I haven't even started looking for the easter eggs and I'm already feeling intimidated.

cabri | December 31, 19:55 CET

I just want to know what the weird stuff on the back of the DVD case means.

The One True b!X | December 31, 19:57 CET

A friend of mine worked that out, I think. I believe I know what it means, but I'll have to verify how he got there to make sure.

C. A. Bridges | December 31, 20:07 CET

So you have a friend that does the weird stuff?

The One True b!X | December 31, 20:11 CET

Do we actually know that all Easter Eggs have been found?

[ edited by Anonymous1 on 2008-12-31 20:51 ]

Anonymous1 | December 31, 20:29 CET

Well if he was telling the truth, that there were three, then yes they have all been found. Considering I had to go in through the back door (talk about weird stuff!) with VLC, I don't think there could be any other Easter Eggs.

embers | December 31, 20:50 CET

"three elaborately hidden easter eggs" Check!

Outakes
Joss Sings as Hammer
Joss Interviews the Evil League of Evil

Not elaborately hidden screen/pages

A screen/page containing DVD credits
A screen/page from the Evil League of Evil

[ edited by Anonymous1 on 2008-12-31 20:53 ]

Anonymous1 | December 31, 20:52 CET

One more screen/page, and one encrypted shout-out.

C. A. Bridges | December 31, 21:14 CET

Hrm.

I'm sure I've seen all of Anonymous1's. But unless there's overlap with C. A. Bridges', I've not seen those two. (I'm assuming that no one is counting the FBI warning amongst either of those lists.)

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2008-12-31 21:21 ]

The One True b!X | December 31, 21:17 CET

Yeah, the FBI warning was one of my favorite touches!

embers | December 31, 21:33 CET

See that is what I am saying: Do we actually know that all Easter Eggs have been found?

Anonymous1 | December 31, 21:48 CET

Pretty sure you've seen it: the screen/page I mentioned is the same one you sent me, b!x. And I just sent you what I'm thinking about the numbers on the back. Not really an easter egg, per se, but possibly a hidden message.

C. A. Bridges | December 31, 21:57 CET

Ugh. Aggravating! Heh.

The One True b!X | December 31, 22:05 CET

What about the Wiccan subtitles?

Aust | January 01, 05:35 CET

Technically they aren't an egg. They are part of the convoluted process to finding an egg.

The One True b!X | January 01, 05:39 CET

I know where the easter eggs are, but once I get to that countdown screen nothing works. I've heard you need to press a certain number on your remote, but both DVD players I've tried that have a key pad on the remote didn't work at all.

I tried it on the Xbox 360 and on a Bose 3-2-1 system, all with no success. Ultimately I had to go into the DVD files with VLC to view the easter eggs which was pretty disappointing, because they should really be accessible through the normal use of any DVD player.

Cyantre | January 01, 14:08 CET

Cyantre I got them all to work on my dvd player but my friend couldn't either. Each dvd player seems to pick and choose whether it likes Dr. H or not!

wilder | January 01, 17:11 CET

I just want to know what the weird stuff on the back of the DVD case means.

Hi! C.A. Bridges's aforementioned friend here. I'm honestly not sure whether this is on the right track, or just a coincidence that breaks down partway through... but my first impulse on seeing "Count the letters" and a string of numbers on the back cover of the DVD was to apply them to the text on that cover.

That is: those numbers start with "2.7.12.13", and the text starts with "Neil Patrick Harris". Counting the letters consecutively (ignoring spaces and punctuation) and noting those at the numbers given, we get "nEil paTrick HArris", or "etha". If you go through the whole list like that, you end up with "ethanshlsaa".

This is extremely tempting, because that gives you "Ethan S." at the start, an apparent reference to Ethan Shaftel, who created the Easter eggs... but then it breaks down into apparent gibberish.

Two more objections: if this is the intended scheme, there would seem to be no reason for the final numbers in the sequence to jump from 103 back to 13; this would seem to suggest that I'm barking up the wrong tree, and that this is supposed to be applied to something not much longer than 103 letters, requiring a wrap-around. And there must be some significance to the up/left/right/down schematic next to "Count the letters." So I'm inclined to think that this is either a red herring or a complete coincidence.

(There's also an amusing screen you can see if you rip the DVD and look through the files.)

On another note: Cyantre, try pressing the number in question and then the enter key.

Shmuel | January 01, 20:17 CET

The rebuke is my favorite one.

The One True b!X | January 01, 20:24 CET

In support of my approach, one might note that -- except for the anomalous final number -- each of those letters are given as close to each other as possible while still going forward. That is: 2 is the very first "E" in the back cover copy, 7 is the first "T" after that, 12 is the first "H" after that, 13 is the first "A" after that, and so on... there is no "N" between 13 and 66. This still might be coincidental, but I dunno...

Shmuel | January 01, 21:04 CET

It's aggravating, because it's very difficult to see it as coincidental. But after I first heard this line of attack the other day (was it yesterday?) I spent some time banging my head against it too, and there really does seem to be some other thing one has to do to make it work in full, but it's not revealing itself.

The One True b!X | January 01, 21:10 CET

It might be another coincidence, but if I put the cast and title from the front of the DVD in order and then one repeat, I get Ethan is CDIA. Breaks down, yes, but at least the first two words make sense. Unless CDIA means something.

ETA: Wait, I added the ' in to get the 'n' and then forgot to recount. *sighs*

[ edited by cabri on 2009-01-01 22:16 ]

cabri | January 01, 22:10 CET

I'm disappointed with the way the Easter Eggs have been included. I haven't been able to work them on my laptop's DVD player, which just makes me frustrated and sad.

NuVanessa | January 02, 16:58 CET

It seems that the easter eggs only work on certain DVD players which is really lame. The way most people have been accessing them is with VLC media player, opening up one of the files and skipping to about 2:45, after that they all play in succession.

Cyantre | January 02, 18:02 CET

Maybe we're looking at this wrong.

On the back of the DVD, the bolded Count the Letters seems to be associated only with U, L, R, + D.

This was mentioned before on doctorhorrible.net. Someone there tried looking at the pictures on the Easter Eggs as so:

Doctor Horrible head = 6
Wonderflonium briefcase = 5
Professor Normal head = 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The numbers 2.7.12.13.66.68.81.86.89.103.13 don't seem to be associated with them, so maybe we shouldn't associate.

One attempt was this:

My brother figured out how to access all but the outtakes with a regular DVD player. Once you get to the countdown, press 5 (he got it from that number sequence — 2.7.12 … — which starts arithmetically, adding 5 to 2 and then to 7; that's probably not where the 5 is supposed to come from, though), and you should see the scene (from the Act II countdown) or the interviews (from the Mariah Carey cue).

I really want to work this out. I would feel slightly embarrassed if Whedonites weren't obsessive enough to figure out the Easter eggs!

korkster | January 02, 22:49 CET

Maybe the count the letters refers somewhat to the highlighted letters in the credits.

NuVanessa | January 03, 01:55 CET

That's a possibility, Vanessa_A. Although those highlighted letters lead to the "Enter at Act 2" message to get the HammerJoss clip.

korkster | January 03, 18:30 CET

If the number sequence went 87.90.104 rather than 86.89.103, then it would spell out another three letters of Ethan's surname: "ETHANSHSLE" would become "ETHANSHAFT". I suspect the copy had a mistake that needed correcting at the last moment - dare I guess that originally it said "who's" instead of "whose"?

As for the final 13, 'E' is the thirteenth letter of the second second sentence in the copy. And perhaps a 37 for the concluding 'L' went missing in print-on-demand action.

Anthony | April 14, 00:52 CET