Thanks for the posts guys.
The player that is on loan to me has a shipping date of Jan 17/07 from Japan.
When playing the DVD movies so far 3 out of 4 freeze up. I have contacted my dealer and he is going to exchange the unit. His store demo unit " has never frozen" so I will give his newer ( March 1) unit a try.
Thanks Mike for the great link. Yes we are are all doing well and are looking forward to a visit to Seattle.