What do you mean that the .frm file is impossible to work with? I have never had difficulty burning the Panasonic Firmware updates to a CD, and I just use the default Windows XP burning capabilities... burning a CD is like drag-and-drop so I can't imagine what you mean...
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/file-...-burn-a-cd.htm
EDIT: I guess I shouldn't presume that you're running Windows XP, but my advice is to apply that firmware update before doing anything else.