Wild MZ-N707 Hack

[darK (aka Tharaka)]

This was taken from '11/21: Wild MZ-R700/R500 Hack' but i put it onto a new topic because it will be easier to find

i'm not sure if this works...

Hi,

with the N707 you can get following features:

 Personal Disk Memory (remembers volume, program play, equalizer, and speed settings for 20 discs).  

 M-Timer (an alarm clock settable in minutes -- so you don't miss your train stop).  

 Auto time mark (inserts a track mark every 5, 10, or 15 minutes during recording).  

 Titling in Japanese Kana character set (as well as the normal Roman alphabet).  

 microphone sensitivity (HIGH/LOW)

 selectable audio output modes (Headphone/Line Out)

 Adjustable playback speed (from -80% to +110%).  

All buttons function normally.

I don not care for any modifications you do on your MD-Player:

Warning: These modifications require that you enter service mode on your unit. It is easy to render your machine inoperative in this mode. I make no guarantees that this will not happen to you! Proceed at your own risk. If your machine does not display the values indicated, exit service mode by removing power -- this procedure may not be suitable for your machine.

These modifications are made from the keyboard, proceed as follows:  

Run from the AC adapter or a fresh battery.  

Unplug the remote.  

Display Description  

The MZ-N707's LCD display has two sections, the dot matrix field on the left where titles are displayed, and the 7-segment section on the right where numbers (e.g. time values) are displayed. We will refer to these respectively as the "left display" and the "right display".  

Enter service mode:  

Set the "HOLD" switch on.  

While holding down the VOL - key like a SHIFT key, enter the key sequence:  

>>|  >>|  |<<  |<<  >>|  |<<  >>|  |<<  | |  | |  

i.e. FF FF REW REW FF REW FF REW PAUSE PAUSE  

Release all keys.  

If you have successfully entered service mode, the display will alternately display the firmware version in the left display and a screen with all LCD segments lit at about half second intervals. This work was done on a machine showing Ver 1.300.  

Change Setting 1:  

Press VOL +  -- you should see "MANUAL" displayed on the left and "0 00" on the right.  

Press PLAY   -- you should see "Laser" on the left and "0 10" on the right.  

Press VOL + 5 times  -- you should see "F Code" on the left and "0 60" on the right.  

Press PLAY   -- the first 3 digits of the left display should be continuously incrementing. The last 2 digits of the left display are a value in memory that you want to change (it probably reads "A0" for the MZ-N707 and "??" for the MZ-N505, but write this number down!). You should see "0 61" on the right.  

Press VOL + repeatedly until the last two digits of the left display read "FE" (you can press VOL - if you go past it).  

Press PAUSE  

Change Setting 2:  

Press PLAY  -- you should again see incrementing numbers in the first 3 digits of the left display and "0 62" should appear in the right display. The last two digits of the left display are the value you want to change (it probably reads "50" for the MZ-N707 and "??" for the MZ-N505, but write this number down!).  

Press VOL + repeatedly until this reads "7B" (you can press VOL - if you go past it).  

Press PAUSE  

Exit service mode:  

Remove power plug or battery.  

I hope it does it also with the 505. (please write me an e-mail with the ??-Factors)

The NetMD-Transfers are not affected by this modifications.

Sorry for mistakes (I'm german)

rio17@web.de

try it at ur own risk i suppose... mainly because i dont have a N707 to try it out on...

[Guest Anonymous]

It works! But I can't seem to get Personal to work, but timer does work.

So how did you know to change the first value to the one you specified?

[Guest Anonymous]

It works! Amazing! If you guys with MZN707s are holding back because of fears of it screwing up, I say try it, follow the instructions exactly, make no mistakes, and you'll be very happy with your upgraded product!

[Guest Anonymous]

I had the remote you need to get different playbacks speeds tho...

[sullen]

I just used these instructions to hack my MZ-N707. Great job figuring this one out! The only problem is...I don't see how to use the adjustable playback speed (as if I'll ever actually use it). Everything else shows up as described in the menu except this. I plugged in the remote, but still nothing new. Thanks.

[sullen]

I looked at the Manual for the 900 and realized that I don't have the remote control needed to run that function.

