I have a 40gig PS3. I bought it because "at the time" it was considered to have a better Blu-ray image than the Sony player. What I've come to discover is that you can also use the internal HD as a music/photo server as well AND it can browse the internet via Wi-Fi (as well as update it's software) Get a wireless keyboard if you want to sita cross the room and e-mail from your 60" Sony while The Beatles "Love" plays from the PS3 at the same time. O yeah, you can even add an external hard drive via USB, just make sure it's formatted to FAT32, not NTSF. I would reccomend a 60 or 80 though, they also have card readers built into them! The 80 gig also does 7.1, if you care.
I run the toslink digital into my Denon AV1800, which is pre-outed to my Rotel 1080 which is hooked up to my magnepan 1.6's. Just switch to stereo mode for audio and away we go. 4-32 hour playlist on the shuffle mode. Many ways to sort as well; artist/album/ genre. Way cool. Quality will depend on how you store and what the original quality of the recording is. MP3 Little Feat, Eva Cassidy, James taylor are all awesome. I tend not to remember the bad ones, but the MP3 of Neil Young's "Dirty Old Man" from Chrome 2 is pretty lame quality, the song's great and it sounded great on the DVD, but it didn't take to the MP3 well at all on my system.
I run the toslink digital into my Denon AV1800, which is pre-outed to my Rotel 1080 which is hooked up to my magnepan 1.6's. Just switch to stereo mode for audio and away we go. 4-32 hour playlist on the shuffle mode. Many ways to sort as well; artist/album/ genre. Way cool. Quality will depend on how you store and what the original quality of the recording is. MP3 Little Feat, Eva Cassidy, James taylor are all awesome. I tend not to remember the bad ones, but the MP3 of Neil Young's "Dirty Old Man" from Chrome 2 is pretty lame quality, the song's great and it sounded great on the DVD, but it didn't take to the MP3 well at all on my system.