Roku Professional proves that to do a job right you have to do it yourself

I’ve been interested in Roku ever since their TCL-made complete set arrived on my doorstep a few years ago. The interface was simple but effective, allowing everyone in the house to find what they needed without any frustration.

That “simple but effective” language spread far and wide. The TV itself had an excellent image, which was more than adequate for all low to mid-range sets. Tone…well let’s just say I’m glad there was a partner soundbar I could get my hands on. As far as discounts go, it was more than I expected. Much more expensive TVs appeared in the equipment bundle I reviewed.

So I’m very glad that Roku took a calculated gamble in this generation and moved into hardware production with its own series of Roku Professional televisions.

“We wanted to extend the simplicity and ease of use that comes with software to the hardware,” said Paul Nangeroni, senior director of product control at Roku.

Roku did this by building the TV they wanted to put together, with the best-in-class features and wealth of time-honored improvements they wanted to put together, independent of third-party manufacturer restrictions.

time gain factor

It’s this minor touch that uploads the entire Roku Professional bundle.

Even before you flip through the entire set, you realize it’s something else. Anyone who’s ever dealt with the Medusa-like abundance of cables and wires that come from plugging online game consoles and soundbars directly into a TV will breathe a sigh of relief. Roku has advanced huge routing channels with an easy progression level based on all sets. Velcro zip ties are appropriately made for bundling cables.

Moving on to the reigns of the entire set, you’ll notice there’s an unusual cutout. This is for the flush mount built specifically for the Roku Professional (don’t worry, there are mounting holes for normal VESA mounts too). The flush mount is worth noting. It’s much less unwieldy than alternative mounting solutions I’ve seen, allowing you to hang the Roku Professional against a wall. It’s a surprising little bit of synergy with the physical design of the whole set, which makes cable channels so much more useful. There are also inbuilt kickstands at the base of the entire set intended to easily prop the TV base away from the wall, giving you ample space for tethered pristine units.

It makes the already slim all-set look more like a framed image on your wall than a TV. The lines may blur further when Roku releases backdrops this generation – an ancient feature that renders top-notch artwork across all your sets when it’s no longer in importance.

Going to the side of the TV you’ll find a rectangular button that faces away. Press this and your Roku Professional sends a signal to your misplaced remote control to ring a bell (you can do this with tonality instructions, too). This is an extremely helpful and thoughtful contact.

The far distance has been stepped forward in a big way compared to the latest Roku units. In addition to the aforementioned search feature, the upgraded remote now has backlit buttons (which are motion-activated) and is rechargeable via USB-C. It’s also customizable, with a rocket button that you can set up to do… pretty much everything else looks good. It has several integrated commands, although you can also tell it to shoot your closing tonality command.

The only thing you won’t see anywhere near is an AUX port for headphones. Don’t worry though, Roku still has you covered. Additional to that in the then category.

Who wants a soundbar anyway?

I’m keen on soundbars for excellent reasons. Try as you might, the integrated audio system of any TV set can rarely, if ever, fit their tone properties.

Roku completely revised this with Professional. Developing their own complete set, they were able to experiment. The standard placement of the TV audio system at the base of the entire set is mistaken for the muddy, muffled tone you hear constantly. Roku needed crisp, full sound, even with professional flush mounts. There is a huge air hole on the governor of the whole set which provides a huge tone degree for the keyboard sized speaker. Even the flush-mounted (there’s an Ambience specifically for this) advanced audio system provides sunny conversations and satisfying bass-eye thumps (though probably no longer room-filling).

This is the most productive audio efficiency I have experienced from an integrated audio system. The debate’s readability beats even my Sonos Ace soundbar.

If you’re not interested in everyone in the house hearing your screen, you’ll be free to assume that the Roku Pro is still headphone-compatible. However, instead of forcing you to store a series of strained headphones lying around just to plug into your remote control, you can pair any wireless headphones directly to the entire set. I was also able to connect my AirPods Max (which are notorious for pairing with products other than Apple products) to the Roku Pro. This is an answer that makes perfect sense.

Do not contact those settings

I haven’t talked about the image yet and that’s in relation to the design.

Unless you’re a frequent visitor to A/V discussion boards, you’ll almost certainly never consult your TV’s settings. If you’re conscious you can dip into presets for sporting activities or films, but 99% of the time, you go to your TV to find the display you want to watch, and that’s it.

Roku Professional’s clever Image Dynamic Symbol adjustment is here to better tailor your 4K TV viewing pleasure without feeling like you have to control a single thing. Roku crunched 100 billion hours of streaming data to train its AI models, allowing scene-by-scene dynamic image optimization. All this is available instantly on your device.

You’ll understand that the image is stunning, no matter what you’re looking at. Sports activities (exactly after the next Olympics) are adjusted for peak refresh and sometimes latency. Movies have the highest resolution in dark and dimly lit scenes. You don’t have to do the rest. Roku Professional adjusts this for you.

If you want, there are a fair amount of manual settings you can tweak to get the “optimal” image. Although this is only for A-Type TV lovers who have to adjust the image Is Holiday. For those left who just want to enjoy the display, Roku’s AutoTuning AI delivers an absolutely stunning image that “just works” to deliver a truly stress-free TV experience.

Since the Olympics will start in a day or two (I’m working hard right now), I can’t think of a better TV to have on my wall. I’ll be watching Noah Lyles (the fastest living CCG player) take part in a 200 meter trial, which is the closest we’ll get to an actual episode of ‘The Acolyte’, and will wander through the game’s environment to capture all the action and a movie. There is no need to worry about. A way to give me the specificity I crave for dimly lit, moody scenes of Jedi contemplation.

It’s all in a bundle that costs less than $900 for a 55″ set. Not big enough? You can get display screens up to 75″ for just $1,700. That’s an outrageous price for a TV that’s so excellent.

It can be intimidating to do the lighting yourself to dress up something so antique, however Roku has clearly proven that they have the knowledge and skill to do it themselves and do it better than anyone else. Visit the Roku web site to learn more.