1-Click Blooper Playback for Original Trilogy DVD

John Sheppard writes "Normally you have to jump through cheerios to view Easter eggs on a DVD video, but DVDFILE recently launched a new online app that lets you view the 'bloopers' egg on Star Wars Trilogy Bonus DVD with the click of a mouse. Requirements: Windows, DVD-ROM drive/playback capability, and a copy of the Star Wars Trilogy Bonus DVD. DVDFILE would like feedback on this sort of feature; should we do a lot more eggs?"

I want only one Easter Egg

[9mm Censor]

Star Wars Kid

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[DoorFrame]

I can't get it on the DVD for you, but now you can have it online.

Here you go: Star Wars Kid [rock103.com]

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[JuggleGeek]

That URL is 404 - but at least it's a *funny* 404. :^)

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[Anonymous Coward]

People are going to defend it, saying it's funny, but...

I have never watched it and never will - that poor kid went through hell because of this, and he never wanted it made public.

If people can't respect someone's wishes on something like that, I don't know if I can respect them for anything at all.

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[Library Spoff]

and you've never watched amateur pr0n either have you?

cause we all know both parties ALWAYS agree to that being put on the internet... but as another poster said - be careful with tapes you make of yourself. That includes you Abi/Paris/Kate...

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[Afty0r]

If he had just taken it on the chin and laughed about it with his mates, it wouldn't have been such a big deal.

The world is full of people who make tiny mistakes and then when called/publicised on them, they make it into an enormous deal by bitching/whinging/complaining about it. It was funny. Laugh about it. If he can't deal that it's his own problem - learning to laugh at *yourself* in life is one of the most valuable skills you can EVER learn - sadly some people never do.

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[mattgreen]

And one of the other most valuable things in life is learning to respect other people. Actually, that is more important than knowing how to laugh at yourself, simply because it affects other people. (Too bad such a simple truth is simultaneously profoundly deep.) The Net (esp. sites like this one) is a viciously cynical crowd that at times just seems out to laugh at the next guy that makes a mistake, and bicker about completely trivial things.

Were you that old, and caught in the same circumstances, you pro

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[gl4ss]

it's still funny, when you're a cynical bastard.

funny as hell.

and not really worse than those 'funny' home video shows(which are actually much worse usually, as the kids in them didn't actually do it themselfs, they just goofed up while eating or whatever).

the kid is an INTERNET LEGEND, how many of us can say the same? he can use that fame later to his advantage if he's smart.

besides, even if you're actively avoiding seeing the film... then you've already made a statement that what the kid did was stupid and that he should be shamed of it instead of taking it with humour like it is.

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[Anonymous Custard]

If he had just taken it on the chin and laughed about it with his mates, it wouldn't have been such a big deal

Absolutely! Star Wars Kid should learn a lesson from William Hung [williamhung.net], the American Idol contestent who sang "She Bangs" so poorly that it got him a cult following and several record deals.

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[ad0gg]

And A movie deal.

Re:I want only one Easter Egg

[x0n]

If he had just taken it on the chin and laughed about it with his mates, it wouldn't have been such a big deal.

All joking aside, I think the crux of the problem is that he hadn't any mates in the first place. That kind of escapism -- pretending you are a jedi, and almost believing it -- typically is carried out by bullied, sometimes chubby and usually socially inept kids. Now consider all the free stuff he got (new computer, signed pictures, autographs etc) for his suffering via the collective shadenfreud

Oh come on...

[foreverdisillusioned]

Someone send him a free computer, and last I heard there was a rather large petition to get him included as an extra in Return of the Sith. Worth a little bit of embarassment, I'd say.

ZZzz.

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole series is just one big blooper nowadays.

Re:ZZzz.

[tarunthegreat2]

In Soviet Russia, Luke's Father is YOU!
Darth Vader: All your planets are belong us!
Yoda: What you say?
Jabba: HO HO HO!

Re:ZZzz.

[djward]

Right. I thought they made the special edition by putting the bloopers back IN. And then inventing a few more, for good measure.

Two things

[zegebbers]

a) it would be nice to have a link to this program... b) did anybody else get (appropriate for this story) "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." when clicking on 'read more' ?

Re:Two things

[l1nuxpunk]

It happens for any story if you click on it right away. Just one of slashdot's little bugs.

Anyway, if you give the story a few seconds before trying again, it should be there.