[LostChordSearcher]

I just did it on my MZ-N707. The Mic Sensitivity setting doesn't actually do anything. You can change it between high and low, but the actual sensitivity doesn't change. The M-Timer and Personal Disc Memory features seem to work just fine. Haven't tried the line-out yet.

Edit: Just tried line-out, and it seems to work fine! That is, when you switch to line-out mode, the volume on the output goes to maximum, and the volume buttons no longer have an effect. I don't know if it's lower noise than the headphone output (bypasses the headphone amp), but I'll check on that tomorrow and post results.

[Guest Anonymous]

On a 505, the "??" values are 80 and 10, respectively. All functions appear OK, except the M-Timer operates in weird intervals (0, 1, 2, 3 etc., where 3 == 36 minutes? Perhaps I just need to RTFM)

[johnty]

I did it this afternoon and it worked fine on my n707. What I wonder, about the variable speed function - maybe there's a certain button combination that will be able to enable it?

anyone done a headphone/line out PC recording comparison yet?

[darK (aka Tharaka)]

On a 505, the "??" values are 80 and 10, respectively. All functions appear OK, except the M-Timer operates in weird intervals (0, 1, 2, 3 etc., where 3 == 36 minutes? Perhaps I just need to RTFM)

i think its because the 707 remote has 1 less character visible.. i say once again.. i THINK

I did it this afternoon and it worked fine on my n707. What I wonder, about the variable speed function - maybe there's a certain button combination that will be able to enable it?

to answer ur question johnty... the speed function requires you to have a RM-MC11EL (the MZR-900 remote) it has all the buttons u will ever need...

[sullen]

I was messing with the line out function yesterday. It seems that when you go to line out, the player basically strips all of your settings off and puts the volume at max. I have my bass set almost max. and my treble at max, when I used the line out instead of headphones it sounded very anemic. So, yes the function works properly, but whether or not it sounds good is based on your preferences when recording to your PC.

[Guest Anonymous]

Does anyone know how to work this feature for MZN-505. I upgraded mine and I can't seem to work at all.

[Andy]

Line out is not supposed to sound nice, it is supposed to be used for transferring sound between machines. There is no equalisation or any type of effect for that matter. The idea is that the machine which your line out is connected to will be able to do exactly that, and if you send it a signal which has been run through a weird EQ setting, then there is no way it will be able to play the original flat sound.

Just a question though - why do you have both Bass and Treble turned all the way up? If I remember rightly from one of my older Sony Walkmen, then that would have exactly the same effect as turning up the volume. Why not just turn the volume up and use the EQ for something a bit more useful (like making it sound better )

[sullen]

When you use the optical sync recording you have no control over the recording volume level. I have been recording straight from my DVD player to my MD for the best quality. When I record from my PC using the Line-In I can adjust both the level in and the recording level. So with the recording level being unadjustable, I usually have the bass and treble turned all the way up to increase volume and add more bass and treble because a lot of stuff seems to be flat using the optical recording. I mainly bought my MD to do concert recordings as opposed to my main source of compressed audio. In my car where I listen to music the most I have a JVC MP3 head unit so I use MP3 most of the time.

[Mystyler]

sullen, adjusting treble and bass shouldn't have any effect on recording from an optical source, because it is a line signal the volume and EQ should be fixed, no matter what you adjust. And line is ment to sound flat - that is what bass boost and EQs are for!

[Andy]

sullen: the reason you don't have any control over volume is that because by changing the volume (either up or down) you will lose sound quality.

It is kind of like digital photos. You can resize them once they are on the computer. If you make them smaller, then some of those pixels that the camera took have to be merged with other pixels. There are now less pixels describing the image and it is now of worse quality. This is kind of like turning the volume down. If instead you make the image bigger, the computer will guess about the pixels to fill in the extra info. What you end up with is an image which is actually slightly blurred because when it guesses, it looks at the neighbouring spots on the image and chooses a colour which won't clash with them all - the "average" colour. Now if you then resized this image back to the original size, I'm pretty sure you will end up with the original quality - but when you turn the volume up, there is a certain maximum instantaneous volume level which can never be exceeded. If ever it is, then 'clipping' will occur. To continue the analogy - if the maximum size of the image is 50x50 pixels, and you have an image which is 40x40 and you resize it to 80x80, you will get a 50x50 image which has the corner of the original. The information lost can never be retrieved again.

