Official Pioneer 5070/71 Flashing Blue Light Shut-Down Thread

I know this has been covered in another thread, but it is very hard to locate this information so I thought it could be consolidated in one place. Moderators, feel free to smack me down and delete this as you see fit.

Here's my particular circumstance, similar to others I've read about:
--TV shuts down for no apparent reason followed by flashing blue light.
--Channel changing on the remote stops working. TV-guide info screen will not work also. Volume function continues to work. Upon shutting off the TV and powering back on, warning message appears saying something like "Please wait, TV re-starting". This stays for a minute or so until TV shuts down and blue light flashes 12 times. Upon hitting power button again, TV returns to normal function.

I called Pioneer (and e-mailed) and spoke with customer service and and all they told me was that they could send someone out, but if they couldn't fix it they would have to bring it into the shop to try to duplicate the behavior. That is unacceptable to me and I will return it to Costco before that happens (one of the reasons I purchased it there).

Reading in the various forums, this problem(s) seems to be related to the TV-guide function of the TV. Since I will soon be getting a DVR from Comcast, I assume I will no longer need this function on the TV itself so i pre-emptively disabled it. I just did this, but so far the benefits are that changing channels occurs much quicker than before with very little lag.

This sounds to me like a simple software fix, but Pioneer doesn't seem to even acknowledge it as a problem. Perhaps this forum will provide some critical mass (sort of like the SXRD green blob issue) to get Pioneer to resolve this.

Any and all thoughts encouraged. I will be calling a field tech tomorrow with my report on the flashing blue light (he asked me for the number of times it flashed, telling me that it would help him in his diagnosis).

and will certainly check on the warranty status with the shop that Pioneered steered me to. Pio is aware that I purchased it at Costco and gave me the contact of their local authorized repair representative. Someone in the other "5070 "problems" thread stated that he contact Pioneer and that Costco was indeed authorized.

I'm going to see what my interim fix does before going through the hassle of packing up and returning it. The screen is perfect (no dead pixels) so I'd hate to get one with other issues. On the other hand, if prices keep falling, I could get a 60-inch for just a bit more.

I have those concerns as well because ultimately (when I can afford it), I'd like to jetison the Comcast Motorola box I will get soon in place of an HD Tivo unit. But then again I suppose the Tivo software would be the tuning mechanism in concert with the cable cards.....it's all still a bit confusing to me.
I've come to think of these flat panels as nothing more than fairly complicated computers with all of the inherent problems that computers have. They just happen to have really big monitors built-in.

Search the knowledge base for "firmware" within the consumer plasma 5070 parameters......

It says (in part):
"Why does the power turn off and the power light blink on my plasma when I scroll thorgh HD channels?

When I use the built-in HD tuner on my plasma and I scroll through the HD channels, the unit shuts off and the power light blinks 10 times. (Models PDP-4345HD, PDP-5050HD, PRO-920HD, PRO-1120HD)

This is caused by a software problem within the media receiver. You will need to update the firmware. Your software needs to be version -004600K. To verify your software version, press and hold the display button for about 10 seconds."

This is what is happening to me. I will be contacting Pioneer and referencing this link to try to get some resolution.