The popularity of the Internet, coupled with the increasing capabilities of personal/mobile electronic devices, has provided consumers with the ability to enjoy multimedia content almost anytime and anywhere. For example, live content (e.g., sports events) and video on demand (VOD) content (e.g., television shows and movies) can be streamed via the Internet to personal electronic devices (e.g., computers, mobile phones, Internet-enabled televisions, etc.). Various types of personal electronic devices are available to consumers. Different devices may have different screen sizes and may be compatible with different audio formats, video formats, streaming protocols, wireless connection speeds, etc.
To playback video streams, electronic devices typically execute a media player software application, alternatively referred to as a “player.” Some operating systems for mobile phones, tablet computers, etc. have built-in players. Users can also download third-party players to their devices for free or for a fee. To offer a player for multiple types of electronic devices, a software company may have to develop the player for multiple hardware/software platforms, including reprogramming or porting source code into multiple programming languages and compiling the player application separately for each of the platforms. Moreover, this process may be repeated each time a new version of the player, or new functionality (e.g., a plugin) is released.
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