Ron-P, Do you have internet/BD-Live completely disabled on your player since day 1 (outside of maybe doing a firmware update)? If so, that could be the diff -- or maybe you guys have different firmware. On the Panny BD60, people reported all sorts of different behavior for titles...
Maybe you should try killing all BD-Live/internet related functions of your Oppo player. I haven't had any such problems w/ my Panny BD60 even though quite a few folks complain about similar issues for that player. Usually, it boils down to the fact that I have all BD-Live/internet...
All the enthusiasm surrounding this stinker... umm... affectionately goofy masterpiece on celluloid is starting to make me want to give this one another shot on BD. _Man_