A hacker that goes by the functional name of "hacked2123" has posted a guide that shows how it's possible to convert a Blu-ray movie to a regular MPEG file and play it back on a PlayStation 3 using not much more than a regular PC and a copy of Linux. If we're honest, the whole "playing Blu-ray movies on the PS3 without the disk" thing is only really a symbol: the only reason the PS3 is involved is because it's a relatively cheap way of accessing Blu-ray. The rest of the instructions are identical to ripping a Blu-ray film using your PC by decrypting the file; hacked2123 was just clever enough to think of placing the unencrypted MPEG file back on the console, resulting in a fanoy-riling PlayStation 3 that plays Blu-ray movies without requiring the Blu-ray disc to be inserted. Of course, that process involved a lot of command line tweaking and loading screens (with the added benefit of zero lag when fast forwarding, courtesy of the hard drive) which is far beyond our geek intellect, so Mr. Hacked2123 certainly picks up the kudos for putting it into a linear guide for us. We long for the day when a logical and morally acceptable activity such as this is commonplace and easy to execute. Take a look after the break for some video of the stunt in action, cinéma vérité style.

[Thanks, TC]