple-a-three years.

    Some Bose headphones costing twice as much did not offer near the isolation or sound quality (to their declining hearing) as the Sony. To me, the Bose sound great. They are only "adequate" as far as blocking outside noise which was their prime problem in getting clarity from TV soundtracks.
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  8. #8
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    We have a set of Sennheiser wireless headphones from Amazon. They work really well
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  9. #9
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    I used the closed captioning option on the TV—especially for British shows. It is pretty easy to turn on and off and makes understanding the dialogue much easier. When I decide to get hearing aids—which might be soon, I am going to get the ones that link to the TV. I have heard that they work very well.

  10. #10
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    I also feel your pain. I have trouble hearing/understanding high frequency voices (Bernadette on Big Band Theory). This is the setup I use. Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones coupled with a Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into the TV headphone jack. The transmitter will allow pairing with 2 Bluetooth headphones at once.

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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by tom coleman View Post
    My hearing is deteriorating and I have trouble watching movies on TV.......should I buy a soundbar........or something else
    Two problems with hearing the dialog. The first, having enough volume while suppressing other noise, has been covered well. (And I'm saving the links! ) But there's another problem, especially with movies (DVD / BluRay), where the dialog is buried down in the mix. (The theory is, in a big room, e.g. a movie theater, the volume is high enough the dialog is "normal" and we tolerate (/enjoy) the very loud explosions etc. but at home we turn down the maximum volume due to a smaller room or desire to not bother others and that leaves the dialog very low.) This is the problem I have.

    I've done some research and there are AVR with amps that *claim* to process the sound so dialog is reduced less as you turn down the volume. (As a percentage of the mix, it becomes greater, more pronounced.) Since these are fairly expensive solutions I haven't experimented with this myself. (Yet at least.)

    PS- some TV speakers are absolute garbage, in that case a good sound bar would be a huge improvement and might be enough for now.

  12. #12
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    My wife and I were having the same problem. We bought a sound bar with sub woofer and adjusted the sound profile so that dialogue is emphasized. The product wasn't very expensive - maybe $150 or so. That pretty much solved the problem for us.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gail Ludwig View Post
    I used the closed captioning option on the TV—especially for British shows. It is pretty easy to turn on and off and makes understanding the dialogue much easier. When I decide to get hearing aids—which might be soon, I am going to get the ones that link to the TV. I have heard that they work very well.
    That's what I do. My wife hates it, but less than she hates me turning the volume up.

  14. #14
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    Make sure you do your homework and make sure any headphones you get are compatible with your tv. I wear hearing aids and had a pair of Sony headphones that worked via bluetooth from a box plugged into the back of the Spectrum cable box. I decided to get rid of the cable and go to a streaming service (direct tv now in my case, but doesn't matter which one you have). I found there was no jack to plug the Sony headphone box on the back of my 2 year old Samsung tv, So I had to get a set of headphones to pair up directly to the bluetooth ready Samsung. It was easy to do, but then I discovered that on the Samsung you could either have the headphones on or the tv speaker but not both at the same time. Luckily, I was in the market for a new tv and found that the Sony Bravia (which I bought) can be set to both headphones and the external speaker. I also use closed captioning for most viewing, but it's not available for everything. Hope this helps

  15. #15
    My SO uses various types of ear things to help with hearing, being if it is music or TV.
    The problem we have, is we can no longer talk about the show/movie, or anything else for that matter while she is wearing them.
    Slowly we just quit watching anything together.
    Just thought I would point that out so you are know of a new issue it might bring up.
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