bertrik

How can these files be released under the lesser general public license? Does minidisc.org somehow own the copyrights? or has permission been given by the copyright holders? I highly doubt that.

I tried several combinations for the bits in register 61 and 62 (only the harmless ones) and could not find any combination that disables TrProt. I have a MZ-N510.

Cool that you seem to have found out the TrProt bit. What values did you put in the service menu exactly? And what were the original values?

I had a similar problem when my MZ-N510 was hacked. The hack caused the battery indicator to show more battery power than was actually left. This resulted in shut-offs during recording over USB (when current drain is higher than in playback). This problem can be fairly simple to avoid, just make sure that the highest bit of the value in register 61 is not set when hacking.

woodeeee, there is a relatively simple procedure to undo the hack: in the service menu, go to menu 63 and change the the value from 1 to 0. Don't do this unless you are comfortable with navigating around in the service menu. The procedure described by crazeybt1 is WAY too radical and is probably very dangerous w.r.t. messing your unit up permanently.

You cannot really copy the songs back to PC. There is no music data actually transferred between PC and MD during check-in. Check-in just compares the song on the MD with a copy on the PC (created during check-out), then the song on the MD is simply deleted.

I have a MZ-N510 with firmware version 1.6. I think this is the same software as used on the MZ-N610 (basically a 610 is just a 510 plus a radio, right?), but I have no problems doing the increments in steps of 1.

On my MZ-510, I can reset the registers 61 and 62 values to their defaults by setting register 63 ("FValid") to 0. As far as I can tell from trying, this only affects the hacks in register 61 and 62 and does not invalidate any other data.

You can try to enter the magic sequence using the remote (holding STOP instead of GROUP). See also http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~bertrik/netmd/mdhack.html Once you're in the service menu, try to get to register 63, set it to 0, then power off and on again. That should reset register 61 and 62 to their defaults. I advice to be very careful when moving around in the service menu. If you get lost, press STOP to get back to the root menu. Do not press PAUSE (PAUSE writes settings to NVRAM) unless you are absolutely sure about it.

The service menu option is really a last resort thing. If you're not a techie, this is definitely not recommended (it's possible to mess up the player if you accidently make some wrong setting). SonicStage is the NetMD music 'management' software that comes with the player. It is similar to the OpenMG program (but I have no experience with that). Simpleburner is a no-nonsense tool to send CD songs to minidiscs. This page on minidisct forums has links to the files http://www.minidisct.com/forum/showthread....10&pagenumber=1 The 'latest and greatest' is SonicStage 2 which probably also supports your player, search for 'ss2_lite_rev2.exe. I recommend to install this and then use it to delete the songs.

Can't you just delete the songs in SonicStage instead of checking them in? Otherwise you can use SimpleBurner to delete the songs. Or, if you're good with Linux, you can use Xmd to delete the songs. Supposedly it is also possible to delete songs in non-netmd minidisc players. If nothing else works, you can even erase the whole disc through the service menu.

No, you cannot send songs from MD to PC through USB. SonicStage can check-in songs, but that only means that the song is deleted from you MD after verification with the file on the PC, nothing is actually copied from MD to PC.

Do you see a file called omglog.txt (or something similar) in directory C:Program FilesCommon FilesSony SharedOpenMG ? If so, is there any message in it?

USB devices advertise their maximum current draw to the PC. A NetMD minidisc player probably indicates just a few mA just for communication (I can find out the exact value by looking at the USB config data). When the device (MD player) draws more current than indicated, the USB host (PC) may decide to limit the current to the device or even cut the power. I've heard / read somewhere that desktop PC are not so critical with this mechanism, but laptops are. So I think it may not even be possible to draw much current from the USB port. (edit: just noticed that under Linux, usbview shows that my MZ-N510 can draw a maximum of 100 mA)

The cable that came with my MZ-N510 has an 'A-connector' on one side (which goes into the PC). However, the connector on the other side of the cable is definitely not a 'B-connector'. So better check if your MZ-N505 really accepts a B-connector before buying an A-B type USB cable.

Once you get into the service menu, go to menu 61 and set its value to 0, then press PAUSE. It may also work to set menu 63 to 0 (and then press PAUSE). I've read some posts from other people about the problem with the jumpy keys and to me it does not look like something that can be fixed in the service menu. Perhaps it's a mechanical thing, or caused by dirt under the keys, but I'm not sure about that.

You can probably go back to the service menu by using the remote instead of the keys on the player itself. Take a look here (under tips and tricks) http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~bertrik/netmd/mdhack.html The trick is to hold STOP instead of GROUP while doing the magic sequence on the remote. You may still have trouble with the keys in the service menu, but with a little practice you should be able to figure out the key configuration.

Is it really to save battery power? I've read a lot of comments explaining that the limited output is required by law to protect your hearing. B.T.W. There was a nice thread last week about increasing the output power: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t...?t=2620&start=0 Apparently normally there are 22 ohm resistors in series with the audio outputs, which can be shorted to increase the output power. This means that with the resistors the output impedance of the audio is also at least 22 ohms, which is quite large compared to the impedance of some typical earbuds (32 ohm). Ideally the output impedance should be 0 ohms. Perhaps the muddyness you describe can be explained by the high output impedance.

The encryption system used in NetMD is probably the one described in this patent by Sony: http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?CY=ep&LG=e...86495&DB=EPODOC The patent however does not say what encryption algorithm (e.g. DES, RC4, RC5) is used.

Shadowmite, check out this site for some logs http://students.washington.edu/youshi10/freenetmd/ (good luck) B.T.W. I think I'm getting a pretty good idea about what data sent over USB is random, (encrypted) keys, hash and encrypted data. The encryption scheme looks like an implementation of a Sony patent (don't know the number right now, I'll look it up). I have some clues that the actual core encryption algorithm is DES.

There is a program called XMD that can be used on a Mac to do simple stuff like titling songs. Downloading/uploading is not possible because of encryption. XMD can be found at: http://www.sorted.org/~pete/Xmd/ Maybe you should just bother Sony real hard to get full Mac support.

Ok, but changing stuff in the service menu is not exactly without risk. You may accidently screw up some calibration setting. Some settings cause the functions of the buttons to change, making it hard to get back into the service menu again. Anyway, each person should make their own decision if they try it or not. I made a list of bits for F-code 61 and 62 hacks for the MZ-N510. It's at: http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~bertrik/netmd/mdhack.html B.T.W. There is a bit that adds a DISP/TITLE menu and I read that it does something with the remote display. Have you tried this bit?

There are indeed a lot of things you can add through the service menu, like melody timer, personal disc memory (pdm), pitch control (dpc), 6-band EQ, virtual sound, katakana editing, line-out option. However some things simply don't work properly (like pdm), while others look weird because the MZ-N510 LCD cannot show enough characters (like melody timer, dpc, 6-band EQ, virtual sound). Personally I find that most of the extra features are just gimmicks, not really useful. I think the only useful features (without any weird side effects) are katakana editing and line-out.

If SonicStage already plays them as silence, then I think SonicStage is to blame. The fact that you also don't hear anything on MD player is just a consequence of the SonicStage bug. I stopped using SonicStage in favour of SimpleBurner + daemon tools. This is much easier, doesn't take up a heap of disk space and also no problems with checkin/checkout or track protection. I also wondered about the eject, but I guess it is no problem to eject while playing since my MZ-N510 still works... There is actually a locking mechanism, but that is only active when recording as far as I know.

(Sorry for being off-topic.) tmeg, where did you get the specification for the NetMD API? Is there a software developers' kit for NetMD or something like that?