hearing the TV

[porthos]

the clarity of voices on many tv programs is very difficult for me to understand. what is out there to clarify tv voices??

[RED BEAR]

I just went to reading closed caption to keep from blasting wife out of room.

[Mohavedog]

I also use closed captioning when I'm having a lot of trouble hearing. On one of our tv's I installed a stereo sound bar which helps a lot because most tv speakers aren't that great. A lot of the series programming seems to be made by British. We enjoy them but have a very difficult time with the british accent. We love some of the british vernacular such as "I keep myself to myself" which we hear time and again. I'm 79 next month and have abused my ears in my younger days because nobody understood or cared about the damage a lot of sounds do to hearing.

[Hossfly]

It’s not our hearing, we record a lot of PB, really like British shows, they are recorded really low. So what we do is back it up, play it again, play it again, and sometime we never do figure out what was said. CC is your friend.

[labradigger1]

Surround sound

[Isaac]

I experience the sound problems as well.

Love the British shows as well. I have gotten more used to their terms and understand it better then when I began watch.

Doc Martin is one of my favorites. Love his brutal honesty.

Isaac

[metricmonkeywrench]

Most modern TV's have a feature that will allow you to go thu different sound modes such as talk, movie, game, theater and so on, try the different settings to see if it makes a difference. I also have to adjust this setting when we go to streaming (FireStick or Apple) or playing A DVD/Blue Ray. Another setting we toy with occasionally for the real hard to hear stuff is stereo or mono settings which at time "flattens" the sound and puts everything on an equal level but that is a last resort.

For some reason we seem to find the audio (voice track) seems to be "behind" the sound effects or music track making the dialog hard to hear. Also agree that a soundbar helps a lot as most TV's no longer seem to come with decent speakers.

A little frustrating at times but we deal with it.

[PaulG67]

I use Bose Quiet comfort 35 headphones, with the wireless option.

[TCFAN]

I use wireless headphones at my wife's insistence.If I don't use the head set I have to have the sound so high that a normal person could hear the TV at my 100 yard berm.The headphones I have, have their own volume control and they clear up the sound alot. The TV can be on mute if you want.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It seems the cheaper new TV's have poor sound. The two I have sure do, anyway.
I bought a high-end set of amplified computer speakers for my TV (yamaha NX-50), they were about $100 and made all the difference in the world. That model has a feature where you can input from two sources and will play each or both simultaneously without any manual switches. So I have my computer on one input and TV on the other.

[Boaz]

I use a headset . Jon is 100% right , cheap TV's have trashy speakers .

[anothernewb]

The trend towards thin panels skinnier packaging, and turning TV's into essentially a picture frame has had a detrimental effect on speakers. put simply. compared to any of the tube or projection TV's .. even the best LCD and OLED .... well. suck.

Speakers, like engines. have no replacement, for displacement.

Your best option is investing in a decent sound bar, or go full on home theater. We actually have both hooked up to our TV.

[trebor44]

the clarity of voices on many tv programs is very difficult for me to understand. what is out there to clarify tv voices??

As others suggested, 'closed caption' if it is available, better external speakers or find a remote like the Roku that has a port for headphones with volume control. Also, not all TV's have the option for external speakers so an old trick was to use your stereo if you could tune it to the TV channel. Some radios were able to do that also, and when combined with headphones or external speakers the sound was very clear.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have the same problem and it is not due to hearing loss. I have excellent hearing. It is especially bad with British TV. If the show features people from around London, I don't have a problem. If it features from the north of England or the west, the people semm to mumble. I think it is due to the fact that they don't move their lower jaw. They seem to utter something I can't understand using just their lips. As far CC, It is too small and doesn't stay on long enough to read. I used to enjoy Jeopardy but have problems understanding the younger players for the same reasons. Alex used to repeat the answers but he quit doing that and some times I don't get it. The show has also turned very far left. You would be amazed how many questions that come up about Watergate but nary a one about the blue dress.

[rking22]

It has a lot to do with the way they produce the show. I have no trouble with Perry Mason, Twilight Zone and other shows of that time period, can understand at 4 . New stuff, well I have to use the headphones because the volume won’t go high enough! I just assume the writeing is so poor that they would rather you just hear the ambient noise. As far as British shows, We like them but I quickly lose interest due to not being able to keep up with the dialogue. Too much trouble for “entertainment”.

[foesgth]

I also use CC. The newer shows all have sound tracks that make it hard to understand the actors lines.

[Springfield]

Wireless headphones. You hear sounds that just don't show up with regular speakers.

[skeettx]

My hearing aids have a bluetooth feature, I get to hear the sound inside my head and no external noises
Sure does help hearing the squeally voiced girls.

