OK Electronics Guys!

[Dan Schultz]

My cable provider switched over to 100% digital on April 15, 2015. My wife utilizes a system called 'TV Ears' to hear the audio and it no longer works. This gizmo is an analog device. It's always been connected (and still is) to the audio digital coax output on the television and run through a digital to analog convertor to the 'TV Ears' system. The way it's hooked up has not been changed but now I get is just static when watching TV. The interesting part is that it still functions perfectly when utilizing a DVD player which is run through the TV.

Connect the 'TV Ears' to other LCD TV's in the house yields the same... just static. I'm thinking at this point that the cable company (Wide Open West - or 'WOW') has adulterated the incoming cable signal with some form of encoding. I've contacted them but they have been trying to blame my equipment... which hasn't changed.

I've also contacted the 'TV Ears' folks and Magnavox but have not heard back from them.

Any ideas! What sort of questions should I be asking of my cable company?

[bort]

Sounds like a question for the TV Ears folks more than the cable TV people.

Questions -- how old is the TV Ears system? If it's too old, perhaps the switch to digital somehow messes things up? Does the TV have an analog audio output?

Hope you can get it working. Nothing is worse than TV without sound.

[Dan Schultz]

Do you have a digital audio output jack on your TV? We might be able to convert it back to analog

Mark.... yes, the TV has a digital audio coax output. I've always had to convert the digital audio output to analog for the 'TV Ears' to work.

Last week, I picked up a new Sony wireless headset. These things also require a digital to analog convertor (which I have) to work. They didn't work, either.

[Dan Schultz]

[quote="bort"]... Does the TV have an analog audio output?... /quote]

No analog audio output. That's why I've always had to utilize a digital to analog convertor. This is a very common thing to do. I see very few LCD TV's that have an analog audio output. It's all either digital or optical. Most every set sold in the last five or so years has had a digital coax output that looks like an RCA plug.

[Dan Schultz]

.... EDIT...I JUST NOW stumbled across this... I have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what it is, or whether it will do what you need something to do for you:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Optical ... 1845987052

Joe... that is EXACTLY what I've been using for the last several years to convert the digital coax signal to analog to make the 'TV Ears' work. Everything was fine until the cable company switched over to a pure digital signal on April 15th.

The 'TV Ears' gizmo still works fine when watching videos from the DVD play... which runs through the TV and the same digital to analog converter. That's why I suspect that the cable company has somehow adulterated the incoming digital signal with encoding of some sort.

By-the-way.... 'TV Ears' does offer a new system but the mainframe is still analog. All they've done apparently is built a digital to analog converter into their box and ask another $100 for it. That being said.... they don't guarantee it to work with EVERY system out there.

[Dan Schultz]

Update... I've more-or-less exhausted anything I can do about the issue of not being able to convert the digital audio from my TV to analog. I do not have a 'cable box' and apparently don't need one to make my existing TV's in my house work. Wide Open West (WOW)... my cable provider is scheduled to make a visit here on Wednesday. Maybe I REALLY need a 'cable box'. We'll see tomorrow.

[Dan Schultz]

Well... the 'cable guy' made his visit on 4/29/2015 and spent an hour or so 'fiddling around' with the settings on my TV's and other stuff. He couldn't figure out why the 'TV Ears' have not worked since the cable company went 100% digital on 4/14/2015.

Soooo.... I ordered the 'latest and greatest' version of 'TV Ears' at a cost of $179. They are guaranteed to work with both my Magnavox and Hitachi LCD HD TV's. I hooked the new system up according to the installation manual (a REALLY simple process) and guess what? &#$*... the problem is still the same... not audio from the TV's except when using a VCR to input the TV's.

It seems like the digital audio signal from the cable company (WOW) is still either encrypted or adulterated in some way to prevent it from passing through the TV's.

At the moment I'm caught in a 'three-way' between the cable company (WOW), TV Ears, and the TV manufacturers.

If ANYONE out there in TubaLand is using TV Ears on a WOW cable system... I would like to know.