We present an efficient MPEG-4-based interactive player for PDA-like embedded devices in this paper. Our system can receive media from various sources, then decompress and compose them in an object-oriented manner. Embedded devices such as PDA usually have limited computational resources, memory size. power budgets. and multimedia capabilities. To overcome these constraints, two novel mechanisms were introduced, namely adaptive frame rule (AFR) and scene cache graph management (SCCMJ. Furthermore, a media decoding framework was proposed such that multimedia objects of different formats can be retrieved from different sources and then be decoded. This framework can be extended by add-on components. A semi-pull model was also designed for the synchronization of heterogeneous media objects. Finally, all the key modules were efficiently implemented and optimized. These modules include MPEG-4 video decoder, 2D/3D graphic engine. buffer management, script engine, and streaming service.