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This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:23 pm
by clareduncan
Well I feel I might be slightly abusing the forum to purely use it for technical help :oops: but I'm afraid my geekiness has just met its girly limit and since dad (tut) doesn't know the answer he suggested that one of you guys might.

I am trying to plug wireless headphones into my TV because I can no longer stand the sound of X-Box gunfire in my living room! The headphones have a standard 3.5mm jack. However, the TV does not have a headphone socket. Having discovered this after I bought the headphones I then order a 3.5mm female to RCA cable. After trying to plug this into both the RGB and CVBS left/right slots with no success I decided the cable was knackered. To test this theory I tried the headphones and converter cable with my Hummy and they worked fine. Not much use though as this only provides sound from the freeview box and doesn't solve annoying-shooting-noise problem. Would I be right in thinking that the RGB & CVBS sockets on the TV are intended for incoming signals not outgoing ones?

I do have a solution for this problem, in that I can stop using an HDMI cable for the Xbox, use the RGB cable instead and instead of plugging the white and red audio cables into the TV I could plug them directly into the headphone stand. However, this is really bugging me and that is a cheating solution and ideally I'd like to be able to use the headphones for the TV as well. I do not believe that a modern TV (even my cheap E-Buyer version) can not be connected to some sort of surround sound system. Therefore, there has to be an audio out somewhere. Doesn't there?

The TV has 2xscart, 3xHDMI, CVBS, RGB & VGA. It also has an SPDIF socket, which I think is something to do with audio output but that uses a coaxial cable. I have no idea what to do with this or if it can be used with some sort of adaptor. This is the link to the manual in case my description of inputs doesn't make sense. http://foehn-hirsch.com/pdf/FH-32LMGverDmanual.pdf


Does anyone have any ideas?

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:32 pm
by tut
I think Clare, that most would be impressed that a girlie blonde could get that far with the problem.

tut

ps if you get stuck further, ring Robin.

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:44 pm
by philthy
If im understanding this you should be able to buy one of these - http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/11/ ... scart2.jpg

and plug your headphones into the white and red of the scart.

I use a vaguely similar idea for my playstation in that the HDMI runs the picture while the AV out from the playstation goes to RCA input of the surround amplifier.

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:45 pm
by clareduncan
I'm sure Robin thoroughly enjoys you pimping him out like this!!

P.S> I think I should have a bright red text at the bottom of my (for want of a more technical expression) message bitty that says "send Clare cheques". I definitely need them much more than you!!!

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:55 pm
by tut
That's fine Clare, but they need to know which lamp-post you are standing next to down on the docks.

xxx dad

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 7:18 pm
by robin
From my reading of the manual there is no analog sound output at all.

The SCART sockets might implement the monitor function (this is where whatever audio/video is appearing on the set right now is also sent out the back so that you can record it with a VCR - remember those?), but increasingly that's not practical with modern setups (16:9, HD, protected content, etc., etc., so maybe TVs in the digital era just don't implement this anymore).

Anyway, as Phil says, that's your only hope - if you buy a SCART-to-component plug make sure it has a switch on it to configure for input and output (OR, you buy one that only does output - never seen one of those, but perhaps they exist). The audio will only come out when the switch is set to output (or not at all, more likely).

Can you perhaps reduce the volume of the no-life-cod players next door? I'm sure if you ask them nicely they'll cooperate ;-)

Cheers,
Robin

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 7:30 pm
by mwmackenzie
I was expecting a tread on clutch control here.... :damnfunny

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 8:25 pm
by Stewart
Give the headphones to the boys playing COD. Simple solution :thumbsup :D

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:56 pm
by tonyg
Stewart wrote:Give the headphones to the boys playing COD. Simple solution :thumbsup :D
From the manual TV has no sound output at all - above is only solution.

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:05 pm
by tut
Great, new HD TV that does not have the capabilities of the 30 year old Sony that I am watching in bed at present.

tut

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:27 pm
by Mikie711
mwmackenzie wrote:I was expecting a tread on clutch control here.... :damnfunny

Surely you meant parking :mrgreen:

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:55 pm
by Ferg
Would something like this help?

It turns your spdif out to an RCA which you say you can plug into your headset unit. Looks like it does both optical and co-axial spdif.

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:23 am
by robin
The spdif port is not documented in the user manual, but it's reasonable to suppose that it's spdif IN not out, unless spdif is always bi-directional?

To be honest, for 40 quid it would be a lot cheaper to glue a microphone in front of the speaker, then drive the headset with that.

Clare, if you're totally stuck I can make you something along those lines, but don't hold your breath as I am a little busy at the moment.

Cheers,
Robin

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 12:01 pm
by Ferg
doh, yeah makes sense. :oops:

Re: This is all far too complicated for a girl!

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 3:06 pm
by clareduncan
Well I am secretly quite pleased that there wasn't some very obvious answer that I was missing.

The adaptor is more expensive than the headphones were so I think I'll just bin the HDMI cable and use the cable that came with the thing. Then I can plug the RCA cables from the Xbox directly into the headphone sensor. They might not work with the TV but at least I won't feel like I'm living in a war-zone!

Thanks for your help!!!