Re:Two things

[ynohoo]

No, no, no!

You must chant the DNS address in hex to your CowboyNeal doll before clicking again.

Works like a charm.

Re:Two things

[tigersha]

Yes. In Haiti you cn find CowboyNeal Voodoo dolls. The priests use them to practice their l33t n33dl3 sk1llz.

in a word

[menace690]

yes. Cross platform would be nice though

Re:in a word

[theparanoidcynic]

Linux doesn't need anything special to grab that clip in nothing flat. Just guess track numbers with mplayer until you hit it.

what gives?

[majest!k]

since the submitter didn't provide a link, here it is: http://www.dvdfile.com/software/eggs/trilogy.html

Re:what gives?

[bahamat]

since the submitter didn't provide a link, here it is: http://www.dvdfile.com/software/eggs/trilogy.html

Not only am I pissed off about the state of Star Wars, the fact that there was even a Star Wars story on /., that I clicked it, found out that this is all about a windows only binary -- not really an easter egg at all, but that link you posted crashes Safari!

Why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?

Re:what gives?

[YetAnotherName]

Wow, so it does! Bug report dutifully sent to Apple.

I sense a fix will be on its way ... as soon as I download Camino [mozilla.org] or perhaps Firefox [mozilla.org].

Safari can't display HTML 4.0 (Re:what gives?)

[pdc]

I have had crashes with Safari with HTML documents containing object tags. This could be the same -- there are object tags for a DVDviewer or something.

Uh oh! Does Amazon know about this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent infringment. Big time!

Re:Uh oh! Does Amazon know about this?

[Tablizer]

They should make it 0.999999999 clicks instead to get around the patent.

Re:Uh oh! Does Amazon know about this?

[Joey7F]

Ah ha, but on an Intel processor 0.99999999999 is one! Actually so is .89 I believe ;)

--Joey

Re:Uh oh! Does Amazon know about this?

[serutan]

Curse you, Anonymous Coward! You beat me to it.

The link

[krbvroc1]

The link is http://www.dvdfile.com/software/eggs/trilogy.html [dvdfile.com]

It requries ActiveX install to work--so only those willing to risk IE need apply.

Re:The link

[Capt'n Hector]

How exactly is this redundant? Stupid mods... (I've got karma to burn.)

Re:The link

[fbjon]

Ok, so here's how to do it properly:

On the bonus disc, go to "Video games and still galleries", type 11, wait, type 3, wait, type 8 , wait and watch, done. Don't need no steenkin' active.cx or IE. Works in any player, computer or otherwise. On a remote control, though, make sure you type 11, and not 1 and 1. Press the 10+ or [..] button or whatever it's called so you can type a 2 digit number.

RTFA

[Eu4ria]

How can I RTFA if there isn't one ?

Re:RTFA

[EvilCabbage]

Click the submitters name. He's plugging his own site.

Re:RTFA

[Errtu76]

There is, but you have to press Up Down Left Right Left Right A B Start and it'll appear.

Re:RTFA

[karnal]

Man, if you're going to quote the almighty Konami code, you might want to think about quoting it right.

Re:RTFA

[Errtu76]

Ah no, i just quoted a random fatality. It's been ages since i last played the game though, so i guess i was wrong. You got the idea though :P

What a surprise

[Endor]

Hmmm. Spend hours trying to get to some neat thing, or trust windows to find it for me? Maybe I better burn a "backup copy " first :)

RTFA?!? Whaaa????

[illumin8]

Normally I'd just pipe up with some nonsense and hope that someone would say RTFA!!! In this case there is no FA! Perhaps a linky or two would be appreciated by those of us that actually like to RTFA.

Re:RTFA?!? Whaaa????

[raehl]

those of us that actually like to RTFA.

I suppose we should leave out milk and cookies on Christmas Eve too.

normally?

[gl4ss]

almost any dvd player program on computer lets you choose what you want to watch from the disc(chapter by chapter wise.. i remember watching matrix dvd extras by this way.. waayyyyyy back.)

so those extras have ALWAYS been a click away on pc.

nice advert...

Re:normally?

[Flamesplash]

On the first Harry Potter DVD they made you go through this 'game' of which was really just going through the extras menu's in a certain way to get to the deleted scene's, it was quite involved about 10 steps, apparantly you can just hit back chapter on the DVD though and it wraps to the end where the menu for the deleted scenes is. Nice little trick that doesn't seem to work so much on others.

