A method of providing video content from one ore more designated distant content data sources (150, 155, 157, 450, 455, 458, 550, 555, 557) on a data network connected user device (140, 440, 540) having a device display controller adapted to drive display hardware (148,548) and including a native player (145, 445, 545), the method comprising the steps of: accessing, by the data network connected user device (140, 440, 540), a reference file (135, 435, 535) including a plurality of player control parameter values and linking data for said one or more designated content sources (150, 155, 157, 450, 455, 458, 550, 555, 557) for a designated video content; providing play control commands included in the reference file (135, 435, 535) to the native player (145, 445, 545) of the data network connected user device (140, 440, 540) by the device display controller based on the player control parameter values and, for any video content having a data file format incompatible with the native player, the play control commands causing, when executed, building a translated video structure in a user device memory (142, 442, 542) using a container file format compatible with the native player (145, 445, 545) of the user device (140, 440, 540), and including the linking data within said translated video structure to enable the user device player (145, 445, 545) to directly link to and access encoded audio/visual data sections of a video content compatible with the native player (145, 445, 545) from within one or more of said designated content data sources (150,155,157,450,455,458,550, 555, 557) via the data network using the linking data which specifies the compatible video content to acquire by the native player (145, 445, 545), acquiring the video content by the native player (145, 445, 545) from the one or more content sources (150, 155, 157, 450, 455, 458, 550, 555, 557) using the linking data specifying the compatible content; and playing, by the native player (145, 445, 545), the video content acquired from each content source in accordance with the play control commands. accessing, by the data network connected user device (140, 440, 540), a reference file (135, 435, 535) including a plurality of player control parameter values and linking data for said one or more designated content sources (150, 155, 157, 450, 455, 458, 550, 555, 557) for a designated video content; providing play control commands included in the reference file (135, 435, 535) to the native player (145, 445, 545) of the data network connected user device (140, 440, 540) by the device display controller based on the player control parameter values and, for any video content having a data file format incompatible with the native player, the play control commands causing, when executed, building a translated video structure in a user device memory (142, 442, 542) using a container file format compatible with the native player (145, 445, 545) of the user device (140, 440, 540), and including the linking data within said translated video structure to enable the user device player (145, 445, 545) to directly link to and access encoded audio/visual data sections of a video content compatible with the native player (145, 445, 545) from within one or more of said designated content data sources (150,155,157,450,455,458,550, 555, 557) via the data network using the linking data which specifies the compatible video content to acquire by the native player (145, 445, 545), acquiring the video content by the native player (145, 445, 545) from the one or more content sources (150, 155, 157, 450, 455, 458, 550, 555, 557) using the linking data specifying the compatible content; playing, by the native player (145, 445, 545), the video content acquired from each content source in accordance with the play control commands.