Hey Colin, here are some guidelines. I'll spec out some actual bundles and example setups later this week, but here is some info to get you started.
LCD vs. Plasma.
You won't see many plasma tv's even available anymore unless you look in the larger (greater than 50 inch) area. So just assume LCD.
720 vs 1080
As far as I know, the PS3 video games are one of the few inputs today that are capable of showing you true 1080, so it's not that big of a deal to strive for 1080, but 1080 resolution screens have come down in price so much that it's also not really a cost issue.
Cables
If you walk into Best Buy or Fry's, they are going to make their biggest margin on HDMI cables and speaker cables. They'll sell this hard too. Though there can be some benefit to buying expensive speaker cable, especially over long distances, this is not true for HDMI. Get your cables from
Amazon Basics or
Monoprice
where you won't pay over $10.
Blu-Ray Players
If you're not getting one on sale, they will cost you over $250 usually. At Dealzon, we're finding deals for them under $200 every week, but they usually are only 24-48 hour sales. My personal recommendation is to spend $300 and buy the PS3. It has Blu-Ray built in and many other features that will only get better as Sony improves their software (the updates of which will come in regularly via the Internet)
Do you have any thoughts on what size screen you want for the TV? How big is the room? By default I'd recommend 42-inch. Also, note that Sony has a lot of proprietary technology that has unique compatibility requirements that isn't relevant if you are mixing Sony with non Sony equipment
