Playstation3 's Blue-Ray vs Stand Alone Units

I found the Blu-Ray image quality on the discs I tried similar with both the PS3 and standalone units.

The problem is, the PS3 only outputs 480p with standard definition DVDs and does not upscale.

Since 98% of my collection is standard DVDs, it made sense for me to go with one of Sony's standalone players that upscales to 1080p.

Oh, and to answer the question you actually asked...using the HDMI output to an Onkyo receiver and Infinity speakers, I couldn't tell much difference in the audio tracks on movies and music videos but the store did not have any audio-only discs so I was limited to that.

So with all that being equal, I went with the dedicated player on the assumption that it does one thing as opposed to being a gaming console and a disc player.

Ekobesky-
There is now a firmware update for the PS3 that allows for upconversion of standard DVD's (I think to 1080p). I don't know what version # is, but if you updated with the latest FW version on Sony's site for the PS3, it will include the upconverting update. That should level the playing field between the PS3 and standalone players (if, to you, the difference in video performance on Blu-ray discs is negligable).

I recently updated my PS3 with the firmware, and IMHO the upconversion performance is about the same as the Panasonic DMPBD30K.