Tech/hearing advice anyone?

In my experience with hearing impairment is that volume isn't the problem unless the ear canal is occluded by excessive wax. The problem is loss of high frequencies and this mean that sibilants and aspirants (s & sh, and f & h) are either lost or become confused with each other. The NHS aids that I have are tuned to my particular spectrum of impairment in an attempt, mainly successful, to provide an uplift to those parts that my hearing has lost, but to leave in place all the frequencies that remain normal. As far as television sound is concerned, many problems exist even for people with 'normal' hearing - mumbling actors, sloppy enunciation, and most recently the broadcasters' apparent obsession with regional accents - Scottish in particular. Whatever one's view of regional accents, and I applaud their existence in real life, they are inevitably difficult for listeners who are not from the region of origin of said accent. Everyone in Britain from Caithness to Scilly Isles can understand RP as once practised by all BBC presenters - who could fail to understand Raymond Baxter or Bob Danvers-Walker? Only people from, say, Aberdeen can be sure of understanding every word from an Aberdonian - pleasant to hear though it might be. As the purpose of broadcast speech is to communicate, why is it thought acceptable to deliver that speech in a minority dialect instead of one that is universally intelligible?

(hobby horse returned to stable)

There is a very good Home Loop system, that can be installed quite cheaply. Good NHS Hearing aids may take some time to get used to but would definitely help.

I have these in both ears, also use subtitles on my tv. When I can SEE what they are saying I can hear them better. Also have a sound bar. So my tv is not having to be sound up too high.

At night, in my bedroom I take out my hearing aids at night and use good wi fi headphones to listen to talking books, never even need sound right up there and, of course nobody else can hear them. Also have those attached with a wire to the non-smart tv in my bedroom, so can use them if I want to watch that tv.

The wall that is against is a party wall to the main bedroom of the next door flat, so it is important do not have that tv on loud at night, but with the headphones it is fine.

Lots of help out there, Ask the National Deaf Association for support and help

Why you don't try something like this?

www.audioreputation.com/wireless-tv-speakers-for-hearing-impaired/

Sorry to hear about the problem with sound on TV. I also struggle so I turn on sub titles. I can now enjoy programmes like peaky blinders and the ripper

Brilliant. Gransnet at its best!! Do let us know how things pan out and if I can help further.

Update. Good news. I took Izabella's advice, tracked down local support and found an organisation that will assess her exact need and supply and fit whatever is found to help. When I looked at the free equipment they offered I was happy to see all the items you all suggested.
I've just been to pass on this info to our neighbour and she was absolutely thrilled. She's going to contact them as soon as they are open again. I do hope she'll be able to watch TV again without risking the wrath of 'her downstairs'.
Thank you all.

Sounds excellent Izabella. Will check that out. Thanks.

.... And when the stuff arrived it was all fitted for me.

Look under your local voluntary groups for support for the deaf. My room loop system was provided free of charge after a volunteer visited home and sorted out just what I needed.

Thanks all. I plan to print out the details of each suggestion and pass them on to her. I'll try to get DH to go with her if she chooses to buy any of them as I reckon she could easily be taken advantage of by techy shop staff.

I bought DH a wireless tv listening system for last Christmas .. .. a geemarc CL7100. It's easy to set up, no cords to attach you to anything so you can sit anywhere in the room , and lightweight. I think it was about £60. Other people can watch tv at their own sound level. His only complaint was he was isolated from any conversation going on in the room. Unfortunately he only used it for a couple of evenings, as he became ill in the New Year, and passed away soon after. A quick google brings up the main Uk retailer.

A good sound bar or sound base does help a lot as the sound quality is far better than even the best TV speakers.

But if the lady lives on her own, that's not going to be a problem for most of the time, is it?

The problem with headphones with TV is that they usually turn off the speakers, so no one else can hear.

DH has wireless headphones for listening to his music.
I'm not sure if they will work with TV.

Thanks all. A few options we can put to her. Just the plug in speakers alone might do the trick.
Next item on the programme -tackle the downstairs neighbour re the extent to which the poor lady lives in fear of annoying her!

Not cheap but this allows the hearing aid user to listen via their hearing aids whilst everyone else can listen normally.

www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop/echo-sl-hearing-loop-system-for-tv-product-l406.aspx

If she is deaf then the NHS hearing aids should work for her and she should keep going back until they are right.

Does she have a thin TV? (There is no doubt a technical name that escapes me.) They are dreadful as far as sound goes as the speakers are on the sides. We use a sound bar which helps quite a bit when it is set up correctly. But a good one is quite a lot and, in our experience, the cheaper ones are no good at all.

Someone else more technically minded might be more help. We have a lot of 'thingies' at our house.

Its possible to get sound systems with speakers which can be placed near the person which makes it easier to hear the tv. Not expensive, easy to plug into the tv. we have similar as do our friends who we visited recently. I could not hear their tv due to similar worries about dusturbing neighbours , and when i moved closer to where the speaker was placed i could hear perfectly.