The Microsoft Media Platform team has released version 1.1 of the Player Framework for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. The release includes a number of improvements, and is targeting developers who are building media apps (much like the Vimeo app - pictured above). The framework supports Silverlight, HTML5, Xbox, as well as Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps.

What's interesting to note is that the Windows Phone 8 version of the framework is based on the Windows 8. According to the framework listing over on Codeplex, this release includes the following:

Combined Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 versions into a single Visual Studio extension SDK.

Misc changes under the hood to Windows 8 version to align with WP8 version

New in-stream closed caption support for smooth streaming

New analytics plugin to target MMP Audience Insight servers

New MediaControlsPlugin to support Windows 8 media transport controls out of the box.

New property in Xaml: AdSchedulerPlugin.SeekToAdPosition to control resume position after scrubbing past ad break.

AdHandlerPlugin.CancelActiveAds is now awaitable

Support for HTMLResource and IFrame nonlinear ads

Support for CDATA use in TTML

Poster support in WP8 version

Volume control now works when playing an ad without main content

Linear ads now inherit AudioCategory property from main player

Memory leak fixes

You can download the Player Framework from Codeplex.

Source: Windows Blog; thanks, Stanislav, for the tip!