Tony,

If you put this line into your config.ini, under the [custom] section:

shuffle0=Favorites,PLAYS=-32000

...you'll get a shuffle of your playlist in sequence of number of plays, highest # of plays to lowest # of plays. Keep the player paused and keep reshuffling the playlist and you'll keep getting the exact same sequence of songs. Put in:

shuffle0=Favorites,PLAYS=-32000,RANDOM=1

...and you'll get the same as the above, but songs which have the same # of plays will be re-shuffled amongst themselves each time.

I don't know what the bug is with the most-recently-played values, but with the limited testing I did, the feature SEEMS to work as expected. I'll take your word that the Empeg guys know a bug when they see one.
_________________________
George