kirkj,
Wilt thought the freezes were related to the blackouts, which they have apparently figured out. If a solution to the blackouts is days away, as Wilt said, perhaps new software to fix the lockups isn't far off. Perhaps around the middle of next week?
I'm still not quite sure I understand why you guys are constantly scanning through the guide. It sounds like some of you spend almost as much time in the guide as you do watching television. Normally, I go through the guide once by hitting the favorites button, and if there is nothing in HD I want to see, I watch the news, do some reading, browse the Internet, or run errands. And when there is some movie I want to watch, that's usually 1-2 hours without any sort of interruption or menu access, hence no lockups.
I've watched probably 8-10 hours of television since I got the new software, and only had two lockups, both of which were quickly fixed by holding down the power button on the box. Total down time was probably 10 minutes over 10 hours.