Quote:
Originally Posted by LuvNH
He has Oticon. With the information I have been given by so many kind people here, I will do some research today and see if I can understand any of this, but it may be above my pay grade!
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Streamers for newbies 101:
Most hearing aides now come with bluetooth technology. Just like apple ear buds and others, your hearing aides can connect directly to a device's audio system without the need for external speakers.
With a TV or Computer, however, you still need a device that provides that connection. That device has a bunch of different names, but is usually referred to as a streamer box or streaming device. The box is around the size of your palm, and has two wires: one plugs into the TV's USB port and the other plugs into the audio jack. The device itself can be placed on the TV cabinet, and mine came with velcro so I have mine stuck under the surface of my computer desk (My device is attached to my computer, not my TV).
Then, you can "pair" your hearing aides with your TV set, and the sound will automatically be sent directly to the hearing aides instead of the speakers.
Apparently some sets can have sound coming to both - ears and speakers. But as someone who uses my streamer exclusively and has actually experimented - there's a miniscule delay between the two. Which means if you are streaming into your ears while the speaker of the TV is audible, you might have even worse trouble listening to the sound because it's coming from too many different places, and not *exactly* at the same time.
The "solution" to the above problem is: the person with the hearing aides gets the volume. And turn down the speaker volume on the TV, and turn on closed captioning. Then YOU, the hearing-enabled loved one, can watch TV, read the closed captioning, and be able to sort of hear the speakers, but at a low volume. Because you are hearing enabled, you will have a much easier time of matching low-volume sounds with words on the screen than someone who has the sound coming from their own ears, while looking across the room at the TV set.