How to connect wireless headphones to your TV?

Being able to connect a pair of wireless headphones to your TV is one of life’s great pleasures. There are many options for doing this. If you are getting your TV installed by Geek Squad Agent, that is the perfect time to ask the agent for the best solution for your particular situation.

Perhaps you want to watch something in peace, blocking out the noise from the rest of the house. Or you may want to watch an action movie at full volume while the rest of the family is asleep. A pair of wireless headphones may be just the kind of technological solution you know you’ll use quite often.

There are a few ways you can achieve this and I’ll mention a few below. You might want to dust off your TV’s owner’s manual to find out a lot more about it. What sort of hookups, doodads and extra features does it have? Knowing a lot more about your TV will make your life and search a fair bit easier.

If you’ve bought your TV within the last 10 years, you probably have most of what you need. Even if you don’t have a smart TV, most HDTVs at least come with the right audio outputs or an optical cable (or TOSLINK) port which means you can, at minimum, use the easy way mentioned below.

The Easiest Way to connect headphones to your TV: RF Headphones

Ok, let’s get all of the cheating out of the way. There’s a really easy way to get this wireless headphones thing done and you don’t need to do a single thing about. You can just buy a Radio Frequency enabled set, like the ones Sennheiser have offered for several years. This system is basically ready out of the box. All you do is plug the charge base into the wall and plug the relevant audio outs from your TV into the side or bottom of the unit. From there, just turn the unit on (if it isn’t naturally self powering,) grab your headphones and watch away.

This is a bit of a cheater’s method (by the definition of this blog anyway) but it’s easy and quick.

Buying a set that sort of takes out all of the guesswork is a bit like scoring your hat trick goal into an empty net. It’s satisfying but there isn’t really a great story behind it. Let’s take a look at some of the other solutions out there.

Does your TV have Bluetooth enabled?

If you’ve purchased your TV within the past couple of years and it’s from one of the leading brands (like Samsung or LG,) chances are your TV probably has Bluetooth enabled. Many Smart TVs nowadays carry this as a secondary feature and a lot of Samsung’s 4K TVs do too. If you’re one of the lucky people that have Bluetooth output on their televisions, you’re in luck! You don’t really need to do anything more than buy Bluetooth-ready headphones, follow the syncing instructions found in your TV’s instruction manuals and enjoy.

Wireless headphones are becoming much more popular these days. You’ll find some from many different manufacturers and in many varieties including some that will cancel outside noise out so you only hear the audio from your television: no children playing, no noise dogs outside barking, etc.

Why would I want to use Bluetooth Headphones?

Truth be told, you don’t really have to use Bluetooth Headphones, but, these days, they’re the easiest and quickest win for wireless headset capability. The thing is, Bluetooth connections have not only become the easiest way to accomplish wireless listening, they’ve basically become THE way. Bluetooth Headphones are the easiest transition point between your TV, smartphone, tablet and all other points of access in between.

Retrofitting your TV to accept Bluetooth

It’s really really easy to retrofit your existing TV to support a Bluetooth headset. What you’ll first need to do is check your TV to see if it has a 3.5mm audio jack anywhere in the back (you know, like the ones where you plug a normal set of wired headphones into.) If you do, you’re good to go for the next steps. If you don’t, and have a TV that even predates the addition of those (I’m guessing your TV probably has a case at least partially made of woodgrain siding, which I hear is making a comeback,) we’ll have to dial back a step.

If your TV doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack, you’re going to need an analog to digital converter. Those can be a bit tough to find though there are a couple for sale on the Best Buy website right now through Marketplace partners.

Once you’re sufficiently jacked up (Geek Squad humour, dontcha know.) then it’s time to go shopping for a Bluetooth dongle/adapter. Thankfully, these are available in many places and you’ve got a lot of different options to choose from. It’s likely that you’re only going to have one pair of headphones working at once, but if you do need more than one going simultaneously, shop around and look at your options. Most of the lower end dongles won’t support more than one set. However, with a bit of research, you should be able to find a hookup that will let you adapt more than one pair of headphones to it.

The last steps to watching TV with headphones

From here, you need a good pair of Bluetooth ready headphones. You may already have a set you carry around with you or else you might want to invest in a better set than one you’re taking with you on your daily commutes or that you keep at your desk at work.

Typically, the set you should be looking for should be comfortable and able to be worn for long periods of time. It’d be unlikely that you’d be taking these on and off to slip in and out of meetings or just for a half-hour or so. Look for a set that fits well, has ample padding for longer wearing sessions and can withstand a little bit of abuse. A good set of over the ear headphones might be the best way to go. They slide comfortably over your years, tend to have a generous amount of padding for the headpiece and can usually withstand repeated movement and adjusting positions to get more comfortable.

From here, all you have to do is sit back, flip on your favourite show, watch until you fall asleep in front of the couch, wake up and do it all over again.

If you need help with any of these tips, speak to a Geek Squad agent in store or contact Geek Squad Services online, to get expert advice so you can enjoy watching and listening to your favourite TV shows.