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There comes a time when you want to watch TV, but someone else in your dwelling doesn’t want to be bothered by the noise. You could choose to stop watching every video in your YouTube recommended feed, or you could grab a pair of headphones and watch privately.
Many companies, such as Bose and Sonos, make headphones with specialized, proprietary connectivity to their soundbars, but you can connect any headphones to most streaming sticks via Bluetooth. Some TVs have native Bluetooth connectivity, though you’ll need to check your device settings; older and budget TVs may not.
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Connecting headphones directly to a TV or streaming stick is much more reliable than connecting to a soundbar. Workarounds exist, but if you want your soundbar and headphones to play audio simultaneously, you’ll likely need to make some magic happen with an optical cable or an A/V receiver.
However, if your goal is to watch a movie late at night without disturbing anyone or spending extra money on special headphones, here’s how you can with the devices you already have.
How to connect headphones to your streaming stick
The HD Roku Streaming Stick (purple letters).
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
What you need: A pair of headphones or earbuds and a Roku, Google, Amazon Fire, or Apple TV streaming device.
Navigate to your streaming device’s settings and find the category for Bluetooth devices. Depending on your device, the language may vary. However, it’s typically under “Remotes & Devices” or “Remotes & Bluetooth devices.”
You can typically also pair headphones, earbuds, remotes, and gaming controllers to these streaming sticks.
Before your streaming stick can connect to your headphones, you need to make your headphones discoverable. You can usually force over-ear headphones into pairing mode by holding down the headphones’ power button for at least five seconds. Usually, their status light will blink blue or amber, or pulsate white to signal that they’ve entered pairing mode.
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For earbuds, there’s usually a button on the back of the charging case. Press and hold that button, then check the case’s status light for a blinking or pulsating blue, amber, or white light to indicate pairing mode.
Once your headphones or earbuds have entered pairing mode, their product name should appear in the streaming stick’s list of available devices. Once you see your headphones appear, click on them to connect.
In some cases, the remotes that come with streaming sticks, like Roku’s, may have 3.5mm headphone jacks, allowing you to connect to them with a wire.
While that may be less convenient, as you’re effectively tied to where your controller is (or need to keep it beside you), it also yields the lowest latency, reducing any delay between the audio you hear and the visuals you see.
One caveat to consider
These streaming sticks plug into your TV via HDMI, which uses a completely different method of encoding audio, sending it to your connected soundbar or TV speakers. Though Roku, Google, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV 4K support Dolby Atmos, you need either a compatible TV or an audio device connected to your TV’s eARC port to encode audio in Dolby Atmos or other high-quality, spatial audio formats.
Therefore, your headphones will not deliver Dolby Atmos audio when connected to a streaming stick or TV via Bluetooth. Instead, you’ll likely receive audio over Bluetooth using the standard SBC codec, which is associated with higher latency, less stable connections, and poorer audio quality.
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Before the Sonos Ace existed, which connects to a Sonos soundbar via Wi-Fi (therefore mitigating the connectivity and latency issues), I regularly connected my headphones to my Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and didn’t have many complaints.
If you’re a real-deal audio nerd, there’s no doubt you’ll hear the difference between your Bluetooth-connected headphones and your carefully curated home theater. But if you just want to finish your movie in peace at 3 a.m., this trick saves money, time, and frustration with your housemates.