Hi @roos.vbxx 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

As the optical link between the TV and the Playbar is one-directional, the TV has no way of knowing there is a device connected to the optical port. Therefore, the only way the TV could know to switch from Bluetooth to Optical output automatically, is if it were to remember it’s last setting prior to using Bluetooth - I can only recommend getting in touch with Samsung regarding this.

This next part may sound like a sales pitch, but I just want to give you all the details: Arc and Beam connect to the TV via HDMI, which is not one-directional. Therefore, the TV would know to switch back to the sound-bar when the headphones have been disconnected. So, you could upgrade (the Playbar will earn you 15% off a new purchase). Though in the interest of full disclosure, some TVs need to have HDMI-CEC disabled before they can play to Bluetooth with a sound-bar connected, so that’s another setting that would need to be changed each time.

I don’t think getting an HDMI optical extractor to link the Playbar to is worth more than this mention as it would prevent internal TV sources (live broadcasted TV or TV apps) from playing through the Playbar at all - a bigger issue than your Grandpa would be happy dealing with, I’m sure.

There are such things as optical SPDIF switches, however - if you were able to split the optical connection coming from the TV into two, one could go to the Playbar, and one could go to a Bluetooth transmitter. Connect the headphones to the new transmitter instead of to the TV and switch between (or play to both? It’s technically very feasible) the headphones and Playbar at will. I can’t recommend specific devices, unfortunately, but a search did reveal some with remotes. If it were my Grandpa, this is the solution I would probably go for.

I realise you probably were looking for a setting to change, rather than a list of devices to consider buying, but I hope this helps.