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Woman watching TV in Wallingford, CT

Hearing Loss While Watching TV

If you have hearing loss and wear hearing aids, you may wonder why sometimes it is still difficult to understand what is being said on TV.

There are many factors at play:

  • Frequency responses differ among TV sets so you may find that you hear the background sounds better than the dialogue when you are watching an action program.
  • Modern televisions are designed to be ultra thin. As a result the speakers may point downwards or even backwards.
  • The quality of the audio signal can differ from show to show and channel to channel.
  • Speech understanding is influenced by your familiarity with the speaker’s voice and the predictability of the content. You may find you have an easier time understanding the newscaster you hear daily than a movie you’ve never seen before.

So what can you do to make TV viewing more enjoyable?

    • Turn on those Closed Captions. They will help you fill in the blanks when you miss or don’t understand what is being said.
    • Enhance the audio with a sound bar or other type of external speaker.
    • Use headphones or a headset designed specifically for TV viewing.
    • Use a TV accessory compatible with your hearing aids like the Oticon TV Adapter or Widex TV Play to stream the TV sound directly to your ears. My patients love these!