Collabora and Google bring Chrobalt, the Chromium-based YouTube engine, to RDK set-top boxes
Re-Engineering YouTube for the Living Room: Bringing "Chrobalt" to RDK
Collabora partnered with Google's YouTube Cobalt team to deliver the first RDK-based reference platform for Chrobalt, the next-generation living room web engine. Running on Amlogic chipsets, it merges Chromium's modern rendering with Starboard's low-footprint media pipeline. The platform passed YouTube Test Suite certification for 4K/UHD playback, DRM, and low-latency input, giving OEMs a production-ready path for smart TVs and streaming devices.
We hope that next time you switch on your Smart TV, open YouTube, and navigate to Settings → App Version, you get to see the latest Chrobalt version 27.lts or later
- Retr0id
This also lets them clamp down more on youtube-downloader tools. When they rely on the TV's own browser engine, the client fingerprints can vary a lot between devices and firmware updates. This makes "pretend to be a random smart TV" an attractive way of implementing a download tool.
If they control the engine, they control the fingerprint, making it easier for them to detect and harder for 3rd party clients to spoof.
- noir_lord
Regular Firefox running on a Linux computer works just fine.
I don’t need more surveillance in the guise of consumer tech in my life, much less if anything.
My “smart” TV has never seen the network, nor is it ever going to, it displays pixels from a device running software that respects the user, gets constant and regular security updates and that I control, that is its one and only job.
- bschwindHN
Oof, that screenshot is pretty dire UI.
Do we really need a "next-generation living room web engine"? These smart TV OSes almost always suck ass, I wish all the TV manufacturers would just give up and ship simple panels with just basic volume and input selection control.
Or if you absolutely _must_ insist on shipping "smart" features, why do you still need to ship a full browser engine to show some text, rectangles, and images?