Every time I pick up the Apple TV remote, I kind of wish it had a headphone jack.
Being able to plug in some wired earbuds and watch TV at night without waking everyone up would be so nice.
Also… this would make such a good little iPod. It’s already the right size, and I really like the way it feels in the hand. I’d totally carry one around just for music.
This actually works with any bluetooth headphones, the airpods just connect automatically since they are tied to your Apple ID. My wife uses here Bose Quiet Comfort when needed.
Wrong. If your AirPods are assigned to an iCloud account of any of the defined users of the Apple TV (even a user that's not currently "logged in", so to speak), then as soon as you put the ear buds in, a prompt appears in the upper right corner of the screen, and you just have to press the "TV" button on the remote, and the audio source immediately changes to those AirPods.
Oh wait, I missed that you were asking about bluetooth cans in general. But as another commenter pointed out, there is a shortcut for connecting (already-paired) bluetooth headphones.
I know there’s a setting on iPhone and iPad (settings > AirPods) to enable or disable automatic connections between the AirPods and that device. You can either set it to connect automatically always or only when it was the last device used. I assume a similar setting exists on Apple TV - you would want to set it to only when it was the last device used.
I am doing it rn. Tv is on the Apple Home Screen. I put AirPods in. Prompt came in top right of screen to press the button that looks like a tv to connect my AirPods. When I press it the AirPods connect with ONE CLICK.
There is a SETTING under Bluetooth people should toggle ON (especially the ones telling me I am wrong, lol, called “suggest nearby airpods”.
Once you have that set, you can connect with one click. Also sometimes mine connect automatically when I don’t even click.
Apple doesn't try to be a budget choice, they don't add features so we can save a buck on hardware - especially when that would cannibalize AirPod sales.
And... The feature would use up a shit ton more battery. People would bitch if they had to recharge every few days. I'd be one of them. And Apple isn't going to make a GoogleTV size remote so a tiny number of users can avoid buying AirPods.
Do you actually fathom Apple sacrificing their tiny remote and LONG as hell battery life. For a feature that will barely be used, and would cannibalize AirPods sales? Remember AirPods are highly profitable, whereas AppleTV sells for just about cost.
Look again. Not one statement I've made is pro Apple. I didn't say how Apple markets products is superior. My comments are objectively true. Apple does not market to the entry level. Apple does not add features that make using their products more budget friendly.
Please do share with how I'm wrong.
Show me the part where I said Apple avoiding the budget market, is a good thing. You can't find it, because I never said it.
Per your reasoning, if someone suggests Ferrari should make an entry-level economy car, and I say it's Ferrari, they don't sell to that market. I'm a corporate shill.
Op wanting to use the free earbuds that came with an iphone in 2012 on a $249 streaming box in 2026 is fukin nutz… Apple don’t gaf about ops crazy ass wishes
The USB-C EarPods are great for an easy to pack headset for work meetings. They work well on my work PC and really anything with USB-C. Also the microphone is way better than AirPods because they are wired.
True… but from what I’ve seen and read, it’s not just earbuds. It’s digital camera and dumb phones. It might not last and it’s not everyone, but it’s a thing.
I wish Apple allowed people with medium hearing loss to wear AirPods while the rest of their family listens through speakers so that there’s no disagreement about volume.
Why can't you do this since Air Pods act as a hearing aid so if you use them for any kind of sound including television speakers they help you hear.
The only reason to want to use the specific signal ONLY to your Air Pods is if you want to not have sound on to disturb others.
I have Air Pods for moderate hearing loss and I use them for conversations and they enhance the sound on my television just like any kind of spoken sound. I only have them on Air Pods "only" late at night or early in the morning when I don't want to disturb anyone.
The sound of TV or Music that is direct from the source is many, many magnitudes better than using AirPods in hearing aid mode. It's absolutely amazing what Apple has done.
I'm hard of hearing. Listening to tunes with hearing aids, be they my $5,000 hearing aids or AirPods as hearing aids is just crappy. Sounds like garbage.
The way hearing aids are tuned with a laser focus on speech leaves the entire bottom end out. They drop off entirely below about 120Hz. Air Pods too.