Re:normally? - No, Not Normally.

[CB-in-Tokyo]

Easter Eggs are a different story. Easter eggs are hidden and not normally accessible unless you do certain click patterns. The Matrix extras were not hidden.

Try putting the Star Wars DVD in a regular player and see if you can find this easter egg.

Wrong

[imsabbel]

Just bypass the menu ui of the dvd.
The extras still have position markers in the vob file, so you can use the low level navigation interfaces of the decoder software to jump to all strange tracks.
And i guess thats just what this software does...

Re:normally? - No, Not Normally.

[gl4ss]

so.. what you're telling me that the rabbit extras weren't easter eggs? you would have to watch through the whole fucking movie to get them.

you don't have to go through loopholes if you just select the files/(sub)chapters you want from the dvd players menu(not the dvd's menu, which of course hides such easter eggs, but the dvd players menu doesn't mean jack if you bypass it).

Oh, for Pete's Sake

[bill_mcgonigle]

Active-X control required? So now we're giving websites direct control of our hardware? All yours, kid.

Surely there's a standard cutlist format that can reference a VIDEO_TS folder?

Re:Oh, for Pete's Sake

[NanoGator]

"Active-X control required? So now we're giving websites direct control of our hardware?"

Yeah!! They should use stand-alone apps which are inherently very secure!

And finding this "app"....

[dameron]

is how much less likely than finding out about these "easter eggs" via web search...

Hrmm....

I suppose a slashdot submission is in order...

-dameron

Manual

[cuteseal]

For those interested in doing it the manual way: http://movieweb.com/dvd/eggs/egg.php?upc=024543123 415

Re:Manual

[thatnerdguy]

for the lazy:
Clicky [movieweb.com]

IE Plug-in

[zev1983]

You want us /.ers to use Internet Explorer to use the features on your site? Not only use, but install an ActiveX plug-in for... I like easter eggs, and I'd like you to keep up your work, but I've buried IE so far down in my menus I sometimes forget where it is... And what about us Linux users? A platform independent plug-in would be nicest. I only use IE for Windows Update and online virus scans through trendmicro.com, that's all, and that's not going to change.

My first first post, I think...

Re:IE Plug-in

[Enahs]

AFAIK (don't have either mplayer or xine installed on this box, sorry) it's title 38, chapter 1, at least according to my DVD player.

Linux and MacOS users should have no problem going down the quick and easy path with mplayer...

I've got an Elf Bowling game you can "just take"

[b00m3rang]

for free! What, you don't trust some random stranger on the internet? Many of us don't, and many of us don't get viruses or spyware.

Re:I've got an Elf Bowling game you can "just take

[aussie_a]

Your missing out if you've never done viruses.

Yes

[Valiss]

should we do a lot more eggs?

Yes.

Why was that so hard?

Re:this calls for eggscruciating puns!

[BaldGhoti]

These puns are making my brain scrambled.

Seriously, stop betraying your fellow posters with all the puns about eggs, Benedict Arnold.

Re:this calls for eggscruciating puns!

[daeley]

this calls for eggscruciating puns!

What is this, some sort of shell game?

Found the link!

[Omniscientist]

Actually "John Sheppard" at the beginning of the submission is the link...very cleverly hidden! Almost like an easter egg itself!

Re:Found the link!

[DrewCapu]

Congratulations.

You have shown that you are worthy of a more challenging set of puzzles.

Do not pass Go. Instead, go directly to http://deathball.net/notpron/ [deathball.net]

Re:Found the link!

[JuggleGeek]

Curse you, DrewCapu! I'm stuck on #6, and I have a feeling I'm not going to sleep for the next week!

(Somone mod him up. Cool, but time consuming puzzle game at the URL.)

you knew it was coming

[aardwolf204]

In Soviet Russia easter egg finds you!

But seriously folks, only old Koreans use easter eggs.

Easy

[skyman8081]

Just go to title 36 on the bonus DVD.

No messing with pressing 1138 on the remote, something that has never worked for me.

Title 38

[skyman8081]

My bad, It's the last title on the disc, which is 38, not 36.

no thanks

[phreakv6]

...should we do a lot more eggs?

no thanks.. am vegetarian..

