I recently had an eye-opening experience using a TV streamer to help me hear better while watching television. Now, you all know that I’ve been working with TV streamers for years. I have been demoing them, setting them up for patients, and explaining their benefits. But until now, I hadn’t actually sat down to use TV streaming for audio for a movie or show.
At home, my significant other and I use a ZVOX speaker, and we’ve been quite happy with it. It enhances dialogue and lets us adjust settings to fit our needs. However, on a recent trip to Arizona with my daughter to visit my parents, I had a chance to experience TV streaming in a new way.
My parents have been using TV streamers with their hearing aids for years. Since I don’t visit them in Arizona often (we usually vacation elsewhere because I see them in Minnesota during the warmer months), I hadn’t listened or watched TV with them. One night while deciding on a show to watch, my daughter and I immediately felt overwhelmed by how loud their TV was. Have you ever watched TV with someone when it is so loud but you know you can’t turn it down because otherwise they won’t enjoy or hear it?
Naturally, I jumped in to help adjust their TV streaming for audio system that next day. My dad wears a Signia BTE hearing aid with ear molds, while my mom prefers the Widex Moment receiver-in-canal hearing aids. A perfect example of how there is no one-size-fits-all hearing aid! Because they use different brands, I had to jury-rig the two together as they had it in their Minnesota house. I connected the Widex TV Play to the Signia StreamLine TV player and then hooked it all into the TV’s optical audio output. Once everything was set up, the magic happened. We reduced the TV volume to a comfortable level, and both my parents could hear perfectly. Not only they heard perfectly, I heard perfectly!
Since I also wear Widex hearing aids, I connected mine to the TV Play streamer. And wow! I was blown away. The clarity of speech was incredible. My daughter was thrilled, too as she had no more constant interruptions of “What did they say?” She loves watching movies in complete silence, without any background chatter.
Now, let’s clear up some confusion about TV streaming for audio. When we talk about “streaming,” we’re referring to audio transmission and not streaming Netflix or other video content. A TV streamer connects directly to your television and wirelessly transmits the sound directly to your hearing aids. This means you get clear, direct audio without any background noise, making speech much easier to understand. It’s a completely different experience from just turning up the volume or using a speaker system.
After seeing how much of a difference the TV Play streamer made for my parents, I knew I had to try it at home. My significant other, Rick, and I both use Widex hearing aids, so I set up a Widex TV Play for us. We had to unplug our ZVOX speaker since our TV only has one optical output, but I figured the trade-off was worth it and boy was it! I kid you not.
This past weekend, we tested it while watching The Brutalist, a three-hour drama that someone warned me was long enough to put people to sleep. Usually, I’m one of those people as I tend to doze off during long movies and end up watching them in chunks of time over a few days. But with the TV Play… I stayed awake the entire time!
Rick kept commenting on how easy it was to hear. We both noticed the immersive surround sound delivered by our own hearing aids, and for the first time ever, we didn’t have to pause and ask each other what was just said. The clarity was unreal. We were engaged, captivated, and fully present for the whole movie, something I never expected. Even my parents, who had to unplug their external speaker for their streamers, didn’t miss the z vox speaker it at all.
You can tell people all day long how great TV streamers are, but until you actually experience one during a show you want to enjoy, you won’t fully understand how amazing they are. If you haven’t tried a TV streamer yet, I highly recommend it. It’s truly a game changer for watching TV with your hearing aids on. And if you’re looking for a good movie to test it with, The Brutalist gets my recommendation!
Cheers,
Kim
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