RealNetworks, Microsoft Look To Extend Beyond PC

As legitimate digital music gears up to move beyond the PC, RealNetworks and Microsoft are looking to extend their reach into such products as set-top boxes, mobile phones, portable media devices, and car stereos. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES)-which runs through Friday in Las Vegas-both companies have unveiled alliances with hardware manufacturers and chip-makers that aim to make their software and digital encoding files usable virtually anywhere.

RealNetworks is bundling its RealOne Player software and RealOne Music subscription service with the latest offerings from TiVO, a digital video recording and management hardware and service, and Moxi, a maker of Web-enabled set-top boxes. Real also announced that chips from Hitachi, NEC, Philips, and STMicroelectronics will be optimized to recognize RealAudio and RealVideo files in DVD players, set-top boxes, mobile phones, and portable media devices.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and manufacturers Panasonic, Apex, Toshiba, and Shinco said they will roll out DVD players that can read Windows Media files. Panasonic's support is part of a broader acceptance of Windows Media technologies across a range of its devices, including DVD players, chipsets for DVD and CD players, and music devices. Car stereo manufacturers Pioneer, Kenwood, Aiwa, and Blaupunkt also said that they are launching systems that can recognize Windows Media files.

In other CES news:

--SONICblue is launching a 20-gig hard-drive-based Rio MP3 player that can compete with the likes of Apple's iPod portable player. The device, the Rio Riot, holds 5,000 digital songs. It will retail for a suggested price of $399.95, starting next month.

--Philips Electronics has cut deals with iM Networks, Radio Free Virgin, and MusicMatch, among others, to include tuning and online radio services on its new Web-enabled stereo, the Philips Streamium MC-i200 micro hi-fi system.