So I spent days researching sound bars for our TCL Roku TV from the TCL made one for Roku TVs to generic sound bars to this Roku Streambar Pro. Each has pros/cons to consider and I was very frustrated the amount of time it took to find answers to things I'd think would be common sense sort of things such as why doesn't Roku make a soundbar without a Roku built in for Roku TVs (aside from the fact the TV manufacturers make them)? Or what happens when a Roku TV owner uses a Streambar or Streambar Pro since there's now a 2nd Roku sitting there for nothing? With a normal non-Roku TV it's pretty obvious it's just a matter of changing inputs but with a Roku TV the Roku IS the TV system including changing inputs.
So the Pro bar feels pretty well made. It was very simply to plug in but it was frustrating the power cord was so long when I only needed to go about 3 foot with TV mounted on wall & mounting the bar below it using a kit I got off amazon. Suppose they assume many will want a long cord such as if the bar is on TV cabinet or such but those of us with wall mounted tv need shorter for simpler cable management & hiding those cables. I can probably find a 3rd party power cord that's shorter but I just wanted to test the thing out. The other frustration in mounting the bar is that the bar uses 1/4" screws but the kit came with only metric screws. Yeah that's more on the kit people but TV mounts use metric.. I used the included HDMI cable & plugged into the ARC HDMI port in part because there's a note on the cable that's what should be used. Powered on the tv & like magic the TCL Roku tv saw the bar & it told me I wouldn't need the remote that came with the bar (I assume because it's a Roku TV & plugged into ARC port). So I used the original TV remote & walked thru the simple wizard which most of the time was waiting on it to do forced auto-updates before it would continue. When done it played a demo video which there was no obvious way to cancel but home button did the trick. I was back at the TCL Roku home screen with nothing obviously different besides when changing volume the icon was different (shows a tiny sound bar) and it was obvious the sound was much better & coming out of the bar now instead of the tv speakers. So it appeared I was done.. No sign of the bar's Roku or the HDMI port I plugged it into. HDMI4 was missing now! So that answers the one nagging question of what happens on Roku TV & that's it acts like a stand-alone bar if you choose to leave it that way. I wanted to dig in more so in settings I found HDMI4 set as hidden so i changed that & voila! there was now a new input called Roku Streambar Pro. Cooler yet when i moved to it it showed a thumbnail preview of the other roku like picture in picture. I chose it & there was the new "hidden" Roku. And like magic there were all my apps! But the tv remote no longer worked for anything but tv functions like volume. I had to add batteries to the new remote & use that. Hitting Hom on the TV remote took me to the TV Roku home. Hitting home on new Roku remote alerted me it was taking me to the Streambar Roku with a timer to cancel. Once playing with the new Roku I found that one got setup by the roku tv & roku system without any input/help from me for Wifi, Roku acct login etc. Cool but tad concerning from security/privacy standpoint at the same time.. So both remotes power tv on & off, both volumes control the volume but each remote controls only the respective Roku. This does make sense in hindsight but nice to know & makes me wonder why Roku doesn't document how it works for Roku TV owners. It also answers why they don't sell a bar without a Roku since that new Roku is basically hidden & not used unless you go looking for it (or happen to setup the new remote & hit keys..) But is it?.. Setting up bluetooth streaming Pandora from phone told me otherwise. I added the phone in the TV Roku settings & like magic I could hear the music despite the TV Roku home screen up. Odd.. No controls. No info. Just music playing. I went to the bar Roku while it was playing & there it was! the bluetooth player "channel" was up on that Roku but hidden from view except I had un-hidden it. Others who had not wouldn't even realize that was there & would miss out on part of the experience. Non Roku TV users would have enjoyed the full experience since they'd probably be using the new built in roku. So it made me wonder why not just use the bar's roku instead of the tv's roku? For one anyone who uses other inputs MUST use the Tv's roku. If you ONLY roku that's moot. Same if you use the HD tuner, you'd have to use the TV Roku. Since it's mounted on wall only use Roku so yeah why not?! I did some testing & the menus seems comparison in speed. Apps/channels seems comparable. Then I started a movie on Disney plus & wow did it look much worse on the bar roku vs the tv roku.. On the tv it was bright & very detailed. On the bar it was dark & grainy. The hint was the tv splashed "Dolby Vision" when starting the movie & the bar flashed "HDR". Bummer the bar does not support Dolby Vision :( The movie looked so much worse it was no brainer that using the TV roku was the best option & switch to the bar roku if streaming Pandora & wanting to see the info/status. But I had to dig in more & glad i did. On the bar Roku in display settings it was Auto by default & there was UHD 4K HDR! I set it to 4K non-HDR & wow the D+ movie looked great now! Basically on par with the TV's Roku with Dolby Vision but not quite.. So close most people would probably find it close enough. To me the Dolby Vision was a touch better but not enough to avoid using the bar's Roku at this point and I seemed to answer all my questions except how good does the bar sound.. Streaming Pandora from an Android had me worried because it was pretty flat & tinny no matter what sound settings I chose. The music preset was near impossible to hear without turning volume wayyy up (btw the volume changes lag with either Roku compared to built in sound which was a bit annoying since it took so long to turn it up to hear then back down). I gave up on Pandora & found a streaming music channel on Roku Spectrum app. HOLY COW it was pretty fantastic! WAYY better than the sound of Pandora to point if I had only tried Pandora I would have thought this bar stunk. If it was Pandora or streaming over bluetooth or what I'm not sure but there was definitely a very noticeable difference. Now using the streaming channel it sounds fantastic, especially compared to the TCL built in speakers and after a little tweaking of sound settings on the * menu. Music sounds best with defaults but enable surround drop treble 1 notch & bunch bass a couple.. Oddly enough for tv it sounded better (could hear the people better without "distortion" from the sounds) with surround off. I figure it depends on what we're watching. I'm very pleased with choosing the Streambar Pro at this point & would recommend it to Roku TV or non-Roku TV users alike now that I've answered the questions that kept me from ordering it until now.
| Brand Name | Roku |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 5.5 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 2.8 x 32.2 x 3.9 inches |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Item model number | 9101R2 |
| Batteries | 2 AA batteries required. (included) |
| Output Wattage | 60 Watts |
| Color Name | Black |
| Special Features | Subwoofer |
| Speaker Type | Soundbar |
