We get email after email asking for advice on when is the right time to upgrade your home theater equipment. The answer, of course, is always "right now," but that isn't always possible. Often we have to compromise in one area to upgrade another. So what components are the most important to keep up to date? Which ones can wait a while? Let's take a look.
I see that some of the game consoles selling for about $399 (playstation etc) say they also play Blue_ray DVDs. Will this be as good as a stand-alone Blue_Ray DVD player?
It will be better. The PS3 supports the latest version of the Blu Ray specification. The only issue you'll have is that the remote does not support IR commands. If you go this route look at a product called IR2BT. It will take IR commands and translate them to Bluetooth so you cam use a universal remote with the console.
The PS3 just added DTS-MA support, but it only supports on-board decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA (sent as multi-channel PCM over the HDMI connection). It won't send bitstream for either format over HDMI for decoding in the A/V receiver, but to be honest I don't know how much that really matters to non-audiophiles.
