Gene,
Press the front (UP) button quickly on the scope and it will cycle through the 3 viewing modeson each push (Forest, ID, and Rocks). See if one is better than the rest.
On my Helion the image improved and the recording image improved significantly. I am not trying to insult your intelligence Gene, but is it possible the humidity was different when you tested the scope? Humidity can totally turn a thermal image to crap. Also, this change did make a fairly substantial difference to the image. Play with the three viewing modes and find one you like, than I would go into the Menu and start playing with brightness and contrast to see if you can get an image you like. I've been watching the Pulsar Facebook group pretty close and virtually all comments were positive after the update. If these suggestions don't help, I would give Pulsar Customer Service a call.