It's not quite been a year since I purchased the HD-A1. It's got firmware 2.2 and it's run quite nicely up until recently. A couple of weeks ago, I was watching the SD-DVD version of "I, Robot" and I noticed some very scratchy audio. I was running the DTS track over optical at the time. Last week I was watching an episode of "Heroes" on HD-DVD and thought there was an occasional scratch and pop over 5.1 analog. I knew that it probably ought not to be that way, but I didn't really pay it too much attention. Well last night I was watching "We Were Soldiers" on HD-DVD and the audio began to drop out and crackle over 5.1 analogs to the point of being really distracting. I switched to optical and that seemed to correct the problem. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it off to the repair shop? If the player needs repair, I'm probably further ahead to just save up the $$ for a replacement player.