youngrobot,
You nailed it! 
Thanks so much for pursuing this! Especially since it was working for you. I had no idea Sony had 12 bit and 21 bit remotes.
It does have a hair trigger and I easily get double entries, but that should be easy to solve.
I'm sure your code will be helpful to many as the blocking code that seems popular for the Sony can present problems. (I think there is a NEC library that is interrupt driven also.) You might consider putting it on the Playground to give it a better future. I think there is a section of IR Remotes.
Once again, Thanks!
John