1. 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.