Flexible rendering of user interface elements

1. A method, comprising:

retrieving a set of presentation elements from a remote server, the set of presentation elements including a graphical element;

retrieving metadata from the remote server, the metadata associated with the graphical element and including information specifying coordinates at which the graphical element is to be displayed and a distance for the graphical element to cover within a graphical user interface;

representing the graphical element as a bitmap;

using the metadata to determine a distance to stretch the graphical element within the graphical user interface;

stretching the graphical element the determined distance starting from the specified coordinates; and

including the stretched graphical element within the graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein representing the graphical element as a bitmap includes decoding a compressed image file.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface has fixed dimensions.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein respective sizes of some of the presentation elements other than the graphical element are fixed.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the graphical user interface for display on a media playback device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical element is stretched in one of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction.

7. The method of claim 1 , tangibly embodied as computer-executable instructions on a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

8. A system, comprising:

a content processing device in selective communication with a remote server; and

a rendering application included within the content processing device, the rendering application configured to:

retrieve a set of presentation elements from the remote server, the set of presentation elements including a graphical element;

retrieve metadata from the remote server, the metadata associated with the graphical element and including information specifying coordinates at which the graphical element is to be displayed and a distance for the graphical element to cover within a graphical user interface;

represent the graphical element as a bitmap;

use the metadata to determine a distance to stretch the graphical element within the graphical user interface;

stretch the graphical element the determined distance starting from the specified coordinates; and

include the stretched graphical element within the graphical user interface.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the rendering application is further configured to represent the graphical element as a bitmap by decoding a compressed image file.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the graphical user interface has fixed dimensions.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein respective sizes of some of the presentation elements other than the graphical element are fixed.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a media playback device that displays the graphical user interface.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the graphical element is stretched in one of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the graphical element comprises an image that includes only a plurality of pixels stacked along a first axis.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the rendering application is configured to stretch the graphical element by stretching the plurality of pixels the determined distance along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and starting from the specified coordinates.

16. A method, comprising:

retrieving a set of presentation elements from a remote server, the set of presentation elements including a graphical element and other elements, wherein the graphical element includes only a plurality of pixels stacked along a first axis, and wherein at least some of the other elements have fixed sizes;

retrieving metadata from the remote server, the metadata associated with the graphical element and including information specifying coordinates at which the graphical element is to be displayed and a distance for the graphical element to cover within an interactive program guide having fixed dimensions;

representing the graphical element as a bitmap;

determining each of a location and an orientation for the graphical element on the interactive program guide;

using the metadata to determine a distance to stretch the graphical element within the interactive program guide;

stretching the graphical element the determined distance by stretching the plurality of pixels the determined distance along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and starting from the specified coordinates; and

including the stretched graphical element within the graphical user interface in accordance with the determined location and orientation for the graphical element.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the graphical element is stretched in one of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical element comprises an image that includes only a plurality of pixels stacked along a first axis.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the stretching of the graphical element comprises stretching the plurality of pixels the determined distance along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and starting from the specified coordinates.