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How Can I Play a Blu-Ray Movie on My PS3 From an External Hard Drive?

The Sony PlayStation 3 is the only video game console that comes with a blu-ray player to watch high definition movies. It also comes with USB ports and the ability to read media off an external hard drive. If you are a fan of backing up your blu-ray movies to a hard drive, it is possible to play them on your PS3.

Backup Your Blu-ray Disc
- First, back up your blu-ray disc onto your computer. There are a number of programs that can accomplish this, including Blu-ray Ripper, Backup Blu-ray and AnyDVD HD. AnyDVD HD comes with a 20-day free trial. Pavtube blu-ray ripper is another optoin, but it costs $49 (as of January 2010). Once you have downloaded a program, follow the instructions and back up the blu-ray disc. The goal is to turn the disc into a video file that the PS3 will recognize, such as an AVI, MP4 or DIVX file.
Play the Blu-ray File on Your PS3
- Once you have extracted the blu-ray video file, copy it to your external hard drive and connect your external hard drive to your PS3. Go to the ̶0;Videos̶1; menu on your PS3, and you will see your external hard drive listed. However, if you click it, nothing will show up. Press ̶0;Triangle̶1; instead of ̶0;X̶1; on the PlayStation controller, then select ̶0;Show All̶1; so all of your video files are displayed. Select the movie that you want to play. Never disconnect your external hard drive while data is being transferred or media is being played to avoid causing damage or loss of data.

PlayStation 3