As of today the ONLY Blu-ray player worth buying is the the PS3 … if you don’t want a games machine or want the style of a stand alone player wait for the Profile 2.0 machines later this summer.
BUT before buiyng make sure you can benefit from Blu-ray or that the improvement is worth the ~$8-$10 higher price of disks (don’t expect current sale prices to continue … they are artificial) and cost of the hardware. For many people Blu-ray is not a significant improvement over upconverted DVD. At the least you MUST have an HDMI equipped HDTV (and preferably a 1080p model over 40″) … not to mention the need for a good audio system to take advantage of the advanced audio.
It’s a lot of money … so I suggest you get a demo on an HDTV as similar as possible to yours (size, resolution) AND watch from the same distance as you will use at home. Compare a DVD and Blu-Ray disk (preferably the same movie) — don’t just watch a Blu-ray demo disk they are often HD video totally unrepresentative of what you will see on movies.

I would go with a PS1, it is way cheaper…just kidding. I have both a player and stand alone. The image quality on both is the same, you would not be able to tell one from the other. The only reason I bought both was A. I can afford it and B. I was told that if you watch a lot of movies it is not good for a video game system. I did a lot of research on the net and that seemed to be the concenses. I watch a ton of movies so I didn’t want to risk it.
In short though I would just go with a PS3 if you had to choose one.

Here is what you need to know.
There are some new features available on Blu-Ray that you will need upgraded players to get. PS3 being more of a computer is upgradeable and will upgrade automatically to get those features IF you connect it to your internet connection.
Profile 1.1 Blu-Ray players add a feature called Bonus View. This is where you can pop up a picture-in-picture window so movie makers can add something like directors comentary or show how the scene was made in the smaller picture. Panasonic has a player that is profile 1.1 and there are all the new players announced at for release will be profile 1.1
Profile 2.0 adds an ethernet port just like on the PS3 so you can connect your player to the internet. This gives you automatic firmware updates(the other players update by inserting the new firmware on a burned cd) and unlimited movie extras.
If you never use your movie extras on DVDs and are not likely to connect your player to the internet anyway then just get the panasonic. If you like the idea of the new features then get the PS3 or wait for a Profile 2.0 player.

the ps3 would be the best bet because it has internet capabilities. word is that there will be some upgrades to blu ray players so they can have internet connections. with the ps3, you already have it.

buy the ps3, it does more than just games.

ps3 if you can afford it, if you cant get the player i guess

ps3 hands down!blu-ray is blu-ray your not gunna get less quality what so ever the only thing that will change that is your tv and the kind of cables you use.(HDMI is the best cable)Even if you dont play games its more then a game system its a internet browser,media player, and basically a home theater system.If you have wi-fi internet at home you can go to the sony store on your ps3 and download movies onto your hard drive and watch them and there HD!You can also download music so if you have a good surround system you play some music from your ps3 when you have a party or when your cleaning…Whatever you want to do.You get all that for basically the same price.PS3 hands down.

i would said get the ps3, because not only you can play cd, dvd, and bluray format, but also you can play download and play online games, download trailers, put photo, movies, and videos on the ps3, and also have backward compatibles to play ps1 and ps2 games on the ps3.

PS3 if you are into games if not the standalone blu-ray player.