Before that I used Walker Game Ears

[crappie-hunter]

I,m 77yrs this month, and have been wearing hearing aids since I was 48yrs. My current hearing aid provider and I have had 5 in that length of time , is the only one that was interested in helping me hear as opposed to the previous ones that were interested in selling a product. This current provider, explains it this way and I totally agree with her. The television and many young people seem to talk extremely fast,and as we grow older our brain does not process as fast as it did when we were 20yrs old, so it is not all a hearing problem It's a as much a brain function problem as it is a hearing deficiency. Not much can be done to speed up the brain function at my age. Closed caption is the only option that I have found and that helps and that leaves a lot to be desired.

[FISH4BUGS]

I was a professional musician for a number of years (1967-1969) on the road and playing in local bands until I was in my mid 30's (played Hammond B3 with the Leslie Speaker right beside me) and lots of shooting without muffs in my younger days left me with hearing loss on my right side.
I broke down and started using hearing aids....not always but when it is important to hear clearly.
I'd give that a try.

[TaylorS]

I’ve been having trouble with hearing tv conversation as well as people talking finally got hearing aids best thing ever for me watching tv or talkin to people not worth a **** out in the wind though


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skeettx]

I had my audiologist program in a mute function in the settings
So when the wind it up, I mute the hearing aids

[jsizemore]

Quality speakers and amplification make all the difference. I use the preamp out from my TV to run my amp and speakers. There are a few companies out there that supply components to build your own or you can visit the used HIFI/Audio Video outfits to buy some affordable quality equipment. A few of the specialty stereo/AV stores around me sell used equipment. A visit to their store and a listen can point you in the right direction.

All that being said, the Vizio sound bar that matches my Vizio TV impressed me.

[TaylorS]

Mine have the wind noise reduction but a 30 mile/ hr breeze is the norm in these parts and they just don’t keep up even if I’m just using them for music or not with the hard hat and muffs I might as well read lips. I just don’t wear em to work almost lost one and that was a couple grand I didn’t wanna loose lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hickory]

Sometimes I almost think it would be better to be confined to a wheelchair or maybe to be blind, at least people could see and understand your disability.
But when you can't hear, and people, especially those around you and should know better won't do what is necessary for you to hear them, like facing you, standing closer, or speaking a little slower, when you can't understand them, they get mad at you for having an unseen disability.

[tinsnips]

A sound bar in front of the TV . Most new tv speakers are in the back it sure helped me.

[porthos]

thanks guys: think i'll look into speakers/sound bar

[popper]

Cant understand the wife most of the time, she mumbles to herself, to someone on the phone or me, don't know which. For you guys with hearing problems, please get aids - so the rest of us don't end up with hearing problems.
Vanity, she won't wear hers except when watching TV (thank God) but has CC on & still rewinds to figure out what is going on. Yes, foreign speakers are hard to understand - and I don't think they are more intellegent than Americans.

[10x]

I was a professional musician for a number of years (1967-1969) on the road and playing in local bands until I was in my mid 30's (played Hammond B3 with the Leslie Speaker right beside me) and lots of shooting without muffs in my younger days left me with hearing loss on my right side.
I broke down and started using hearing aids....not always but when it is important to hear clearly.
I'd give that a try.

It was when I started to have trouble hearing what some folks said on television that I went to hearing aids.
The set I have selectively amplifies the frequencies I have trouble hearing and I now catch every word.

[beemer]

Sometimes I almost think it would be better to be confined to a wheelchair or maybe to be blind, at least people could see and understand your disability.
But when you can't hear, and people, especially those around you and should know better won't do what is necessary for you to hear them, like facing you, standing closer, or speaking a little slower, when you can't understand them, they get mad at you for having an unseen disability.

I understand what you are saying. I can also hear the noise but have trouble understanding what they are saying. If someone get your attention before talking it helps but some people I can hardly understand at all because they mumble.

Keep telling my wife that she starts talking before I start listening. Then she repeats the last part, I heard that it's the first part I didn't catch.

As to the OP's question I use a wireless headphone, lets me listen without giving other people problems. Good clear speakers will help because sometimes volume doesn't.

[Bownse]

I pump my audio through a receiver (Denon now but Yamaha and others in the past). It gets the surround sound suggested above, but they also have a delta adjustment for dialog. You can bump that up or down +/1 10. What that does is pull that freq up from the main mix of sound effects and music. I just started playing with it in recent years and it's a massive improvement over turning everything up to 11.

It's also an indicator of my misspent youth before hearing protection was a thing. I should have been using something even when mowing the lawn. [sigh]

Alternately, headphone or ear buds can make the house silent for others and bring a clarity to your listening that you might have been missing.

[I was into audio before I was into shooting. But a lifetime of rock concerts (audience and performer), shooting, turning my stereo to 11, Army, and loud work environments has taken its toll.]

[Geezer in NH]

I am 67 and a retired pro firefighter. Sirens, air horns and 130 decibel fire alarm horns in a big university makes hearing hard. Wife and I use the remotes to watch tv turn the show up to be able to here and when the 3 times louder commercial comes on hit the mute button till the show is back on.

[rking22]

Yes, we(she) use the mute as well. When I nod off during a 3 1/2 minute commercial it scares me half to death when it comes back up! I actually think she finds that more ammusing than she should....