Greetings All! I’m new to these forums, as well as a proud, new Denon owner. Please forgive me if this issue has been posted elsewhere. While I haven’t found my exact issue addressed, I have grown tired of sporadically researching this over the last several months.

Also, I apologize for the length of this post, but I want to be thorough. First, here is my current set up (in an apartment):
Home Theater: Denon DHT-591BA (AVR-591 paired with the Boston Acoustics MCS95 speakers)
TV: Panasonic TC-P42ST30 (42” plasma)
Cable Box/DVR (Time Warner): Scientific Atlanta Explorer (not sure on model #)
Blu-Ray Player: Panasonic DMP-DBT210
Other: Roku box
Notes: Everything is connected via HDMI. Devices are connected to HDMI ports of receiver as follows = TV to “monitor”, cable box to “sat/cable”, blu-ray to “BD”, and Roku box to “DVD”.
Back in late August, I purchased Denon home theater system from Best Buy. I got a GREAT deal on a brand new one since it was discontinued and replaced by the 1312 (an inferior model, imo). Got home, set everything up, ran the Audyssey auto set up, etc… No problems with any of that. After only a few days of use, I noticed two recurring issues the video and two with the sound:
First (and only mildly annoying), the video… From time to time, when I turn the system on, I get intermittent, snowy flashes (like bad reception interference). The other thing I noticed is depending on the order devices are powered on, I may or may not get sound to watch TV. Both these issues seem to be corrected by turning everything off, then back on again. While I’m not sure why this corrects the intermittent snowy flashes, I’m sure it corrects the sound because of the order in which they are powered on. It’s kind of annoying to have to do that (especially if it’s more than once), but I suppose I could live with these issues if I had to.
Second (and most annoying), the sound… On a pretty regular basis, I will be watching TV, when suddenly I get a very loud (and quite startling) pop from the system. I also noticed that the sound often cuts out. Not completely, but enough to notice it.
I initially thought I had some cable or speaker wire messed up, but I have double, triple and quadruple-checked all that. I’m certain everything is as it should be. I don’t seem to have the audio issues, except when watching cable tv. Naturally, I figure it has something to do with the cable box. However, I have noticed that while not limited to one station, the popping happens more frequently on one particular cable channel (our local KNVA HD station). I struggle to understand why that would be. Anyway, I followed a few suggestions from this forum (HDMI reset; microprocessor reset, etc), and so far, nothing has corrected the occasional video flashing or horrible audio popping.
Read somewhere that updating the firmware might fix the audio popping issue, but the local authorized service dealer said that would take 3-5 days (Best Buy said it would take them 2-3 weeks because they’d have to send it in)… Seriously? For a simple firmware update??? I could probably do it myself in about 30 seconds, if the AVR-591 had an Ethernet or USB connection. Unfortunately, it does not.

My last resort will be to return it and get something else (which I can still do as I have the extended warranty), but I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. In spite of these issues (and their ridiculously priced ipod dock), I really want to like this Denon product. Hopefully, someone can provide some suggestions… Thanks in advance for any help!