I have now experienced flakey IR behavior and I think it may be a software issue. My statement about Plasma interference above can be disregarded for troubleshooting...

Like others I have had remote commands that are ignored (menu navigation and volume) and then when the 976 does respond to the remote button press it acts like it is executing commands from the past (executing a previously sent series of up when the last command was down). I have also experienced strange menu navigation in the OSD when an IR command seems to reset the current menu to the top option on the screen (the whole screen blinks).

I did not experience any IR issues when I had my 976 in my office. It was only connected to two powered speakers via XLR, HDMI out to a monitor, and a coaxial digital input. There were no other remotes being used in that environment either.

I started to experience the IR issue after moving the 976 to my theater room. I added in some HDMI sources and configured them through the OSD - if there is a software bug I think it is triggered in the video input configuration menus and persists thereafter. It is also possible that it is a bug that is triggered by receiving another manufacturers IR codes as I was using my tv remote while configuring the video inputs when the IR issue started.

I hope this helps track narrow the investigation.