DVD Easter Eggs

February 26, 2004 5:07 PM

How do people find DVD easter eggs?

MrLint provided an answer here, when mathowie asked the same question. A pretty satisfying answer, but I'd like to know more. Actually, what I'm looking for is a step-by-step guide. (And tech people, pull no punches!) I've tried Google, but so far I've only found lots of hidden features on discs I own, but no information on how they were found in the first place.

posted by soundofsuburbia to media & arts (6 comments total)

There are two (or three, really) ways to find easter eggs hidden on DVDs:

1. The Scrubbing Method basically entails poking around through the DVD menu systems and testing for hidden hotspots via movement of the cursor. Many times, hidden hotspots will be indicated in some manner, be it an animation, highlighted portion of a background image, or an icon appearing onscreen where there exists no icon on other menu screens, and all you have to do to "find' them is highlight them with the cursor. (For example, the chalkboard illustrations from the An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD.)

2. The Hacking Method is employed with the use of DVD-ROM menus, DVD player software, and other such digital tools, which allow you to view the resources responsible for the film and any special features/menu available on the DVD. This is the method MrLint described earlier and, without using such tools, I suspect many easter eggs would never be found due to the complexity involved in locating them. (For example, typing in a certain sequence of number while the menu animation is loading to reveal extra menu selections, etc. See the easter eggs on Star Wars Episode II for a further example of this.)

3. Dumb Luck. People do occasionally find easter eggs by chance, while attempting to scroll through menus or otherwise navigate their DVDs. This is often a product of lazy DVD authors not putting too much effort into hiding them in the first place.

Overall, it really depends on how much effort you want to put into finding them (or whether you find the search for easter eggs entertaining in the first place.)
posted by Danelope at 6:00 PM on February 26, 2004

Danelope: Thank you ever so much. I suppose the hacking method is the one that intrigues me the most, could you (or anyone) provide me with the names of those tools one could use? I'm not about to go hacking into my DVD collection, I'm just curious.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 6:32 PM on February 26, 2004

Stay up late and watch from the hallway while your parents are authoring the DVD to see where they put the eggs. In the morning, run straight for 'em!

/comic relief

Dare I mention http://www.dvdeastereggs.com/? Or did you mean how do people find them for the first time? I wonder what lengths studios go to to help people find them, consider that putting them there is often *not* the work of creative underlings but cleverly calculated marketing. They're meant to be found on some level...

Try doing the "deep analysis" step of a DVD with DVD Shrink, a free DVD backup app. It should give you an explorer-like representation of the file/menu structure. This reveals all kinds of things you didn't know were on there.
posted by scarabic at 7:18 PM on February 26, 2004

Sometimes the DVD producers leak the location of the eggs, as well as the methods mentioned above. I've found a couple with dumb luck - you just button mash the remote when you're bored.
posted by Orange Goblin at 2:46 AM on February 27, 2004

scarabic: Thanks! I'll give DVD Shrink a try.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:18 AM on February 27, 2004

I just watch my DVD of the White House lawn over and over.
posted by staggernation at 6:16 AM on February 27, 2004