I asked Ben about the firmware when I purchased and was assured that any unit shipping would be fully updated. I have a geek buddy locally who offers firmware updating services to those unable to do so themselves. If you have someone local you use that may be an option.

I seem to be in the minority here at Outlaw but to me one of the benefits of the M-975 is I am able to divorce myself from the analog outs from the OPPO BDP-103 and run a single HDMI. I find the M-975 does a much better job of handling the audio chores. Other forums have gone into great detail on this with most finding the down mixing in the OPPO to be lacking.

The audio section of the BDP-105 is a completely different animal to the BDP-103 so Beyond 1000's situation is most likely different to my own.