I wanted to get support for the new Smart Soundbar, but it's not listed in the drop down yet on the support site.
So I selected "Other Roku Device", but everything I chose from the drop-down only pointed to KB articles, and said "Agent-assisted support is not available for your issue and/or model."

Anyway, I guess I'll ask here and hope someone has an answer.

Before I buy the new Smart Soundbar, I need to know if it will let you stream video and audio with the TV turned off.

We like to fall asleep listening to the dialog of our favorite old shows on Netflix, or to music on Pandora. But having the shifting light of the TV on isn't good for your sleep cycle. Unfortunately, every sound bar we've looked at so far has required the TV to remain on because that's where its sound comes from (even when streaming from our old Roku 2).

I'm hoping that with the Roku version, it's fine getting the sound source from the built-in streaming and won't care if your TV gets turned off once we've started playback. 

Does anyone know?

If your Roku is connected to the TV, and then the TV is feeding the soundbar via optical, then no the audio will stop when the TV is turned off. What you would need is a soundbar with HDMI inputs and connect the Roku directly to the soundbar, then the soundbar connects to the TV via HDMI. That way the TV is not part of the audio path for your Roku. Assuming the soundbar and TV support it, your TV audio is returned to the soundbar via ARC, so you wouldn't need a returning optical feed. You also need to ensure the soundbar supports Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), since most online streaming sites use that. 
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I know nothing specific about the Roku Smart Soundbar, so perhaps everything I've said doesn't apply. But wanted to get it all out. 

atc98092 wrote:

If your Roku is connected to the TV, and then the TV is feeding the soundbar via optical, then no the audio will stop when the TV is turned off. What you would need is a soundbar with HDMI inputs and connect the Roku directly to the soundbar, then the soundbar connects to the TV via HDMI. That way the TV is not part of the audio path for your Roku. Assuming the soundbar and TV support it, your TV audio is returned to the soundbar via ARC, so you wouldn't need a returning optical feed. You also need to ensure the soundbar supports Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), since most online streaming sites use that. 
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I know nothing specific about the Roku Smart Soundbar, so perhaps everything I've said doesn't apply. But wanted to get it all out. 

This is something I'd also tried to find out about some soundbars I looked at - I guess some of the soundbars will detect when the TV goes off and go to sleep. But if someone has a soundbar recommendation where they know this will work, I'd love to know!

If anyone gets the Roku soundbar and can test this, let me know!

My TVs - LG's - let me turn off the TV display while the TV still remains on. Have you checked your display settings in the TV menu?