YouTube on Smart TVs and set-top boxes has long relied on Cobalt, a lightweight open source engine optimized for devices with limited resources. Originally built to run efficiently on constrained hardware, Cobalt uses a custom rendering engine and interfaces with hardware through the Starboard abstraction layer. However, maintaining a separate engine alongside the rapidly evolving web ecosystem has become increasingly challenging.
To address this, Google re-architected Cobalt on top of Chromium, creating Chrobalt. This new engine combines Chromium's modern, standard-compliant rendering capabilities with the lightweight, hardware-abstracted design of Cobalt. Chrobalt supports modern web standards while remaining optimized for embedded devices.
Collabora collaborated closely with Google's YouTube Cobalt and Partner Engineering teams to port and stabilize Chrobalt on an RDK (Reference Design Kit) platform using Amlogic chipsets. This effort resulted in the first RDK-based Chrobalt reference platform, providing a validated foundation for device manufacturers like Samsung and LG to adopt the next-generation YouTube engine.
The Chrobalt RDK reference platform was officially introduced to industry partners at the YouTube Device Partner Summit in Japan, marking a significant step toward broader adoption in living room devices. This platform enables third-party OEMs to leverage Chromium's capabilities while maintaining efficient performance on resource-limited hardware.
This development is important because it bridges the gap between modern web standards and the constraints of embedded devices, ensuring YouTube can continue to deliver a high-quality experience on Smart TVs and set-top boxes. Device makers targeting RDK or custom Linux platforms can now consider Chrobalt a production-ready option for their YouTube integration.
Collabora invites interested parties to engage with them for support in running YouTube or embedded web applications using Cobalt or Chrobalt. Users can expect to see the latest Chrobalt versions appearing in Smart TV YouTube app settings as adoption grows.