Potential Phasing Out: The Future of Roku Streambar Pro in Question

The Streambar Pro has been seemingly discontinued. The device is unavailable to order from Roku’s online store, and third-party retailers like Best Buy show limited stock.

Roku hasn’t officially announced the Strembar Pro’s demise, but as of the time of writing, the Best Buy listing shows no stock available online, and Roku’s own online store redirects to the product page for the regular Streambar. It’s still available on Amazon , but shipping times have slipped into September. We’ve reached out to Roku to confirm, and we will update this article when we hear back.

With this change, the company offers two Streambar-branded accessories, the $80 Streambar SE and the standard $130 Streambar. Both integrate soundbar functions and a built-in 4K HDR streaming into a sleek device. The difference is that the Streambar SE ships with a standard Roku remote in the box instead of a Voice Remote and lacks support for Dolby sound and HDR10+ video (which has up to four times the peak brightness of regular HDR).

The Streambar Pro was released in April 2021 as an updated version of Roku’s Smart Soundbar from 2020. Both were priced the same at $180, but the Streambar Pro had four speakers, supported the Virtual Surround feature of the Roku OS, and came bundled with a Voice Remote featuring personal shortcut buttons and private listening instead of Roku’s standard remote. Roku discontinued the Smart Soundbar when the Streambar Pro went on sale.

It’s unclear whether Roku plans to unveil a Streambar Pro successor anytime soon. So, what are prospective Streambar Pro buyers supposed to do now? Well, the Streambar SE and Streambar work with Roku’s Wireless Speakers and Wireless Bass, so that could be a path forward for folks who want the Streambar Pro for its immersive surround sound.

Roku’s extensive media player lineup includes four other players: the $20 Express as the cheapest Roku; the $30 Express 4K+ which upgrades video resolution to 4K HDR and brings more storage and dual-band Wi-Fi support; the $35 Streaming Stick 4K that plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI port and the $90 Ultra as the flagship option.

Source: Cord Cutters News

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