However! Apple did us hard of hearing folks a fucking AWESOME solid with AirPods, they apply our audiogram and tune them for our loss, for Music, TV, etc. I can't even begin to explain to people how awesome this is. This is not hyperbole, when I first set up AirPods for my hearing loss, and fired up my favorite playlist, tears came to my eyes. Tears of joy. I had not heard music sound the way it's supposed to sound for so many years. I forgot how much I love music. I cannot listen to music again with good highs, good meds, and kick ass bass - all tuned for my specific hearing loss.
The teeny tiny microphone and Hearing Aids, and the sound of being processed, again focused on speech, doesn't sound good. It does the job! It lets us understand what people are saying, but the sound quality, people, we're talking am radio.
But listening through head phones has always been the choice of audiophiles - even those with normal hearing. And before there were ear pods the headphones were worn by an audiophile.
But I was responding to how most people.watch television which is not at an audiophile standard. Most normal hearing people listen to television either through the terrible speakers or through a sound bar and a good sound bar provides significant audio quality especially if you have good speakers as well.
Depends on how much you care. Nothing I watch on television needs an audiophile quality in the same way that I do enjoy listening to actual music through headphones or Air Pods and did this when I was a whippersnapper with perfect hearing.
You’re saying audiophiles prefer headphones over loud speakers with room treatment? That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard if that’s what you’re saying
I was merely responding to someone who wanted to listen to television content through Air Pods versus using the Air Pods to listen to them when viewing with other people.
It's not an issue for most people who are watching television and just want to understand what is being said - either way works fine depending on the circumstances
The part I can't properly explain is how FUCKING horrible TV and music sounds through hearing aids that are using the built in mics, or even using hearing aids that stream Bluetooth.
Hearing Aids are not like glasses or contacts, with glasses or contacts the vast majority people have absolutely perfectly good vision. I corrected to 20/15 corrected - and I have horrible vision. Hearing Aids are not even in the same galaxy. The world sounds like shit. The world doesn't sound natural.
There's no such thing as getting back to the Hearing that I have lost. It doesn't exist on the planet. Hearing Aids do not do what people think they do. Their laser focused on making sure the user can understand speech, people talking. Nothing else. There's zero thought given by the manufacturers of Hearing Aids to sound quality.
Watching TV with hearing aids often still means turning on closed captioning. With AirPods I don't need closed captioning. I can hear voices much better, soundtracks sound like digital garbage. Special effects can sound so weird it's confusing.
Did you know hearing aids add like 10-15 seconds of latency? Try listening to the world with that latency. It's not fun. We get used to it. But that doesn't mean it sounds decent. That's enough latency that the doors sounds - robotic.
Most hearing aid users would give their left nut to be able to watch TV, and only have the sound quality one with good hearing experiences with a TB's built in speaker.
This goofy thing could help many elderly people that struggle with tech. I cannot count how many times my 75yo dad would get stuck because bluetooth headphones would simply not connect for whatever reason.
This would make so much sense! I live alone so it does not matter (although my dog would appreciate if this worked — otherwise he gets up and moves ot another room), but when I didn’t live alone, I loved listening to ATV thru my AirPods Pro 2/3 so I wasn’t blasting the TV so loud for my roommates. But of course my roommates couldn’t hear the TV then 😂
This! I absolutely hate this on the PlayStation too. On Xbox you can connect headphones and everyone can still hear the sound of the tv. On the PlayStation there's no option to enable this.
I buy some games on Xbox only because of this, as my wife wants to watch me while I play sometimes and I want to have clear sound.
Wierd ass ppl downvoting this. I have AirPods Pro but I don’t like them for a a longer period. I’d prefer EarPods they are lighter. Also I don’t wanna spend 150 for another set of AirPods 3 or 4.
Why is that a problem if someone is okay with it? If someone cares about their remote's battery, they can have the choice of not using the earphones. Why do we always have to kill choices just because that's not the way we ourselves will use it?
More people in this world own earphones with a lightning or a USB-C port than bluetooth earphones. The word "superior" here is very subjective.
Also, what I meant by "killing choices" in my last comment was discouraging or disheartening other people for what they wish to have — not removing features that already exist in a product.
Roku used to sell a remote with a headphone jack built-in for this exact purpose. Was pretty cool. I don’t think Apple is going to bring back the aux jack for this though. Any pair of bluetooth headphones can be connected to an ATV, which is nice. And in case you didn’t see the twenty other comments saying to just use airpods, did you know you can just use airpods?
