What is the best blu-ray player to date? I keep seeing things about 1.0/1.1/2.0 profiles and what not, read one post that said he played a couple 2.0 profiled discs on 1.0 players and they worked fine. I know the PS3 seems to be the way to go but there's just something about buying a video game console to strictly watch movies (i have a 360) that doesn't really seem right to me. Is there a player out there that is known to play pretty much every disc you put in it?

Well, depends what you want really, Aldi were selling a pc about 3-4 weeks ago, that had a blu-ray player and a hd-dvd player built in
If I was you, id wait for a couple of months, because microsoft are planning to come to terms with sony to have blu-ray and hd-dvd as an external drive for the xbox360, should cost around £250, but it'll be well worth it, otherwise, if you want a better gaming console, id go for the ps3

Wait for the Panny BD-50 or the Pioneers coming out about the same time.

This is totally my own opinion but from what I've seen so far, the best standalone as of today:

1st place: Denon DVD-3800BD. A friend has this connected to a Sony 1080p front projector. Absolutely stunning build quality and video quality for both BD's and regular DVD's.

2nd place: Panasonic DMP-BD30. Very good BD playback performance and a solid performer. A couple of friends have this model hooked to a plama and an LCD.

Future considerations:

Panasonic DMP-BD50: BD Live 2.0, decodes and bitstreams all advanced audio, DivX HD and AVC HD capable, and possibly the most anticipated piece of hardware this year.

Sony BDP-S550: similar in specs to the Panny BD50.

Marantz BD8002

I can only speak from experience of my PS3..it rocks! They have a lot of user reviews online tho...so you can compare. :)

Thanks guys, I gave in and bought a PS3 and yeah i'm not regretting it haha.

lol, good decision