Now, if your recording never reaches this maximum volume level, then increasing the volume won't do anything bad. But, I would suggest that it would be better to do all of this stuff once the recording is on the computer. You should be able to find some really good software which will sound better than a simple bass/treble control, and there is also software which will go through your recording and find the peak value in it. Once it has found this, it can increase the volume as far as it will go while still avoiding clipping.

Of course, if you are happy with your sound quality already, then I'm not going to suddenly change everything, but if you want to get even better results, then that is the way to go. Also, by using digital, you avoid having the signal switch from digital to analogue and back when it goes from the DVD player to the MD.

Oh... now I've reread your post, I think a fair bit of stuff I said was irrelevant, but I'm too tired to think, so I'm just leaving it all

[Guest Anonymous]

Sweet!!!!!! Worked like a charm on my N505! Still have yet to try everything out, i'll let you guys know. A BIG thanks goes out to the guy who figured this out.

[dannn]

I did this trick on my friends 707 today at school

it worked perfectly. just make sure you follow it exsactly and TAKE YOUR TIME! thats the most important part. just take your time and be carfeul.

-dan

[Guest Anonymous]

Alright just tried out about everything I could. Heres the results from my N505.

Speed Adjust works fine with my RM-MC12EL remote, although a useless feature.

Personal Disc Memory sadly doesn't work at all.

Line out does work.

There have been some changes to the amount of Play Modes I now have some are just the same old thing with a different name though. The biggest addition is Program-Play mode which wasen't on my N505 before.

All my play modes now are: Normal - AllRep - 1 Tra - 1 Rep - Shuff - Shuf.R - PGM - PGMRep

MTimer works.

Bass Adjustment was changed from BASS to S-Sel in the menu (doesn't matter if you use a remote though)

and lastly, Japanese Characters display without a problem on both the MD Unit and my remote.

:mrgreen:

[Guest Anonymous]

I also did the hack on my mz n505, but I didn´t find the play mode and the bass menu is now s-sound...does it have any effect on the quality of the bass????

Thanx...

P.S. all other stuff seem to work good...

[Guest Anonymous]

One thing I didn't mention was how the MTimer worked out. MTimer is settable in minutes when I use my remote but when I try to set the MTimer with my N505 is goes in strange intervals, the first being 14 minutes.

[JKIM]

I have done this on my 505 as well. it seems that for the Mtimer, the lcd on the 505 is too small to show all the numbers, it goes from 1 up to 99 minutes, you just have to count. i start from 99, then when it rolls over to 1 i start counting, or you can go by tens places, when you see 1, then keep pressing until you see 2, then it's in the 20's, you just can't see the last #

[zpeidar]

1: Why would Sony disable this features

2: Anyone been unlucky yet?

3: Is it reversible?

4: Any drawbacks?

5: How to control playback speed?

[JKIM]

1: Why would Sony disable this features

i think to save money they use the same components for different units.  then they can enable or disable features in order to use them as selling points for more expensive units

2: Anyone been unlucky yet?

i've been successful, so far i haven't seen any posts about unsuccessful hacks

3: Is it reversible?

i think so, you'd probably just need to change the settings back to the original values

4: Any drawbacks?

wanting to use features like mic sensitivity and personal disc management that don't work on my 505 due to hardware constraints

5: How to control playback speed?

i believe you need a certain remote, not sure which one, though

hope this helps

[JKIM]

ah, as per ASZ's post the remote needed for speed control is the

RM-MC12EL

[KJ_Palmer]

1. In order to sell 'higher spec' machines at higher prices.

2. Personally, no (on R500, G750 as well as N707). Others, I think have entered wrong settings.

3. Yes, or should be, if you enter the original settings.

4. No, unless you enter the wrong settings. Most extra things work perfectly and you don't lose anything.

5. You need the LCD remote. pressing display for more than 2 seconds takes you to the speed control menu.

[Guest Anonymous]

Any type of remote as long it has LCD? Because I have a couple of remotes that are from mz-r50 and r-55.

