The Roku Streambar Pro is WORTHLESS to me!

My loyalty to Roku is being seriously tried here. I tried to set up the ULTIMATE Roku experience … It didn’t work. My plan was to use the Roku Streambar Pro to set up a surround sound system using the streambar, the Roku Wireless Speakers, and the Roku Subwoofer, all on my TCL Roku TV. But as it turns out, IT CAN'T BE DONE. In this video I'll detail my woes, what went wrong, and why this is a completely nonsensical hole in the Roku Ecosystem.

0:00 - My Roku audio setup
2:07 - Failing at adding the Streambar Pro
3:29 - The ecosystem facepalm
4:05 - The terrible solutions



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[ReviewsOrg]

UPDATE: Spoke with Roku today and they helped me get my system sorted out. Turns out it *CAN* be done! I'll do another video soon showing exactly how it all works and how you can get it done. Thanks to the Roku team for the help.

[donovanoleary]

Try this: Un-pair the Satellite speakers and Subwoofer from the TV. Once that is done, connect the Streambar Pro to the ARC HDMI, usually it is HDMI 1. With your TV remote, on the TV Home Screen, click on Input HDMI 1. This will bring you to the Streambar Home Screen - which will obviously look very similar, minus the HDMI inputs. Then pair the Satellite speakers and Subwoofer to the Streambar Pro. The key is to connect them through the Streambar Home Screen interface and not the TV. See if that works.

[workshed]

I have this same setup. Use the eARC out of TV to bar, connect speakers and sub to bar. It works just fine.

[headcase]

I have that exact set up and my surround sound is working perfectly. I plugged in the sound bar pro to the hdmi arc port on the TV, selected that input on the TV and then proceeded to add my sub and rear speakers with the roku interface on the sound bar. Then I hit home on the TVs remote and never went back in to use the streambars version of the roku software. I didn't want to bother with having to sign in to all my services and it's worked great for me. The only difference that your set up is from mine is that you already had the sub and speakers added to the TV directly. I installed my set up from scratch starting with the streambar pro then added the sub, then added the speakers. Hope this helps!

[Somebody]

The streambar must be paired first it will then act as a hub for the remaining devices in the setup. You would think they would add a simple note to the setup screen explaining this.

[soulsergeant]

Dude after the software update, my Streambar, subwoofer and 4 Roku speakers all
Connected to my tcl Roku Tv

[davidlippmanesq]

I had the same issue, and was as frustrated… just bought a google tv, and planning on pairing with the soundbar pro and wireless speakers/subwoofer. It does seem crazy that you can’t make them all work together, but I suppose they should make it clear that the soundbar pro if you want to set up a 5.1 system will only work with a non roku tv.

[jsarm]

Wow, did you EVER potato this.
I can't believe you haven't figured this out.
I also can't believe that the customer service person didn't tell you how to do this.
I have everything you have and it all works.
1.You have to disconnect the wireless speakers/sub from the TV
2. Link everything through the soundbar (both sets of speakers and the sub)
3.The soundbar is connected to the TCL TV through HDMI ARC
4. Surround sound.

The TV treats the soundbar as another input, but you don't have to use the soundbar to get the surround sound.

[gippywhite]

I have a Visio TV with no additional speakers. Feel free to send that my way! 😁💙💙💙

[erickessler]

Thank you... OUTSTANDING Report & very timely for me as I was seriously considering the Streaming Bar Pro to match my Roku TV. Darn! I liked the price compared to Sonos.

[chriskuczynskimusic]

Thanks Craig....that was VERY have a Roku tv myself and was looking into this product....now I am glad i didnt and stuck with a BOSE sound bar that i got for goal was like you, to keep it within the ROKU i guess that just cant happen

[RWing]

I have the Streambar Pro. In fact I pre-order it. They kept moving the release date. I finally got it and even though it is freaking HUGE it is decent but ever since my Netflix does not work right. I called Netflix and they (bless their price raising hearts) tried to help. Till this day my Netflix on Roku does not work properly but it is not the fault of Netflix but of Roku. I also have Fire TV and Netflix works beautifully on there. I works fine everywhere except Roku Stream Bar Pro. My first 2 Roku players had no problems with Netflix yet this one does. So I kinda love to hate and hate to love The Roku Stream Bar Pro.

[clnelson]

Now that you have it straightened out, did you or will you do a review of the Streambar pro with subwoofer and rear Roku speakers. I can't find 1 review of the complete system on YouTube. It would seem to sound awesome, but would like your take on it.

[williammac]

I'm glad you called their service people back and tried again. Maybe just a little bit more training would be in order for their phone personnel. About a year ago I had a disappointing exchange when I called the Roku number. It was shortly after Paramount+ went from $5.99 to $9.99. My first mistake was entering my card information into my Roku device upon setup. Of course with a lot of the streaming services Roku has a deal and the payment gets forwarded from Roku to that streaming service. Gee and what could go wrong with that? Yeah I promise you please do not do that. When you activate a new streaming service go right to their website and sign up right there, that way you know they're the ones taking the money out of your account and you can cancel from the website. Roku's confusion and they're unsatisfactory phone representatives had me canceling my debit card. It's no big deal I've got another account but it does take about 10 days to get a new card lol. 🌏 Can't wait until they're big enough to ship out their phone service reps to the Philippines. On a side note, when I was in school I excelled in technical writing. I took all the English and business writing courses I could. In most of our classes all we did was take a device say learning how to drive a stick shift or some other technical problem and wrote manuals on it. There isn't any reason on earth that Roku as big as they are can't hire excellent technical writers to put it in black and white on their manuals for their equipment how it's done this is just inexcusable bad business practices. Another bad Business practice roku has is there stupid move of removing side loading special codes for apps they don't carry in their app store. I have some special interests and use a couple of experimental apps so far as Roku is concerned. Won't be able to use them now. I was talking to a fire stick app developer yesterday. I bought his app that puts my notifications from my telephone to my fire stick that show on my TV. I asked him, because sometimes I use my Roku device, do you have a app so I can use it on my Roku? His quote to me was, no we will not do that because roku's developmental platform is terrible. So anyway I'm not a computer scientist but I would tend to take his word for it. Sort of an inside Roku business profile if you will.

[menacingtony]

Can I use Roku stream bar, Roku wireless speakers and Roku wireless subwoofer if I connect to a projector???

[HideOut]

So glad you got this sorted out! This system was a wonderful upgrade for my older Sony TV. The $800.00 Sony surround sound I had was never good. I can finally hear voices & the Sub is crazy good.

[clnelson]

I ditched my cheap Roku TV for many of the same reasons. Get a decent non Roku TV for the Streambar Pro. The remote is better, anyways, along with better audio/visual/software.

[charlesminor]

I have a magnavox TV. I don't know if they even make them anymore.
But it works great with Roku soundbar, , wireless speakers, and subwoffer.
I'm glad I didn't buy the Roku tv.

[morganmorales]

Thank you that was a big help for me because I was going to buy a Roku bar. The only one I have a little cooler that little device that I told you about the one that you were showing with little sticky tape and all that stuff. But I've found out the other soundbar was TCL like your TV for Roku I think that was $75. And I'm wondering if that would be a good Soundbar for me because I have the little mechanism. Maybe you should auction It Off. If you know what I mean. And thank you put me back on your channel that was really sweet. You are a very kind man.

[joehart]

Did you try it with a non roku equipped TV? Based on what I'm seeing the TCL TV maxes out with their subwoofer and their wireless speakers which is correct. You seem to have ignored the notice from the TCL TV that the TCL TV maxes out as it was designed by TCL with their speakers.