RudeDoggy

I've done the hack with my MZ-N505 (can't remember the firmware version). I got PDM (doesn't work) and it changed BASS to SOUND, and added a timer function. And I just figured out how to access the 8 band EQ and speed control. For those of you that don't know (I didn't know until 2 minutes ago), to change the bass/treble, hold the SOUND button on the remote and you can change the bass. To change the treble, hold the SOUND button again. To change from changing the settings of SOUND1 and SOUND2, press the SOUND button (without holding it). To change the speed, hold the DISPLAY button to enter the menu, then scroll to SPEED.

Well, if there's a 2 second gap added at the end of each track (like, the timer says 4:30 when the song is actually 4:28) then what you can do is on the player make a new track right when the silence begins...Then just delete the newly formed track (which will just be silence). If it is like -0:02...-0:01...0:00 then I'm not sure this method will work.

I find it funny that people rag on rap music as being "stupid" and requiring "no talent". I can just as well say that most mainstream rock music is "stupid" and requiring "no talent," with them playing the same 4 chords over and over again and screaming something unintelligible. However, I digress... MP3s, when done properly, sound great. It will never be as good as CD quality, since it's lossy compression, but if you use a decent encoder (LAME was mentioned in an above post) and use a decent bitrate (192kbps+), the results are quite good. I'm new to the MD game so I don't really know what my opinion is yet as to if MDs are as good as they're cracked up to be. Is ATRAC lossy compression? Anyone know and/or where to find out that kind of information?

If you do the hack (instructions in two threads in MD User Tips and Tricks) you will have a line-out function that will be accessible through the menu. From what people have been saying, selecting "line out" in the menu takes off any bass/treble adjustments and just blasts it. When I had my headphones in and tried to do line out, it killed my ears. Whether it will improve recordings or not, I'm not too sure. I would assume so.

Is the firmware upgradable?

With regards to remotes working with the N505, does anyone know the difference between the RM-MC12ELK and the RM-MC12EL? I'm thinking that the EL means electroluminescence and the K means katagana (sp?). Am I correct in assuming this? I emailed Sony parts regarding the RM-MC11EL and the RM-MC12ELK. They have no record of the RM-MC12ELK but they said they had the RM-MC12EL and it's cheaper than the RM-MC11EL. They also said the RM-MC12EL was for the Sony D-EJ2000 CD player. So the question I'm asking is this: Will the RM-MC12EL work perfectly with my N505 (being able to use the speed control, 8 step bass/treble, etc)?

Thank you very much Jonah!!! That file replacement did the trick! I can't believe I spent like 5 days of sheer frustration trying to figure out this stupid thing. Even with me uinstalling, reinstalling, and all that, it wasn't working. Then I copied those files over and now everything seems to be alright. MGauroy, if you're using Windows XP Pro (that's what I'm running anyway...don't know if it's OS specific), it may be in the directory c:program filescommon filessony sharedopenmgrestorable. Just copy the two .dat files in that directory to the one above it (c:program filescommon filessony sharedopenmg). Good luck!

It sounds like you've run into the exact same problem I have with my MZ-N505. I can't seem to transfer any songs onto my MD, using Simple Burner, OpenMG Jukebox, even Real One. I've tried brand new MDs with still no luck. Mine always dies at around 50% of the first track that it tries to copy. I've tried uninstalling drivers and software and reinstalling them to no avail. Anyone have any ideas? This is extremely frustrating and I'm wondering whether my unit is faulty at all (although doubtful). I'm going to hopefully try it out on a friend's computer and see what happens.

I've tried using the MZ-N707 remote (without the LCD) on my MZ-N505 and it worked perfectly. I didn't try every single function, but I pressed play, ff, rev, pause, stop, volume, etc, so I would assume that most, if not all, functions work. I know it sounds dumb, but did you make sure the hold button wasn't on on the remote?