Haven't had these problems or any others with fw 2.4.0. Very stable fw now - certainly are some enhancements that could make the ui more friendly and easy to use but nothing that I consider make or break.
As a side note relative to the issues mentioned - I was experiencing dropouts/fade in/outs last year and it turned out to be a bad memory card. Are you playing from internal memory or a card? If a card I would suggest trying another to see if the issue persists.
Cheers,
Tim
Hopefully its not the card as its a new 128gb Sandisk. I will try a different card as that is a great idea.