5 Ways To Connect Headphones To TV

With the advent of modern technology, TV manufacturers have started integrating Bluetooth modules into their TVs. It has made connecting Bluetooth devices like wireless headphones to your TV a breeze. However, older TV models may lack support for Bluetooth. In such cases, you can make use of a 3.5mm audio port on the TV.

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Using 3.5mm Audio Port

If you are planning to use wired headphones with your TV, you can simply use the integrated 3.5mm headphone port on your TV. The headphone port is generally located at the rear or side panel of your TV. However, all the TVs may not have a headphone port on them. So, first, inspect if the port is available and then connect your headphones accordingly.

Locate the 3.5mm headphone port on your TV. It looks like this with a headphone symbol.
Connect the 3.5mm audio jack of headphones to the headphone OUT port.
If your headphones use a USB power source, connect the USB connector to the USB port on the TV. If the USB port is not available on your TV, you may use a separate USB adapter for the power supply.

After setting up the connection, you need to change the sound output device on your TV. Let’s see how to do it on Samsung TVs.

Go to the lower left of the home screen and open Settings.
Choose Sound on the Settings window.
Tap Sound Output on the right side.
It is set to TV Speakers by default. Change it to Audio OUT.
You can now listen to the TV audio through your headphones.

Note: You can not listen to your TV using a headphone that only has a USB connector. They are designed specifically for PCs. The USB ports on TV are designed for power supply and taking inputs from the USB drives only. It does not have a sound module to output the sound from your TV.

Using 3.5mm to RCA Adapter

Next, you can use a 3.5mm Female to RCA Male Adapter if your TV does not have a dedicated 3.5mm headphone OUT port. But, your TV must have an RCA Audio OUT (Red and White ports) to use this adapter.

Get the adapter from your nearby electronics store.
Connect the 3.5mm audio jack of your headphone to the female side of the adapter.
Then connect the RCA jacks to the Left and Right RCA Audio OUT ports on TV.
Plug the USB power cord of headphones into the power supply.
Change the default speakers to RCA on the sound settings of your TV.

Using Optical Amp/DAC Converter

Most of the TVs today come up with an Optical OUT port. So, you can use an optical cable to connect the TV and Optical Amp/DAC Converter, then plug in the headphone to the converter. It provides a pleasing sound experience with minimal lags and interference.

Plug one end of the optical cable into Optical OUT on the TV and another end into Optical IN on the converter.
Turn on the power supply of the converter.
Connect your headphone to the Headphone port on the converter.

Using Bluetooth

Listening to TV with wired headphones can be pretty clumsy. It will create a mess around your room making it difficult to move around. Not only that, the shorter cable length prevents you from maintaining distance with your TV, resulting in eyestrain.

Tip: You may get a 3.5mm audio cable extender of suitable length to sort out the issue but rather than that, you may opt to use Bluetooth headphones.

If your TV has Bluetooth, you can easily pair the wireless headphone to the TV. The steps to pair a Bluetooth device to your TV are quite similar in most TV models. Here, we are referencing Google TV for demonstration.

Turn on the pairing mode on your Bluetooth headphones. Generally, these headphones have a dedicated button to enable pairing mode.
Then go to your TV and tap the Profile picture logo on the home screen.
Tap Settings.
Move down to Remote & Accessories and tap it.
Tap Pair remote or accessory on the right side.
Your TV will now start searching for nearby devices.
Select your headphone from the device list.
Tap Pair on the Bluetooth Pairing Request screen.

Using Streaming Devices

If your TV does not have a Bluetooth function, you may get a compatible Bluetooth adapter for your TV and use it. Besides, if you have streaming devices like Roku Stick, Amazon Fire Stick or gaming consoles like Nintendo, you can also easily use the integrated Bluetooth functionality to pair your wireless headphones to the TV.

However, with these streaming devices, you can only stream the content available on their platform. You won’t be able to watch other TV channels that are available through your cable operator. Let’s see how to add Bluetooth headphones to Amazon Fire Stick.

From the homepage of your Fire TV, open Settings.
Select Controllers & Bluetooth Devices tab.
Choose Other Bluetooth Devices.
Tap Add Bluetooth Devices.
Select your headphone on the list and follow the on-screen instructions to pair it with your TV.