Discussions

[MLH55]

I'm looking for clarification about the Streambar. Roku.com says both "Requires TV with HDMI ARC or Optical outputs" and "Roku® Streambar™ will work on any TV with an HDMI® port". Which is it?

I have an older TV which has HDMI ports, but neither HDMI ARC nor an optical output. Can I use the Streambar or no?

Please help. Thanks.

[RokuDanny-R · Accepted solution]

@MLH55 

Thanks for the inquiry.

For clarification, with the Roku Streambar for a one-cable setup, you’ll need a TV with an HDMI® ARC port. If your TV doesn’t have an HDMI ARC port, you can connect with the HDMI and Optical input ports. 

The HDMI ARC is required to pass sound over to other inputs but the Roku Streambar will work with just a HDMI port for sound when using the built in Roku player.

Thanks,
Danny

[MLH55]

Hello, Danny: Thank you for your reply, but it does not fully answer my question.

First, as I said in my post, I have neither HDMI ARC nor optical input. Your reply implies I cannot use Streambar. Am I correct about this? This is my essential question.

Second, if regular HDMI is good enough for sound, why not video, too? After all, a regular Roku streaming stick plugs into HDMI without need of anything else. Why not Streambar? It's basically just a speaker with a streaming stick built-in, right?

Please let me know. Thanks.

[RokuDanny-R]

@MLH55 

You will be able to use the Streambar if you simply have a HDMI cable.

However, without the HDMI ARC or optical cable, you will be unable to use the Streambar to get audio from your TV (and connected devices) to your Roku Smart Streambar.

Thanks,
Danny

[ErnieD]

I have an older LG tv that has only HDMI ports and a coaxial digital sound output.  Is there an adapter I can get to join the optical cable to the coaxial output?

[troycmd]

I am sorry, Danny, but this is still unclear. I, like the questioner, have a non-ARC HDMI port and no optical port. During the set up effort, I could hear the button sounds through my Streambar. So the TV was sending sound to the Streambar via the non-ARC HDMI port. However, during the set-up phase, I reached an impasse. The set up wanted me to use an optical cable. But since I have no optical port, I couldn't. There was no place to go in the set up process from that point. 

[RokuDanny-R]

@troycmd 

Thanks for the post.

If you need further assistance with setting up your Roku Streambar, please send me a PM with your Roku account email address, and include the serial number/device ID on the Roku device along with a summary of the issue you are experiencing. I'll be able to assist you further from there.

Thanks,
Danny

[Bailey-1158]

I have a new Sony Bravia TVs and I did everything I could possibly do. Sony said I had to connect hdmi arc and optical because it isn’t specific for Sony. Well, I tried absolutely everything and I never was able to get the sound to work. I tried for a week but got nothing. Maybe the bugs aren’t worked out yet but I would love to hear from people that get it to work. 

[RokuDanny-R]

@Bailey-1158 

Thanks for the post.

If you need further assistance with setting up your Roku Streambar, please send me a PM with your Roku account email address, and include the serial number/device ID on the Roku device along with a summary of the issue you are experiencing. I'll be able to assist you further from there.

Thanks,
Danny

[troycmd]

Operator Error!  Ha. I could not see the optical input on my TV. The HDMI port was not ARC compatible and the community informed me that an old style standard HDMI port alone would not allow me to use the Streambar. As I was boxing up Streambar for a return, I thought to look at my TV's booklet to see if a soundbar of some sort could use my USB port. Low and behold, there was an optical port in there documentation. I had to turn my TV upside down to be able to see the group of ports that I had not know were present. Using the HDMI and optical port worked like a charm. I hope you find a way to connect as the sound is quite good on the device. 

I found the hidden optical input on my TV, and now the system works.