Almost all of your questions are answered somewhere in the FAQ, but I'll assume you've tried looking through it already and will just answer your questions here.

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Is there any way to remove all the visuals that i don't want?

That one, you should have been able to find in the FAQ by searching on 'favorite visuals'. Use the Favorite Visuals feature.

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I installed emphatic but have found little use for it. the bright flashing visuals that change every time you change songs are extremely distracting and the way they overlay on top of track info makes it unusable. also, the second or two delay between switch tracks and the display updating is too much. are there any other features I'm forgetting about, besides the lyrics viewer?

Yes. Customizable display modes. You can edit the XML to lay out the text on the display any way you want it. With or without flashing and distracting visuals. Also has song "ranking" feature.

If you're happy with the existing display modes on the player, and you don't need to see lyrics scrolling on the screen, then you probably don't need emphatic. Which is too bad because having lyrics scrolling on your car dashboard is so mind-bendingly cool as to induce spontaneous combustion.

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3. i have an album of protected wma's that i want to put on the empeg. i think i found a tool to convert them to mp3 (i don't have the license), but wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Buy the CD? Actually the only things you need to keep in mind are here.

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4. how do i edit config.ini to remove emphatic? i thought i had used the logo editor, but i dont' see the option there or in emplode.

Another one that could have been find-able in the FAQ simply by searching on 'how do I edit config.ini'. The relevant FAQ entry is here.

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what is the username and password for ftp?

By default, the user name can be anything, and the password should be left blank. At least that's how I remember it, I think. If you have changed the user name and password, then it's whatever you changed it to. I believe that those options are controlled in config.ini as well. Check the Hijack section of the FAQ for details on how to set those.

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does anyone have a working bluetooth implementation that would allow a phone to communicate with the empeg and do anything useful when calls come in while driving?

No. The best we've got is a way of having the player switch to its aux-in when the cellphone mute wire goes high (as opposed to just muting).

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7. is there any way to have the track lists scroll vertically? seems like there could be a much more efficient use of display real estate if you could see a list of 3 or 4 titles at once instead of the dizzying horizontal scroll.

Yes, write your own replacement player software. They made a deliberate design choice to do it the way they did it, and they're sticking with it. Otherwise, the only other place it scrolls vertically is on the Search results screens.

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8. i see something about 'hush' in emplode but don't know how to do that. i often want to turn it way down rather than pausing - is there any way to do that?

This should be in the player's owner's manual. The hush feature is activated by one of the buttons on the Rio Remote. Please refer to the button guide for details on all remote and front panel button functions.

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9. is there a quicker way to switch between aux in and empeg from the front panel besides the 7 button pushes i do now? i know with emphatic i could just hold in the button on the right, but that's not enough to make it worth using for me.

Two ways.

1. You can do shortcuts to specific menu items by pressing the corresponding number key on the remote. Similar to the first trick listed here.

2. You can configure hijack so that a short knob-press swtiches sources. I think that even without any configuration, a VERY LONG knob press will switch sources. However, by default, I think it will switch sources between tuner and mp3 only since that's the most common. I don't know if there is a configuration tweak to allow it to switch between tuner/aux/mp3 on a long knob-press.

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10. i've always found the volume knob to be hard to use and my finger slip on it. I was wondering if anyone has come up with some kind of slip on button cover that might make it grippier or just stick out further so that my fat fingers can get a good grip on it.

No. In fact, I don't hear a lot of people complaining about not being able turn the knob, perhaps something is wrong with yours?

It's meant to be a rotary encoder that is turned gently with fingertip control on its top surface. Not grabbed from the sides.

Some people have made replacement fascias and knobs with different styling, but I don't know if they solve that problem for you or not.

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11. is there going to be a version 3 of the player software? i remember hearing about an alpha version awhile back but hadn't seen anything about it in awhile.

Yes, there is a version 3 alpha. However, the general feeling I'm getting from your post is that you're not ready for it. The alpha 3 software is not particularly stable and has some pretty serious bugs that keep it from being useful as a daily driver. At the current time, it's mostly only useful to people who are into tinkering and testing and fiddling with the software. Wait for a more stable release before you try it.