While examining The Fifth Element I noticed that there was a one minute long video file on the disc, with no apparent linkage from the menu. So I dragged it into a video player and discovered that it was a set of four test patterns, shown below (although they are of course delivered with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels). They were being delivered at a health 15,013kbps in MPEG2 format. Each appears for fifteen seconds.
That triggered a memory, and a quick bit of googling determined the code: 7669. That is, when the main menu is showing, you key in that string of digits on the remote and this starts the test patterns running. Something I read suggested that this applied to all Sony Blu-ray discs. So here I am, as I am typing this entry, I’m checking them all one by one. So far I’ve done 24 and every single one of them has this set of test patterns, accessible the same way, except for a couple of US imports (The Terminator, and the original version of The Fifth Element), which have two minute test pattern tracks with four additional patterns.
UPDATE: (Sunday, 5 April 2009, 10:32 pm): I’ve checked all 58 of the Sony Blu-ray discs I have here. Every single one of them has this … except for three: Across the Universe, Almost Famous, and Good Luck Chuck. Every Australian disc has the one minute version. All three of the US discs (mentioned above, plus the Sony version of The House of Flying Daggers, have the two minute version. What a strange difference!
UPDATE 2: (Monday, 6 April 2009, 11:12 pm): Craig from Channel 9 reminds me that, of course, 7669 isn’t just some arbitrary number. It is the telephone keypad sequence for typing ‘SONY’.