A look at the technical aspects of the three Blu-ray profiles, and the conclusion is basically to go with a PS3 if you want to future-proof your investment. Here is Australia, the price of a PS3 is only a little bit more than the price of the cheapest Blu-ray player, so it makes sense to get the PS3 for Blu-ray even if you don't care about games. Of course, this hurts Sony since they don't make money (or make a loss) on the consoles, with profits coming via games instead. Sony is promoting Blu-ray through the PS3 and is willing to take a loss, and so that's where the savings are coming from.
Of course, it's still more expensive than a HD DVD player that supports most of the features of the most advanced Blu-ray profile.