For standalone consumer BDPs, the Cambridge Audio 751BD has been topping both video and audio benchmarks for this year (as did its predecessors during their time). The price may look a little steep (~$1149), but the numbers that it's been churning is beyond players costing 8x as much.
The Oppo BDP-105 (~1199) is also a great player that delivers excellent visuals and the widest set of features. It also uses a linear tranny.
If you own one of these players, it'd be wise to keep the AVR's video processing off (as it'd likely deteriorate the picture that you've paid dearly for) unless you have a strong reason to keep it on (like compensating for a poor display).