Unusable DVD Menus

[Doomstalk]

I'd really love this for DVDs with virtually unnavigable menus. For example, it takes a lot of work to get to any of the special features on the Memento Special Edition DVD set (or the movie itself if you miss/lose the post-it note it comes with) because they thought it would be cute to test your memory to get to everything. Or, as is the case of the first Harry Potter DVD, when they make you play inane games every time you want to see a particular feature. Can you guys do stuff for that?

Re:Unusable DVD Menus

[TiggsPanther]

Or, as is the case of the first Harry Potter DVD, when they make you play inane games every time you want to see a particular feature.

I really hated that. It's bloody annoying if I want to check the missing scenes. Great idea in theory, but a real bastard of a chore in practice.

Why would they pull crappy stunts like that?

Link to the article..

[EvilCabbage]

Here you go [dvdfile.com]

At least, I assume that's what this story is all about, if so I can live without it.

I don't want, nor need your stinking IE plugins.

Litigation!

[obeythefist]

Doesn't this violate the DMCA in some way? LucasArts make some very cool stuff but they can be very litigous. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the suits start bristling at this and the letters start flying.

Despite the fact that you're accessing the content on a DVD you purchased for the sake of accessing the content on it.

but...

[Anubis350]

but tracking down the eggs is part of the coolness of it, or at least knowing where in general it is but needing to find it.....

I actually enjoy the whole bit of getting to the easter egg, it makes it that much more rewarding to watch it, without being hidden they're just more extra material on the disc. Its the same as easter eggs in software, part of the neatness of it is simply that its hidden there

Re:but...

[Omniscientist]

Very true, I hardly consider something an easter egg if it's as easy as pressing down on the remote a couple times and...ooh looky there I guess I can select the person's eyeball...ooh a hidden menu?

If you remember those old easter eggs in old versions of excel (where you could fly around), the way to get to those easter eggs wasn't very easy and IMO would be basically impossible to discover without looking it up on the web. So I can't say that they've made this specific egg way too hard to find.

Re:but...

[bigdavex]

I actually enjoy the whole bit of getting to the easter egg, it makes it that much more rewarding to watch it, without being hidden they're just more extra material on the disc. Its the same as easter eggs in software, part of the neatness of it is simply that its hidden there

That seems to be normal. Personally, Easter eggs piss me off. What's the difference between a well-hidden Easter egg and a really crappy UI? Just give me access to the content.

In a word, Yes

[LardBrattish]

If I'm paying for a movie I want to be able to get to all of the functionality any time I want and not have to mess around to access hidden features. It's "fun" maybe once to a certain kind of person - I'm not interested in the puzzle aspect, just get me to the Bytor 'toon NOW dammit!

win

[torrents]

is windoze a necessary evil to unlock the goodness of starwars? (without wasting massive amounts of time)

Internet Explorer not required

[wretched22]

Just do the same thing described here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=1672 60 [mozillazine.org]

I got one click access too...

[Teddy Beartuzzi]

I just removed all the hoop jumping code and made it a direct link when I burned my own copy.

And it always nice to get rid of prolonged FBI warnings, etc.

This'll be a fairly big file

[Nine Tenths of The W]

I mean, Jar Jar's in a lot of scenes

Where's the Egg that makes Han shoot first?

[rsilvergun]

What, this far into a Starwars thread and nobody's made a "Han shoots first" crack? Come 'on /., I'm disappointed.

Re:Where's the Egg that makes Han shoot first?

[UTPinky]

"free ipod [freeipods.com]? gmail invite if you do it."

OT I know... but free gmail invite if you don't want to do it. Just reply my post w/ an email to send the invite to.

Requirements

[Phidoux]

"Windows, DVD-ROM drive/playback capability, and a copy of the Star Wars Trilogy Bonus DVD"

Silly me! There I was using my CD-ROM drive on Mandrake looking for the Easter Egg on my Matrix Reloaded DVD!

Isn't that appropriate. . ?

[Fantastic Lad]

Now that such a powerful social pillar as Star Wars is being sent as quickly down the toilet as Lucas can pump the flusher, that the swing towards Windows and IE becomes apparent? Water seeks its own level, as they say. . .

Are those rips of the original 3 Star Wars films from Laser Disk available yet?

Come on, people! The clock is ticking! I want copies before the Bush Empire starts sending Star Destroyers after file sharers!

-FL

I sometime type...

