mattman

Ok guys, not been around here for a while so don't know what (if any) the score was on the EU limits... As after my eu nw-e005, i began importing my somy mp3 players.. But im away on holiday so dug out my nw-e005 as a light/ not bothered if knicked/lost etc, but alas, i remembered why i dont use it anymore, sure, loud 'enough' but sumtimes it's great to have the option of 'blasting' the sound.. Anyways, why I was posting, is not for a solution, just to an update on what has been discussed about this topic... Namely, do we know yet if it's hardware or software based??? My argument would be it software based, as in test mode beside the firmware version no. is (fr) would that be france? (cheers to the officials there btw lol) and secondly it wouldn't be viable for any company to manufacture 2 boards for one product (actually, make that 4 as there's the nw-e005f as well)... When looking into a solution before I read about all the firmware (no matter which site you went to US/Canada/Japan) downloaded from the japanese site so gave up the ghost and 'pressumed' (i'll clarify that statment in a bit) it was hardware based... Anyone here know of a sony engineer or is one that could give a little hint as to which it is!?? About my 'pressumed' statment, I decided to have a quick look about the firmware updater code last night, and WoW, sony, nice coding!!! Basically it interrogates the mp3 flash device (or more rightly the eeprom housed inside) for information to build a 'custom' firmware from the *.UPG package (well as far as I can tell at the moment, that's how it seems).. The noticable one's such as 'devicename' and 'subidentification' (and others found in the reference *.ini) are read from the device and builds firmware accordingly...i know this as i have managed to isolate and spoof the firmware to update my NW-E005 to a NW-E005F, of course the radio menu doesn't do anything (no hardware) but shows the principle of the prgramming techniques involved... Of course, it's not possible (as far as I can tell) decompile the *.UPG file to see if it only contains, say 2 set versions, one for without radio and one for with a radio or whether it builds 'custom' firmware upgrades which is a highly viable and inexpenciv way to implement some 'mothering' type law lol So this leads me here: If it is software based, then you cant selectivly erase parts of data on an eeprom (as far as I can remember but it's been about 6/7 years since i've dealt with PICs), it can only be completly erased and recompiled. Therefore, if it is interrogated for the 'FR' flag, this will again be encorporated into the new firmware build... Just a thought, or even several of them lol So, is anyone out there that can give even just a hint or a sniff im on the right direction so im not wasting my time heading down a dead end road, well that would be great, coz im damned if i do, and im damned if i dont, but I wanna crack this baby, lol PM me or email me cunninglinguist21 at hot mail dot com if you wanna stay anon EDIT: In fact, anyone out there that has a non eu NW-E005(f) that could put it in test mode (via putting 'hold' switch on, and holding the menu and play buttons and press reset and reply with what it says, ie mine says, TEST MODE 2.01.00.00 [FR]

hav used mp3gain to get a little more 'omph' out of an mp3 before transfering.. not a hack, but perhaps a workaround at the mo http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ ... who sets this flamin eu legislation anyways havent came accross 'restricted' mp3 players in the uk b4, 1 thing ive also noticed is that sonys fones also have had many complaints wrt volume issues hhhmmm