TV background music overpowers the speaker. Why do they do this?

That movie caption system is called Captiview. I agree, it works great. Sony has also created some 'glasses' that provide captions. I've only tried them at a booth at an HLAA convention, but they worked quite well. We have captioning for our HLAA Chapter meetings that is provided by a court reporter who primarily does Computer Assisted Realtime Tranlation (CART). It's verbatim. She does an excellent job. How interesting that court reporting was your profession....then you definitely know what a specialized skill that is! We wish that more court reporters would get certified to provide CART. It is considered a reasonable accommodation by the Americans with Disabilities Act. But, it is difficult to find a provider. HLAA has been using court reporters at its national conventions since the early 90s. Has been fun to watch the progression. Hey, I would not even attend a movie that didn't provide the Captiview device. 🙂

Hi Ray - We have been struggling with the same issue here. It's really disconcerting for me, as an almost-normal hearing person to try to pick out the dialogue. My husband misses much of the speaking and I have to repeat. We are trying something new - there are speakers which allow you to raise the dialogue decibel level while muting the background sound. It is supposed to have a feature that levels the volume so commercials and promos are do not increase in volume too.
Ours should arrive tomorrow, so after we set up and try it, I'll report back on how it works.
Sue

Julie - I get it! "That simple mute button can save a marriage!" The volume is raised so he can hear - to the point I often put in my earphones just to mute it. And when I ask "Will you please mute the TV?" the reply is "Never mind!" See my reply to Ray - we are going to try a dialogue clarity enhancer...
Sue

I'll be interested to hear more about those speakers you ordered. What are they called? Where did you get them? One of the best ways to make home TV accessible is to install a hearing loop in the TV room. It sends sound from the TV directly to a person's hearing aids IF those hearing aids have telecoils. Loop systems are amazing. Many performing arts centers have installed hearing loops. All you do is push the button on your telecoil equipped hearing aids and the sound comes directly to you. It's like having binoculars for your ears! In 2018 the national HLAA convention was held in MInneapolis. We attended a musical at the Guthrie Theater. They had installed a hearing loop in the theater. It was incredible. It is so frustrating that this communication access accommodation isn't standard. Other systems work too, including FM and Infrared, but it requires picking up a receiver and using either a headset or personal connector. Much easier to just push a button on a hearing aid!

I'm a natural-born sceptic, so I am waiting to report until we have tried the speakers. The hearing loop idea is a great one, except I think it will be helpful to me to have the discriminating speakers too, and I am not "yet" ready for aids according to my audiologist, whom I trust. I'm looking forward to trying the speaker, as the high volume of commercials when the TV is turned up is eventually going to make me throw something at it and break it!
Sue

When I bought my new Smart TV a few years ago it didn't take long to realize that the Sound coming out of just the TV was hard to hear... So I bought a compatible "Soundbar" with a separate wireless Woofer... for those low frequency sounds... it helps so much.. I still use closed captions all the time but when I am the only one in the house I can turn up the volume and hear without my hearing aids..

My neighbor has hearing loss but it's nowhere near as bad as mine. He claims that the sound bar that he uses on his TV has helped him hear the TV. I believe ZVOX is the brand. I'm reluctant to buy one because my wife has normal hearing. A better solution would be the TV accessory for my hearing aids, which would stream the sound to me and I can control the volume that I need while my wife would adjust the TV volume for her comfort. The only bad thing about the hearing aid TV accessory is that it locks me into this brand of hearing aid. If I change hearing aid brands, I'd have to buy a new TV transmitter. As bad as captions are, they help. If the time comes that I watch more TV, I may purchase the Resound TV transmitter. We really need compatibility with ALL hearing aid brands.
Tony in Michigan

Ms. Julie -- THANKS a lot for posting. I'm trying to figure out a way to help an old friend hear audiobooks. He does have a hearing aid. I did give him an Amazon Echo about 2-3 years ago. However since he's so ill he doesn't use his computer anymore and when he was OK he resisted audiobooks I offered to him. (I intended to pay for his books and an Audible.com subscription if necessary.) But he's sort of on the elderly side and never would even TRY to use audiobooks.. saying stuff like "when we used to go on driving trips we did listen to books on tape..." And that he doesn't travel anywhere now. I don't want to give up -- plus NOW w. the virus problem I cannot go into his home to set up anything for him. I'm investigating putting the audiobooks on an MP3 player - but haven't a clue how that would work.

It' so hard to help people who resist help. This is the attitude with a lot of seniors. It's one reason why I advise telecoils, volume controls and the basics. Bluetooth is great, but it complicates things...and some people just don't need those complications. If your friend's hearing aids have telecoils (here I go again), a basic device called a personal neck loop that is worn around the neck and plugged into an audio device might help him. It brings the sound directly from the audio device to the hearing aids w/o any ambient noise. I started using this device with a WalkMan radio back in the 90s, so am dating myself. I still have that radio and believe it to be a treasure as I can listen to broadcasts in noisy settings. In a football stadium for example. Even with crowd noise, I can hear the radio broadcast clearly. This personal neck loop can be plugged into any audio device; laptop, ipad, tablet, etc. Dating myself again, but I also have listened to a lot of audio books via a hand held tape player.

Another thing to consider, is a room loop that connects to a TV set. Maybe your friend would find Netflix more interesting than trying so hard to listen to an audio book. That works the same as the Neck loop, but circles the room, so anyone inside that circle can listen with telecoil equipped hearing aids too.

Depending on the degree of hearing loss, ear buds or noise cancelling headphones used without hearing aids might help.

Find out what features his hearing aids have. From there you can figure out what kinds of devices might work. The key here is to bring the sound directly to the hearing aids with no other sounds in the background. Even water running or a furnace running will create enough background noise to be a problem.

I hope this helps. It takes a bit of education to live well with hearing loss. How nice of you to be a helper!

Well, Sue, your report on this new system sounds most interesting. Let us know and the name of it, also, pls. I will be getting new HAs in a week or so, the Phonak Paradise P90 which, are supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. It will have telecoil ability and also the TV adaptor which will wirelessly put the sound directly into my hearing aids. At present I don't have too much trouble watching simply because I have captions on all the time. The problem with captions is that on local live programming the captions are like five - 10 seconds or more behind the spoken word; that is so disappointing. These HAs have a device that adjusts automatically when it senses someone speaking softly and turns up that sound without turning up the background sound. Anyway, keep us posted, Sue. Thanks.