Methods and systems for use in providing a remote user interface

A method of playing back multimedia content, the method comprising:

• implementing, on a multimedia rendering client device coupled with a distributed local area network (LAN), a simplified Internet browser, where the browser establishes a browser environment;
• establishing a network connection over the distributed LAN between the client device and a remote server on the LAN;
• operating, within the browser environment and on the client device, a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application that is operated with a JavaScript based graphics application program interface to a graphics protocol stack of the client device;
• receiving, through the RUI protocol client application and from the server over the LAN, graphics commands;
• implementing, through the RUI protocol client application in cooperation with the JavaScript based graphics application program interface, the graphics commands and generating graphics in accordance with the graphics commands;
• and
• displaying on the client device the graphics consistent with the graphics commands;
• wherein the establishing the network connection over the distributed LAN comprises establishing persistent full-duplex communications channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) socket over the distributed LAN between the client device and the remote server on the LAN;
• wherein the receiving the graphics commands comprises receiving streamed graphics commands streamed over the persistent full-duplex communications channel;
• and
• wherein the implementing the graphics commands comprises translating, through the RUI protocol client application, the streamed graphics commands from a streaming format to a JavaScript based graphics application program interface compatible format;
• and
• where the JavaScript based graphics application program interface is configured to extend the capabilities of JavaScript programming language to generate interactive three-dimensional (3D) graphics within the browser environment.