Sanyo Electric Co Ltd intends to build a portable digital music player based on Liquid Audio Inc’s software and digital signal processors (DSPs) from Texas Instruments Inc. The device will meet the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) guidelines for protecting copyrighted digital audio – which is to say, don’t imagine you can use this machine to rip off pirated MP3s. The player is planned as the first in a family of Sanyo audio products, from car stereos to kiosks. Using Liquid Audio’s Secure Portable Player Platform (SP3), the device should be able to playback music in multiple compression formats, including Dolby Digital, AAC and Genuine MP3. If it’s an illegal copy, however, the device won’t play it. The three companies intend to collaborate in proposing their combined technologies to SDMI, which is scheduled to come up with standards for recording and memory equipment by March of 2000.
