I have just had the HDD-J35 firmware upgrade and still have major popping/crackling when changing channels with V.Format set to Auto.

If I change the V.Format to fixed then it stops but that seems undesirable to not have it automatically callibrate to the broadcast.

Castel have suggested it may be a bug with my Plasma. I am using a Pioneer PDP-435 with HDMI input.

Is anyone else having the same problem - Castel seemed ignorant to it and had said the firmware upgrade would fix it.

After the upgrade done by Castel I still have the rewind lock problem, not as bad as before but can take up to a minute to get it to stop. i just try and avoid using rewind unless I really have to.