Roku's first soundbar also serves as a streaming box

It's all well and good, but it hides something important. Yes, the Roku sound bar and subwoofers sound good, but they are also extremely simple to set up: just connect the soundbar to a TV with an HDMI cable, and you're done. Once plugged in, the submarine automatically connects to the soundbar. The latter then begins to determine the best way to allocate audio responsibilities. It's very simple, as one can expect from Roku material.

All things considered, the Smart Soundbar and the subwoofer seem to be excellent options for people looking to upgrade their older and less intelligent home theater configuration at lower cost. Yes, are there less expensive options, including packages that include decent wireless subwoofers. What Roku really has to do here is the cohesion of it all. By paying $ 180 or $ 360, you'll have everything you need to bring an old beloved installation into the era of streaming.

That said, the soundbar seems much more useful to anyone entering the field of smart TV. To get the most out of it, you need to use Roku's software and interface on the soundbar, even if your TV already uses Samsung's Tizen software, LG's webOS software or Fire TV software. 39; Amazon. Surely, Roku 's experience is about as user – friendly as possible, but there remains a learning curve to keep in mind if you come from an existing smart TV platform.

Things might get a little harder if you are already a regular user of Roku. Since the soundbar contains all the hardware and software needed to broadcast The right place on your TV, it will largely replace the Roku devices you may have already connected. The company said the soundbar was smart enough that you could take one of your Roku remotes to control the video output of the soundbar. However, the small changes you made to your original Roku, such as the layout of your channel icons, will not be reflected on the soundbar. Fortunately, if you're using a real Roku TV – that is, a TV running the Roku operating system – you can control everything you need from the interface you're used to.