Fantastic Results Most of the Time

I bought this unit from BestBuy to go with my Hitachi Plasma unit via HDMI connection. The results are nothing short of scintillating unless the DVD won't play at all. The problem initially manifested itself with Disk 3 of Planet Earth, a first class BBC production. After three attempts with Netflix at finding a playable disk, I gave up. On checking the Sony Support website I found a firmware upgrade from v2.0 to v2.6 which was claimed to correct an unspecified number of problems including the most frequent one that I experienced which was "incorrect region number". After applying the upgrade, the frequency of occurence of "incorrect region number" has reduced but occasionally still occurs. The problem is more likely to occur if one touches the play button before the machine is ready for it.
It is found to be better if one simply loads the disk and lets the machine do its thing. Eventually, after as long as a minute the disk will likely play.

In summary the unit produces stunning visuals and sound but is sensitive to the cleanliness of the disk and virtually will not play a scratched disk. The "incorrect region" message is an anomaly that is manifesting something else.
Power cycling the unit sometimes clears up the problem the same way rebooting a computer solves problems. Overall I still recommend this product.

Since I wrote the previous paragraphs, I contacted Sony and after discussions with more than one tech support person, they decided I should send the unit to them in Pennsylvania and opened a work order on it. Before doing that I went to Best Buy since I had an extended warranty and they decided to send the unit to their designated repair facility in Chino, CA. The outcome will be a repair or replace. I will know in a few weeks and will report. If that one does not work, I still have an open work order in Pennsylvania.

This all sounds troublesome and quite negative, but I still think the unit is capable of first quality pictures and sound and I will continue to work the problem and report on it.