Hi markdo,
I understand your situation. Even for me, it still looks occasional phenomena (occurred just twice and 2nd one is kept). Thus I think it is important to reset both AirPods and Taotronics thoroughly.
1. Reset Taotronics : follow through procedures in user's guide (below is for model TT-BA01)
1) Turn on the transmitter (blue LED flushes then turn off)
2) Push power switch twice (no LED lit)
3) Turn off the device (red LED flushes then turn off)
2. Reset AirPods :
1) Disconnect AirPods from all your devices.
2) Confirm AirPods is in the condition below
i) Without power supply, the case's LED should be in green / orange color (Pods are inside).
ii) When AirPod(s) is out from the case, the pod should make turn on sound (same as on iPhone pairing).
iii) If the pod does not make turn on sound and / or case's LED is in stable white color, your AirPods are not reset yet.
3. Paring AirPods and Taotronics :
1) Turn on the transmitter and push power switch until the device's LED starts blinking in blue and red alternately.
2) Set AirPods paring mode (push the button on back side of the case until white LED starts blinking).
3) When Transmitter's LED gets stable red and AirPods case's white LED turns off, you get the paring.
4) When you success the pairing, you hear turn on sound then get TV sound follows.
4. Repeat procedure 1 and 2 until you get the paring :
1) Reset Taotronics several times.
2) Confirm AirPods is reset.
Probably, the paring has some kind of hardship / trouble. So I keep 2nd paring on. It is very sad we have trouble to switch AirPods' pairing from one device to another as we wish...
Good luck.