Connecting external speakers to tv

[dennislanier]

Have a question about connecting my HDTV to better speakers. In my 2004 Jayco motorhome, I have replaced my old tv with a new HDTV. However as most of you know the speakers in the tv are terrible, especially with the furnace or AC running. When I bought the MH it already had a DVD/AMFM radio installed with wires running to four speakers installed in the MH. What I need to know is, can I connect my TV THRU the DVD player's speakers? Note that the DVD player is an old one and DOES NOT have an HDMI connection, if that makes any difference. What cables do I need and where do I connect them is what I need to know. Any information appreciated and any questions you may have to help me are welcomed.

[2oldman]

fj12ryder wrote:
Do you suppose the manual will actually answer the questions the OP has posted?

I don't know.

[fj12ryder]

Lynnmor wrote:
If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

Do you suppose the manual will actually answer the questions the OP has posted? Seems very unlikely the particular scenario described by the OP will be covered in the generic manual. So, all in all, not any kind of answer to the OP's question.

[dennislanier]

Lynnmor wrote:
If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

Wow, thanks for the help.

[2oldman]

I've bought 3 tvs in 3 years and they all had manuals. Laughing emoticon omitted.

Not that they specifically said "this is where you connect your external amplifier", but seeing "audio out" printed next to a jack is a clue.

[Lynnmor]

Gdetrailer wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

Like that will happen..

Obviously you have not bought anything recently, most electronic items no longer come with a manual and point you to an obsolete website that no longer exists, the ones that do supply some sort of manual are written in Chinglish with stick figures wordless characters that you must decode in the proper order and hope you are correct..

Bought a Samsung recently and have the very useful manual right here on my laptop. Sorry about your cheap brand.

[Gdetrailer]

Lynnmor wrote:
If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

Like that will happen..

Obviously you have not bought anything recently, most electronic items no longer come with a manual and point you to an obsolete website that no longer exists, the ones that do supply some sort of manual are written in Chinglish with stick figures wordless characters that you must decode in the proper order and hope you are correct..

[2oldman]

Lynnmor wrote:
If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

that can work

[Lynnmor]

If all else fails, you could read the manual that came with the TV.

[dennislanier]

Wow. Thanks for all the responses. I definitely need to do some homework before I can figure out what I have now and see if it will work. I will check this out this week and see where to go next. Thanks again and I will get back to you guys ASAP.

[Gdetrailer]

wopachop wrote:
A decent size bluetooth speaker might work well. I use a little JBL portable speaker the size of a shampoo bottle. BUt there are larger ones that seem to get good reviews on camping group forums. People like them for inside the trailer and also to take outside. Which can be nice because you dont have to blast exterior trailer speakers from a trailer a good 20 yards away.

Unless something has drastically changed, TVs do not have "BT" transmitter.

SOOOOO.. to make a BT speaker work the OP would STILL need some sort of access to analog audio out on the TV in order to connect a BT transmitter..

Many TVs simply do not have any output jacks what so ever not even digital optical, no, they do not make this easy..

[wopachop]

Another thing you might want to test is the existing DVD and speakers playing with lights turned on. My speaker wires are run next to a big group of 12v power wires. I get a horrible buzz through the speakers. I was able to expose some of them and separate. Helped a bit. Ended up liking the cheezy bluetooth speaker better and havnt used the trailer speakers in over a year of full timing .

[wopachop]

A decent size bluetooth speaker might work well. I use a little JBL portable speaker the size of a shampoo bottle. BUt there are larger ones that seem to get good reviews on camping group forums. People like them for inside the trailer and also to take outside. Which can be nice because you dont have to blast exterior trailer speakers from a trailer a good 20 yards away.

[theoldwizard1]

Not exactly what you are looking for, but ... Some TVs have a headphone jack. Buy an inexpensive pair of powered PC speakers. Not perfect, but probably a lot better than the speaker that came with the TV.

[Gdetrailer]

Your DVD could possibly use the built in DVD/AM/FM unit to send the VIDEO to the TV or receive analog audio from the TV.

This will take some detective work though.

Most Car stereo DVD/AM/FM units have analog Composite video output which was intended on feeding a second video monitor for kids.

As someone else pointed out, much of the newer TVs no longer have any analog inputs for video, instead you will find only Digital HDMI connections which one cable contains digital audio and video signals. By the way, HDMI connections on the TV are INPUT ONLY, they do not send A/V outside of the TV (helps cut down on "piracy" potential of HD video).

To get analog video from external sources into your TV you need a video "scaler" which converts the analog composite video to digital HDMI.

Now, if you are looking more to route the TVs TUNER AUDIO into the external DVD/AM/FM unit that would require the TV to have some sort of OUTPUT connection like a analog headphone jack or a digital OPTICAL audio output. It would also require the DVD/AM/FM unit to have an analog AUX input (some do, some don't.

If you have headphone output on the TV and analog AUX input on the DVD/AM/FM unit, you are pretty much set, just need a shielded cable to plug into the TV headphone jack and plug the other end in the DVD/AM/FM unit. One word of warning on this, you can get something called a ground loop hum due to differences in grounding potential between the TV and DVD/AM/FM unit.. If you get a hum or interference noise in the audio, you will need to buy a transformer based ground loop isolator to put in between the two.

If TV does not have headphone jack but has optical digital jack you will need a optical to analog adapter to make it work.

If TV does not have any audio out jacks like headphone or optical, you are pretty much out of luck unless you want to break out the tools and crack the TV case apart to bring the speaker wires out of the TV..

Not for the faint of heart and not for the amateur, this is an advanced electronics thing because you can easily break a lot of things that you cannot buy new or used parts for if you do not know what you are doing..

[KD4UPL]

You need an audio output from your TV and an auxiliary audio input on your stereo. Even if the TV doesn't have the red and white RCA jacks from audio out it probably has a headphone jack so you should be good one way or another there.
Does your stereo have an auxiliary in?