I've recently adquired a 40inch LCD and a ps3. I bought the ps3 because i felt uncomfortable buying a stand-alone blu-ray player which was more expensive than the ps3. At least i can play games with the ps3 and its up-to date firmware which adds features is a plus. I've played a blu-ray (ghost rider) and ofcourse it was 2:40:1 so the 1920x1080 resolution on the screen was quite wasted because a lot of it was black (same as dvds). Then i played a dvd, i really couldn't tell the difference since the upscaled dvd looked as good as the blu-ray from my couch (maybe the LCD/ps3 are to blame for their upscaling quality ), also when i look the tv closely the artifacts are minimal for such large screen, so i really don't think this new format has a bright future at least not in my house. So my recommendation for you...don't waste money in standalone players (unless they're really cheap)...buy something that does more than just playing blu-rays like a ps3. Blu-ray improves the quality of movies but if humans can't tell the difference from upscaled dvds then its existence is simply not justified. DVDs were a revolution since they invaded whole world and made vhs & video-cds obsolete in just a matter of years. Blu-Rays are just another step towards the next revolution but fail to be a revolution by themselves. Hardware used: ps3 slim and Sony40w5500