Play To and Media Sharing for Metro style Apps

“The next version of Windows introduces a number of new APIs to enable home media sharing experiences in Metro style apps. This document provides an overview of these new APIs along with some examples and guidance for how developers can use them in applications built on the Windows Developer Preview,” the Redmond company said.

Microsoft is providing a range of developer tools for windows 8 so they can start developing their apps using the new APIs. Developers are provided with a range of resources, tools and guidance to streamline the process of building windows 8 apps.

Windows 8 Metro apps can have three media sharing scenarios:

1) Streaming media from apps to Play To Receivers

2) Consuming media from Media Servers

3) Adding Play To Receiver functionality to apps

The software giant reveals that new Windows 8 APIs

1) make it easy for developers to enable Play To media streaming from apps to devices like TVs and Audio Receivers

2) make it easy for developers to build rich media experiences for media stored on Media Servers on a user’s home network

3) make it possible for apps to embed Play To Receiver functionality and become targets for the media streaming experiences.”

“Play To and Media Sharing for Metro style Apps” whitepaper, is provided free of charge to early Windows 8 adopters through the Microsoft Download Center.