[babbelbox]

I tried it with my N707. Work's fine for me, but my question is, how can I use the signal output switch (headphone <--> line out) since my N707 doesn't got a jog-dial.

Please let me know

[KJ_Palmer]

(From memory) You can get it from the normal using the standard buttons. Go to the Audio Out item in the menu and change from Headphones to Line Out.

[getha]

Right, I did the hack on my MZ-N505 and it worked like a charm. I did it mostly for the line out and pgm functions. I was really missing those on this new unit (I had an MZ-R3? before, can't remember exactly, gave it to my brother on loan), although pgm wasn't on my previous one either (which I always thought was a miss on Sony's part).

So I'm very happy with this hack, great work!

A few things don't work, however, and these are:

:arrow: The function S-SEL just gives a reply SORRY when I select it. What should/does this do on other units?

:arrow: I'm guessing P.D.M. is the personal disk memory and, going on what has been said here by others it won't work on my unit. What exactly does this remember? All the settings you do?

:arrow: And of course I have no remote to try the speed setting, but I'd never use that anyway.

:arrow: And possibly some things I haven't tried yet...

[me]

I think S.Select is only available on the remote.. It's the 8 step sound preset.

Personal Disc Memory remembers the volume, sound setting, and.. and.. damnit, i've forgotten.. Probably the speed setting, too.

[babbelbox]

(From memory) You can get it from the normal using the standard buttons. Go to the Audio Out item in the menu and change from Headphones to Line Out.

I can't find it in my normal menu functions :cry:

Maybe looking over it but don't think so

--------edit

Know what the problem is

I didn't complete the total tweak but only changed the second value

(062 S50 :arrow: S7B)

Just a couple of minutes ago I found out the other values that has to be changed

(061 SA0 :arrow: SFE)

It also changes a bit of the visualisation of the service menu, but that's a detail.

I recommand the tweak to everybody, but do everything slowly and be sure you're doing everything the way you have to do it.

[KJ_Palmer]

Can you get it now, Babbel? I forgot to mention that it doesn't work with a remote plugged in! :oops:

[Bazirker]

hey guys...I don't think the line out function works anyway. I don't think the player has the hardware required to make the shift. Now I guess it's possible that it is equipped with the hardware to make the shift, but then why wouldn't Sony have enabled it as a factory setting considering that they sell the unit with a car kit? My MZ-R700 doesn't have the hardware for a line out; all that happens when i turn it on is the bass and treble changes are turned off. Volume doesn't change or anything.

[Guest Anonymous]

I hooked up my NZ-707 to an Altex ATP-3 computer speaker system and played one song with headphone output/bass and treble off/volume up max, and again with line out enabled. The sound is *much* clearer and louder with line out than with headphone.

Tom

[Guest Anonymous]

I've hacked my N707. All features work except Personal Disk Memory! Someone said that their N707 can't use Personal too. Who can tell me why? Is it according to version? My machine is ver 1.100.

[babbelbox]

Can you get it now, Babbel? I forgot to mention that it doesn't work with a remote plugged in!   :oops:

Everything is working fine now, but I think it absolutely necessary to unplug your remote, I’ve entered the service mode with my remote (RM-MC10L, European version with display) plugged in and everything worked fine.

---add on

I looked back at the previous post and found out that you didn't mention the service mode but the switch between HeadPhone :arrow: LINE OUT.

I had found out myself that you can't change the setting when you've plugged the remote. Later after reading back some posts I found out that that what's you ment is stead of entering the service mode.

I've hacked my N707. All features work except Personal Disk Memory! Someone said that their N707 can't use Personal too. Who can tell me why? Is it according to version? My machine is ver 1.100.

My version is 1.300, but Personal Disk Memory won't work. I've heard it before that this function didn't work properly with this tweak.

[Guest Anonymous]

I guess we can't have it all. I wish someone would able to find out how to work the p.d.m. Time will come.

[t2k3]

You can use the 55 and 90 style remotes on the newer models just that they won't display some features. Like Bass 1,2 etc. The newer remotes when plugged in to older players have buttons that are not used but still work? Does anybody know if the 750 remote works on a 707, with radio? It only works on some 900's and the 750.

[KJ_Palmer]

The standard remote functions work (play, skip, etc.) but not the radio - no power .