In order to overcome the problems described and to provide a secure system for distributing, storing, and performing digital media files, the present invention provides a system and method for securely storing and performing digital media files in a multimedia device, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The secure multimedia distribution system 100 includes a multimedia device 102 . The multimedia device comprises a media processor 116 and a digital storage medium 114 . The media processor can be a digital signal processor, a central processing unit such as an Intel X86 chip, an IBM PowerPC chip, or an equivalent processor. Alternatively, the media processor can be a microcontroller or a reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) computer chip such as a Xilinx programmable logic device. The digital storage medium can comprise a hard drive, an optical storage device such as a CD or DVD, a solid state memory such as random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, Flash RAM, or a combination of these devices. For example, the digital storage medium can comprise a hard drive and a receptacle for a solid state memory card. The digital storage medium may comprise any other means not listed which can be used for storing large amounts of digital data.