[rew]

I sometimes type "mplayer *.vob", and get all the exta's/hidden content without having to mess around....

Only more eggs if they work on a standard player

[Viol8]

After all , most people view DVDs on a standalone player , not on a PC. So whats the point of putting in an easter egg that 90% of the people who buy the DVD can't view?

Re:Only more eggs if they work on a standard playe

[Dusabre]

This is insightful? Cough, cough, the Easter eggs are viewable on normal dvd players, the Active-X widget to immediately view them, isn't executable on a normal dvd player, cough, cough.

Re:Only more eggs if they work on a standard playe

[Viol8]

Care to fill us all in on how you'd view this one on a normal DVD player then?

I am confused, what is so hard about this

[wowbagger]

I am confused - given that all the files are accessible via the file system, could you not find the Easter eggs by simply manually playing the files one by one?

What would be so hard about simply having a *gasp* text file saying "CD Such-and-such, play file FOO111.VOB time offset 12:34.56 for this egg".

Then you could have programs to parse that file and do the dirty work if you cannot do it yourself.

Favorite Easter Eggs?

[The-Bus]

My personal favorite is in the Mallrats DVD. If you go into setup (I think) there is a robot to the side. Select the robot until his eyes light up, then hit enter. A video comes up of Kevin Smith ridiculing you for trying to find Easter eggs, telling you that you didn't actually find one, and to get out of your parent's basement and live life instead of wasting time trying to find bonus scenes in DVDs. Then he says failing that, you should go to his store in Redbank, NJ.

Not Necessary

[UltraJustin]

I have the Star Wars DVDs, and all you need to do to see the bloopers is jump to the last chapter on the DVD.

The blooper

[Zog The Undeniable]

Don't tell me...Han shoots first - and MISSES!

That's what I get for RTFA.

[pragma_x]

You must install the InterActual DVD Viewer for Internet Explorer before you can view this Easter Egg.

I use Firefox you insensitive clod!

DMCA

[Dr. Evil]

By communicating circumvention methods for author content controls, isn't everyone in violation of the DMCA?

The Modified "Original"

[GodWasAnAlien]

You had my hopes up.

I thought you were saying that they made a blooper and had accidentally included the real Original Trilogy ( the one without the sky repainted Simpson blue, and without the added computer generated sex scenes,... )

Re:Definitely

[Umbral Blot]

Can someone please describe the easter eg and how you would normally get to it. I have seen some dvds where you have to try and select a seemingly innocent graphic or a certain sequence of selections, but to make a service like this I get the feeling that the Star Wars bloopers are much much harder to get to.

Re:Definitely

[Scottarius]

It's a short video clip with bloopers and outtakes from the film cut between the DVD Credits. There is one of these on every Star Wars DVD accessed by entering 1138 on one of the menus.

more info here [movieweb.com]

Re:Definitely

[Dman33]

by entering 1138 on one of the menus.

Wait, so you are saying that this company came out with an app that will show me the same thing that I could get by typing 1138?

How fucking lazy have we become?! I would RTFA but I am too lazy.

Re:Definitely

[Anonymous Coward]

or that deleted scene when Leia kissed Luke in Empire Strikes Back, and they went at it like rabbits, right there

...now THAT was an outtake!

Re:Definitely

[PateraSilk]

Allegedly? He surely does!

(this is to confound the short message filter. Please ignore.)

Google

[fbjon]

Yep, and the first link in google tells the proper method:

star+wars+dvd+bloopers [google.com]
Knock yourself out. But make sure to type 11 and not 1 and 1. And wait when it says "wait". This activex thingy is a totally redundant ad. Don't fall in the trap.

Re:Good feature not my cup of tea.

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

Shut the fuck up you insensitive clod!

Read the fucking article!

Oh.. wait

Re:OT: I tried - re: lint

[stoborrobots]

how about

$ echo 'santa$ make list;lint list | lint - > list.out ;grep naughty list.out > naughty;grep nice list.out > nice' | wc -c
106

or even

$ echo 'santa$ make list;lint list | lint - >checked.twice ;grep naughty checked.twice > naughty;grep nice checked.twice > nice' | wc -c
120

PS: I've never used lint; does it read from stdin?

Re:Can't watch the trilogy DVDs on Knoppix

[m50d]

Use movix instead, or geexbox, or one of several other knoppix-style cds which include it. Or compile the descrambler off a t-shirt.