I want to add surround sound using just my headphone out of my tv. Can?
March 25, 2016 2:01 PM   Subscribe

I have a very new tv above my fireplace. I have speaker wires from near it to behind me so speakers behind are not a problem. The problem is I want to control the volume with the tv's remote which is why I want to use the headphone jack. SO.... How do I get surround sound or the illusion of it being to split the stereo and have it not too loud behind me?
posted by usermac to Technology (7 answers total)
 
Probably not, but specifying the model of TV might help find a solution.
posted by Candleman at 2:55 PM on March 25, 2016


Assuming your TV outputs analog Dolby Stereo through its headphone jack when Dolby surround programming is being shown (not guaranteed, but possible), you will need a Dolby decoder, preferably Dolby Pro Logic. The receiver that you're using to power the speakers may already have this. They all used to, my '90s Aiwa 5.1 receiver has it, but manufacturers may have dropped it since most home theater setups use digital audio now.

The quality of the surround will be much better with Dolby Digital output, so I'd recommend using a receiver that supports that, and upgrading your remote.
posted by kindall at 3:01 PM on March 25, 2016


Well, this is the common method for synthesizing rear channels from stereo but I will emphasize, you can really mess up your audio equipment doing this.

But -- how are you driving your speakers? Are you going from the audio outs on the TV to a surround-sound capable amplifier? Or does the TV drive surround-sound speakers itself? What is going to happen with the TV's internal speakers?

In theory, with a little electronic know-how, you could make an isolated circuit that does what my link shows, go to the headphones-out to two amplifiers (or two pairs of amplified speakers), but it really depends on how you're amplifying the outputs and what you want to do with existing speakers.
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:02 PM on March 25, 2016


Response by poster: TV is a TCL Roku 40". I can add an amp if needed.
posted by usermac at 3:24 PM on March 25, 2016


It looks like that TV has an optical audio output. If you're willing to add an amp, just add one with an optical input and you won't need to futz around with trying to simulate surround from the 2 channels that the headphone jack outputs.
posted by primethyme at 3:56 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Manual for a lot of TCL TV's, including (AFAICT) all the 40" models.

Seconding primethyme - on page 10 it says your TV has an optical out and an HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) connection, so you can get proper surround sound out of the TV to a surround sound receiver. I'm not sure about the optical, but on page 63 it describes how to set up the TV and a CEC-enabled receiver so that connecting them via HDMI ARC allows the TV remote to control the volume.

The manual also says that inserting headphones into the headphone jack mutes the TV's main speakers, so you wouldn't get "surround" by using the headphone jack anyway - you'd just get all the sound (probably just in stereo) coming from the speakers behind you.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:09 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm fairly certain the right way to solve this is to use a standard home theater receiver that can take HDMI or optical connections and a universal remote control. If you get a logitech remote, you should be able to set it up so that the volume buttons control the reciever volume instead of the TV volume when you're watching TV.
posted by Aleyn at 1:53 AM on March 26, 2016


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