Did you restore your factory defualt settings after the firmware update? I experienced similar problems, and according to Steve, the update may not take full effect unless you also restore the defaults.

In the past, my experience with this problem was just as an intermittent nuisance issue; that is until the time I was running calibration test tones and massive feedback struck my right front speaker, which smoked the tweeter and damaged the woofer. According to Steve, that too was a phenomenon related to the "no audio" problem.

Since that horrible day, I restored the factory defaults. I still experience the problem -- but rarely -- and usually only when I'm channel surfing cable TV. I've noticed the problem when the processor switches from a Pro Logic mode to Dolby digital. It seems the processor is momentarily confused when it sense a change to the incoming digital signal.

Anyway, like you I'm willing to suffer a few bugs due the the unit's otherwise excellent performance, flexibility and price point.