I know how much of an "adventure" beta testing can be, Noah. When you agree to do it on the front end, it is a challenge that is offset by the knowledge that your hard work will improve the product. When you stumble into it with a product that you purchased, it is just plain frustrating with a sprinkling of irritation. It sounds as if you have done the latter with the 972.

There will be one additional challenge awaiting you once properly functioning firmware arrives (assuming you decide to give Sherwood and the 972 a chance to deliver it): separating the user experience of this initial setup from the behavior of the unit when it operates properly. My hope is that the problems you are currently running into can be straightened out, but there is a first impression that has already been made and can influence your feelings long-term. We all must now try to weigh the influence of that disappointing first impression when evaluating the unit with firmware that works. If you get a single firmware update that does the trick all at once, that may be easy to do. If it takes a couple of iterations, it will be harder.