There would seem to be one rather obvious solution here... that being Sony sucks. But I think you meant a real reason that gives them the benefit of the doubt. But yeah, at least the first wave of BluRay players, well... suck. Big time. And Sony is very screwed as it stands.
BluRay costs twice (or thrice) as much with actually LESS performace.
And unless something comes along to change the picture... this also seems true in the console war. PS3 is way more expensive than 360, and we're still waiting to see any graphical one-upmanship at all.
So BluRay players are generally going to be $1,000+ and NOBODY is gonna wanna buy that (er, virutally no one). And PS3 still isn't showing any backup, even at the cheaper price... and on that note... I still have to wonder how a standalone player is 3x the price of a gaming console with the same technology. The standalone CAN'T PLAY GAMES, and has a WHOLE LOT LESS CONNECTIVITY (Wi-fi, wireless controllers, network card, etc...) yet remains so much more expensive. HOW!?
If you were to run the price total on parts of the PS3 necessary to actually play BluRay, you might run up to about $200 of the system's cost- giving some benefit of the doubt, a $100 drive and $100 worth of processors / connectors necessary for linking it all up to a television. Heck, I'll even thrown in a $200 hunk of cash and claim that's necessary to fit a small portion of Cell in there to help out. That's still just $400. Those same parts in a box by themselves? $1,500-$1,800.
W. T. F.
Why not just release mini-PCs instead of so-called "standalone" players that could apparently be cost-reduced to AT LEAST the sub-$500 range to play BluRay right now? The PS3 "core" system already does it, and there's tons of stuff you could hack out of that box to make it much cheaper. Oh, right, because winning a format war means ludicrous price-gouging on "next-gen" technology.
I really, really don't get it.
the answer to your confusion is quite easily really. video game systems are sold at a loss while home electronics are sold for profit. while some components between a blu ray player and the ps3 are similar, the qaulity is worlds apart. much like the ps2 and xbox of this generation, dont expect the video play back of the ps3 to be anything above sub-par for a blue ray player.