Roku’s 2020 Product Lineup

Underwhelming announcement
roku steaming 2023

Following Amazon’s big product announcements last week, Roku announced their 2020 product lineup and software updates this morning. It was rather underwhelming – only two new products were announced.

roku ultra
Let’s start with the more frustrating announcement first, and that would be yet another hardware refresh to the Roku Ultra, which will now support both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos. This is the first Roku streaming device to support Dolby Vision, which is in itself exciting, but is pretty much a slap in the face to anyone who purchased last year’s Ultra model that was nearly identical to the previous Ultra model with the exception of a newer CPU. This Ultra model should have been released last year. Roku also claims that this year’s Ultra has a new and improved Wi-Fi chipset that supposedly increases the range by 50%, although it does not support the newer Wi-Fi 6 standard, but does add Bluetooth connectivity support (for headphones and speakers). As with previous Ultra models, this one includes USB and Ethernet ports and the remote includes a headphone jack for private listening and lost remote finder.  Perhaps even more disappointing is that this is the only new Roku streaming device announced for 2020, holding over the aging Roku Express, Roku Premiere, Roku Streaming Stick+, and even more confusing, the Roku Ultra LT (which is last year’s Ultra model). None of the holdover models support Dolby Vision. The new Ultra is expected to begin shipping on October 18 and will retail for $99.99.

roku soundbarThe other new product announced was the Roku Streambar, which is another rather disappointing product when you look under the hood. This is basically a compact soundbar (14 inches wide, 2.4 inches high, and 4.2 inches deep) with a built-in Roku 4K streaming device with HDR10 and HLG high dynamic range support. That’s right – no Dolby Vision! The audio specs include four 1.9-inch full range drivers, four sound modes (Normal, Reduce bass, Bass boost, and Bass off), three Speech Clarity modes (Off, Low, High), three Volume Modes (Off, Leveling, Night Mode), and support for PCM and Dolby Audio. The Streambar includes the standard Roku Voice remote, allowing you to provide voice commands and control your TV’s power and volume. Rear ports on the speaker include an HDMI 2.0a (includes ARC), optical input, and a USB 2.0, but no ethernet, although the device does support 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi. Retail is $129.99 and is expected to begin shipping on or around October 18.

roku tvThe other big news announcement from Roku was a few new features coming to OS 9.4. Perhaps the most exciting for Apple iOS users was the addition of Apple AirPlay2 and HomeKit to select 4K Roku devices, allowing you to “stream, control and share your favorite content from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to your Roku device.” AirPlay2 and HomeKit will be added to OS 9.4 “later this year” so don’t expect it to be included when the new update is pushed to your device. Roku TV owners will also be getting a Live TV Channel Guide, combining over 115 free live streaming channels with any OTA broadcast channels you may be receiving. Other new features include Helpful Hints for Roku Voice (on-screen voice commands you an use instead of clicking the remote) and Surround Level Control for those using Roku multi-channel speakers, allowing you to adjust the volume of your surround speakers. Roku claims that Roku OS 9.4 will be rolling out to select Roku devices “this month” and eventually to all devices “in the coming weeks.” Experienced Roku users know that weeks actually means months, as devices are often updated in batches, pushed by Roku servers as part of Roku’s update lottery.

Roku also announced that the Roku Channel app will be rolling out to iOS and Android smartphones later this year plus several new “channels” coming soon, including The LEGO Channel, Hi-YAH!, and Circle.

Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.

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Scott Merryfield

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It's nice to see Roku finally release a device with Dolby Vision support. I will not be upgrading my Ultra, though, as the only display I have with DV is the Vizio in my main setup. My current Ultra is in that setup, but I also have an Apple TV 4K there. The Ultra rarely gets used. Our other 4K display is a Samsung, which doesn't support DV. I just have a less expensive Roku Premiere in that setup.
 

ArnoldLayne

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Yes all hardware should be ultimately complete when released and never upgraded. C'mon. 'slap in the face', other whining is ridiculous.
 

Scott Merryfield

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Has anyone tried the 2020 Ultra? I am specifically interested in how well the Dolby Vision feature works with the Apple app. I may be upgrading the display in our South Carolina condo to a 4K display, so the feature would be useful when we travel to that location. The device is on sale this weekend for $30 off. With some Amazon credits I can get the device for around $20 out of pocket.
 

Robert Crawford

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Has anyone tried the 2020 Ultra? I am specifically interested in how well the Dolby Vision feature works with the Apple app. I may be upgrading the display in our South Carolina condo to a 4K display, so the feature would be useful when we travel to that location. The device is on sale this weekend for $30 off. With some Amazon credits I can get the device for around $20 out of pocket.
Did you buy it? I bought one to try it out.
 

Scott Merryfield

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Did you buy it? I bought one to try it out.
Did you get your new Roku Ultra installed, Robert? If so, how has it been working for you?

I installed mine yesterday when I reassembled my home theater, and tried it out for the first time briefly this evening. The Apple TV app worked fine for a single 30 minute TV episode of The Big Bang Theory, and I played a few minutes of the 4K/Dolby Vision version of Total Recall (we had watched the UHD disc earlier in the evening). My display showed that I was getting a 4K / Dolby Vision signal and the audio was in sync with the video, so all looked good.

I have not tried any other apps yet, other than to just login to my accounts. I think I'll try a full length movie in Dolby Vision via the Apple TV app soon just to see how well it works. May need to check out Dolby Vision on Vudu, too -- I assume Vudu supports that? I never checked.

As for the setup, initially the Roku was displaying everything in Dolby Vision. There is an option in the advanced settings, though, to disable that.
 

