Conclusion: Excellent soundtrack support and Profile 2.0-compliancy make the Panasonic DMP-BD50 the most recommendable standalone Blu-ray player to date, but the PS3 is still better and cheaper.
Conclusion: The BD50 employs Panasonic's Viera Link, which is based on the industry-standard HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). This conveys control codes to any compatible equipment connected by HDMI, allowing one remote to control everything. I don't own any CEC-compatible gear, so I was unable to test this function.