Getting the Music OFF the TV

Living in a condo that was built 40 years ago means there are some thin walls, floors and ceilings to deal with. When I watch a music video or concert on my TV through a tv channel, DVD player, YouTube, or Netflix, I like to turn the sound up but don’t want to disturb my neighbors. In addition, I could be watching something on the TV in the living room, and my wife might be watching something on the TV in the bedroom (on the other side of the wall from my TV). Either way, my logical step would be to use headphones.

The problem is, even though I've got a Smart TV, it doesn't have a jack anywhere to plug in headphones. Sure, I could buy a set of BlueTooth headphones but who wants to spend that kind of money if you don't have to? Besides, my wired headphones sound great! I do, however, have an Optical Digital Audio port on the back of my TV – but my headphones have a standard 1/8- inch male stereo plug on the end of their cable.

So, here's what I did: I bought an Optical Digital to Analog converter on eBay for $15; it also has a coax input, and RCA output ports that I can plug external or portable speakers into. My headphones have no volume control on them but the headphone port on the converter does. I bought a 15-foot Digital Optical fiber-optic extension cable ($12.79 on eBay) to bring the converter over to the couch. The converter is powered by a USB port on the back of the TV so I paired a 15-foot USB extension cable ($8.50 on eBay) with the other one; I kept them together using small plastic wire ties.

Now, if I want to watch music videos late at night, I just unroll the paired cables from under the entertainment center, bring them over to the couch, and I toggle the “sound out” setting on my TV to “external” and I'm set to go, without disturbing anyone else. I also have a splitter that allows two sets of headphones to be used if a friend comes over.