Robert Crawford

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Did you get your new Roku Ultra installed, Robert? If so, how has it been working for you?

I installed mine yesterday when I reassembled my home theater, and tried it out for the first time briefly this evening. The Apple TV app worked fine for a single 30 minute TV episode of The Big Bang Theory, and I played a few minutes of the 4K/Dolby Vision version of Total Recall (we had watched the UHD disc earlier in the evening). My display showed that I was getting a 4K / Dolby Vision signal and the audio was in sync with the video, so all looked good.

I have not tried any other apps yet, other than to just login to my accounts. I think I'll try a full length movie in Dolby Vision via the Apple TV app soon just to see how well it works. May need to check out Dolby Vision on Vudu, too -- I assume Vudu supports that? I never checked.

As for the setup, initially the Roku was displaying everything in Dolby Vision. There is an option in the advanced settings, though, to disable that.
Yes, you can play Dolby Vision on Vudu with this device. That's correct about the advanced display settings and turning off "HDR Always On".
 

Scott Merryfield

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Yes, you can play Dolby Vision on Vudu with this device. That's correct about the advanced display settings and turning off "HDR Always On".
Dolby Vision does seem to work fine on Vudu for me, too. I think the only other service I have with DV material is Disney+. I will have to test that out when we finally get around to watching season 2 of The Mandalorian.
 

Scott Merryfield

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I ran into my first bug with the new Roku Ultra w/ Dolby Vision. I was watching a show on the Apple TV app, paused it and tried to go back a few seconds to hear something I missed. The screen completely froze at that point. The only function that worked was the Home button, and that just got me a black screen. Had to reboot the unit.
 

Robert Crawford

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I ran into my first bug with the new Roku Ultra w/ Dolby Vision. I was watching a show on the Apple TV app, paused it and tried to go back a few seconds to hear something I missed. The screen completely froze at that point. The only function that worked was the Home button, and that just got me a black screen. Had to reboot the unit.
Scott,

I tried some movies via the Apple TV app without any issues.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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No idea if it's at all related, but the AppleTV app on my 3-yo Roku Premiere+ just won't play most iTunes purchases anymore unless I disable the "auto-adjust display refresh rate" advanced setting so it doesn't try to resync (usually) from 60p to 24p. Still seems to work fine for some content (w/ that setting enabled) that aren't native 24p -- from what I've read, there may also be some other whacky issues w/ proper 24p encoding of iTunes content not specific to Roku compatibility.

In my case, the problem may be partially triggered/conflated by the HDMI handshake specifics of my new setup -- it seems to go away if I connect the Roku straight into my Epson 5050UB FP and also lessened somewhat w/ the HDMI matrix switcher I tried as temp solution before...

Maybe try disabling that setting to see if that helps decipher the issue (even though that won't be ideal in the long run)...

_Man_
 
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Robert Crawford

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I will have to try it some more. I only tried rewind once, and it locked up the unit. I read somewhere that another person experienced the same issue. In my case, I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory when it happened.
The Big Bang Theory has Dolby Vision? Or did you have that issue with normal HD?
 

Robert Crawford

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No idea if it's at all related, but the AppleTV app on my 3-yo Roku Premiere+ just won't play most iTunes purchases anymore unless I disable the "auto-adjust display refresh rate" advanced setting so it doesn't try to resync (usually) from 60p to 24p. Still seems to work fine for some content (w/ that setting enabled) that aren't native 24p -- from what I've read, there may also be some other whacky issues w/ proper 24p encoding of iTunes content not specific to Roku compatibility.

In my case, the problem may be partially triggered/conflated by the HDMI handshake specifics of my new setup -- it seems to go away if I connect the Roku straight into my Epson 5050UB FP and also lessened somewhat w/ the HDMI matrix switcher I tried as temp solution before...

Maybe try disabling that setting to see if that helps decipher the issue (even though that won't be ideal in the long run)...

_Man_
There are HDMI handshake issues with these streaming devices as I've spent hours experimenting with them. Particularly, with 4K HDR/DV.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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There are HDMI handshake issues with these streaming devices as I've spent hours experimenting with them. Particularly, with 4K HDR/DV.

Yeah, I'm also finding there's a startup issue in my HDMI chain between Roku, prepro and FP that doesn't happen w/ other source devices (so far)... maybe partly because the Roku isn't designed to turn off/on. Am having to force the prepro to re-attempt HDMI handshake (by temporarily changing inputs) after the FP gets to a certain point upon startup -- kinda a pain, but think I have it automated ok enough now w/ my Harmony remote...

_Man_
 

Robert Crawford

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Yeah, I'm also finding there's a startup issue in my HDMI chain between Roku, prepro and FP that doesn't happen w/ other source devices (so far)... maybe partly because the Roku isn't designed to turn off/on. Am having to force the prepro to re-attempt HDMI handshake (by temporarily changing inputs) after the FP gets to a certain point upon startup -- kinda a pain, but think I have it automated ok enough now w/ my Harmony remote...

_Man_
I've switched out my Roku units in my three HT setups. I got rid of my 4400X unit and now have the following three models deployed in my setups.

4640X
4660X
4800X

I'll be re-configuring my three Harmony Elite remotes after the holidays so I'll be knee deep into my HDMI chain for all three HT setups. That's always a lot of fun which is why I'm waiting until after the holidays.;)
 

Scott Merryfield

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The Big Bang Theory has Dolby Vision? Or did you have that issue with normal HD?
No Dolby Vision -- it's just in HD.

I have not tried rewind or fast forward with anything in Dolby Vision yet. I rarely use this function -- only if I miss hearing something (my wife came into the room and interrupted me in this case).
 
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