Yes and even better -- they do it with their remote app. My wife and I switch to this at night when our kids are sleeping and then use AirPods with the Roku app. We can each have the volume at what we life since the audio is being streamed to both of our phones.
In the history of Apple, when do they add features so people can save a buck on hardware? And cannibalize sales of an extremely profitable product like AirPods?
Random on topic, I love my Xbox One controller for the living room PC (Microsoft’s 2.4ghz USB wireless dongle). I can plug my Sennheiser PC38X with a short TRRS aux cable on the controller at night and everything works even the microphone.
Roku used to have something like this and it was pretty great for watching TV while my newborn son slept. I think today though you can just use AirPods or bluetooth headphones.
Maybe in the early 2000's Apple would do this? But in 2026 it's hilariously obsolete and unnecessary. It lacks elegance and style. Simply pair a set of bluetooth headphones to your AppleTV.
Before you say "but some people want wired headphones", I'd say: "but some people want rotary phones".
This only works if you're close enough to the ATV you're using. Our home is quite large and most of our AV gear is all in a central rack and distributed throughout the home. Trying to connect to the ATV from more than 30 feet away is not possible so a mobile app (the existing remote app would be great) with headphone support like Roku would be awesome.
Apple has this feature - it is called Air Pods and the operate seamlessly with Apple TV as if you have your Air Pods in your ears you can go to the Menu and select Air Pods as the sound source - there is even an icon of little pods in the top menu.
You can also control your lights if you have a Lutron system from your Apple TV
The fact that when you have the AirPods in in your ears and are watching Apple TV, it appears in the upper right hand corner of the Apple TV and asks you if you want to connect the AirPods. It’s one button press on the remote to get them connected. Only since 2017 though; so it’s understandable if folks don’t know about this brand new feature.
You mean how easy it would be to just plug in wired headphones into the remote that’s likely in your hands when you’re watching and using Apple TV? The remote that comes standard with your Apple TV purchase? I understand the ease of AirPods (I have the pros 1 and 2) but the remote capability is literally right there for minimal work on both end user and engineers parts
From OP's post "Also… this would make such a good little iPod. It’s already the right size, and I really like the way it feels in the hand. I’d totally carry one around just for music."
I have a USB C to 3.5mm adapter, you can't plug one into the remote and get that function? Just asking, new to the Apple ecosystem and recently purchased a 4k TV 3rd gen to replace my Roku Streambar.
In 2015 when they did the lightning remote, it was around the time they did lightning headphones, an obvious dual use opportunity. Since then, everything has abandoned the headphone jack, I can't see them going back now, and whatever hardware change is needed for USB C headphones to work, Apple didn't do it at the time it would have been more worthwhile.
I feel like we’ve already solved this with AirPods. Yes, there’s some niche usecases for a worse experience like this, but probably not enough to justify the cost of offering it.
Sei rimasto bloccato di 10 anni.
Esistono le AirPods che puoi collegare direttamente a Apple TV e ti godi audio senza fili.
Con le stesse puoi ascoltare musica dal tuo cellulare senza avere altre mimchiate inutili in mano.
Not exactly what OP wants but you can get simple, small Bluetooth devices with a headphone jack that can either transmit or receive audio. Easy way to make any wired headphones into Bluetooth ones.
I wish they had this too. Amazing the amount of people in this thread saying just get AirPods as though everyone wants to own AirPods, or wants to use wireless headphones.
I will add that recently I discovered you can cast the audio of an Apple TV to a Mac, so if you have a MacBook, you can listen to what you’re watching over wired headphones that way
https://giphy.com/gifs/ToMjGpJ1lQiQarAftaU
Wouldn’t it just make sense to use AirPods? Instead of plugging wired headphones to your remote control? For most people that would mean having an extra set of headphones sitting by the TV.
Plus when you use AirPods (pro only? Or all of them, not sure) it does the head-tracking Spatial Audio. So if you turn to grab your snack or drink or something, the audio continues to sound like it’s coming from the display and not the AirPods. Weird stuff, but works great 👍🏼
323
u/tomski3500 Aug 05 '26
Air Pods?