OK, I take it back. Definitely *NOT* fixed yet but definitely seems to be better. Watching previously recorded stuff seems to be MUCH better, but watching live events not as good. Specifically when you are watching live and go back a couple of times, I have had this popping and beeping many times. I wanted to give E* the benefit of the doubt on this one because it really appears they tried to test this thoroughly but again their QC seems to be a bit lacking. Still, it's better. Seems like if I pause and restart it goes away for a while.
Oh, it also might require recording another event while watching live. I think when this has happened, I've been watching something on tuner 1 and recording something on tuner 2 (in DUAL mode)