How to connect your headphones to your HDTV

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So, you are trying to figure out how to connect headphones to the TV, but to your surprise there is no headphone jack on your flat screen. It seems that the manufacturers have forgotten to include this feature on most on the new TV’s; but there might be a way around it. Most of the TV’s still have RCA audio-out capability. RCA audio are two circles where one is red (right channel audio) and other one is white (left channel audio). See picture below to identify the port. Make sure the port is isolated in the box with audio-out (or line-out) tag, just like in the picture:

Next you will need to obtain a RCA audio to 3.5mm female cable which will help you plug your headphones to the TV’s audio ports. It looks just like this

Keep in mind that this cable is only 6 inches long and will most likely not be sufficient to reach you all the way to wherever you are sitting*. You will need to buy a 3.5mm stereo extension cable in the length that suits you. These cables can be found in lengths of 1.5feet, 3feet, 6feet, 12feet, 25feet and even 50feet. Choose the size that best fits you.

If you want more than one set of headphones connected to the same line you can get a 2-way splitter, 3-way splitter or even 5-way headphone audio splitter.

It may be the case that with some TV’s you may need to turn on the “use external speakers” feature. To do this you need to go to your TV’s menu. The menu button can be found on your remote usually somewhere in the middle around the arrow buttons. Press the menu button, and scroll down the menu until you reach “audio” or “sound” setting. Under there you should find “internal speakers” feature that you should be able to turn “on” or “off”.

*find out how far you should sit from your TV…

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