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Terryallan's avatar
Terryallan
Explorer II
May 13, 2014

TV sound thru radio

Upfront. We don't watch a lot of TV when we camp. We do at the beach late at night, and to catch the weather. However the TV doesn't have a lot of volume and the AC drowns it out. Si I though I'd run the TV sound thru the radio, as it has a place for AUX components
So I took the radio out, and there was a place to hook up the speakers. Hooked them in, and attached the other end to the speaker jacks on the TV. Nothing, Those are input as well.
I FINALLY found that the only way to make it work, was to plug into the headphone jack on the TV. Did it, and it worked great.
Just thought I'd share.

9 Replies

  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Some TV facts: Televisons come in many makes and models, ALL the connections I will describe are optional

    Audio OUT (left/right RCA (Phono) jacks)
    Headset
    Digital audio out (RCA jack)
    Optical audio out (TOS/Link transmitter,, TOS is short for Toshiba by the way, pronounced Toss, and "toss" the audio it does, no handshaking).

    Also some TV's have video out and assorted inputs, which do not apply to this discussion.

    Likewise some Radios have a LINE-IN or AUX-IN jacks, this may be a 1/8 Inch stereo headphone type connector (Only it's an input) or a pair of RCA jacks

    Some may have digital or optical (RCA or TOS/link receiver)

    The Tos-Link receiver and transmitter are balck, with a square tipped dust cover and a "D" shaped hole, the transmitter has an LED in it and glows red.

    IF you have matching outputs on the TV and inputs on the radio.. USE THEM.
    Else, the Headset jack may be able to power line in (Aux) on the radio if it has it using the proper adapter cord (Radio shack still sells those).

    Or the speakers.

    Problem with powering the speakers.

    In my coach the speakers are high power, designed to handle 70 watts per channel, the TV, puts out 5-10 if I'm lucky, Not nearly enough power. But with it's own speakers, lots of power.
  • I didn't want to feed through the stereo so I added amplified computer speakers to the television.
  • Our Jensen has the 3-conductor (Ipod?) input on the front. I found a cable with the correct plug on one end and RCA connectors on the other for the TV sound.
    We also run the portable XM radio through the Jensen. I snake the antenna out the slide seal and just set it on top of the slide.
  • How do you get sound from a "mic" jack? I thought that was an input for a microphone, not on output.
  • I've done similar only I get signal from the TV's mic jack and feed it into an aux. port on the sound receiver. The receiver does most of the amplification and the signal may be better matched to the speakers' impedance.
  • Goostoff wrote:
    Why the heck didnt I think of this. I have been driving myself nuts trying to figure out how to do this very same thing. Thanks a million.


    Need a single mini plug with dual speaker plugs on the back side.
    Been running sound for 20 years. Sometimes you have to search a while for a way.

    Also you can use a mini plug to plug into the AUX jack on front of the camper stereo. IF you have the standard Jenson. Mini plug to mini plug. But I pulled mine and plugged into the connections on the back of the unit. To hide the wires.
  • Why the heck didnt I think of this. I have been driving myself nuts trying to figure out how to do this very same thing. Thanks a million.

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