[KeanosMagicHat]

I've just received a copy of Donnie Brasco on Blu-Ray today and there's an interesting section within the insert card that reads;

"Optimize your Blu-Ray Experience ..... try the Picture Calibration Easter Egg available on every SPHE (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Blu-Ray Disc.

From the menu simply type SONY (7669) on your remote control"

As I'm still waiting for Digital Video Essentials to be released on Blu-Ray I found this very interesting.

Has anyone tried it yet and if so, is it any good?

Also I have a PS3 for Blu-Ray and don't have the remote so I can't type out 7669 or Sony. Has anyone found a way to access the easter egg from a PS3 please?

Cheers.


EDIT (I've managed to answer all my questions below):

Here's a short walkthrough of some of the tests included;

'There are a few adjustment where the included test patterns can be particulary useful for getting the best possible picture. Most of our discs have at least 4 test patterns included, SMPTE bars, monoscope, ramp and cross hatch.

The first adjustment I usually concern myself with is the black level or "brightness". Bring up the colorbar signal and pause your player. Turn up your monitor "brightness" and confirm that all 3 pluge chips are visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen. If all three can be seen, then you have confirmed that your player and monitor are passing signals "below black". Next, adjust the brightness control down until the right chip is just visible. You now have an optimum black level setting.

Put the player back into play mode and chapter skip to the next pattern, the monoscope and pause once again. Ideally, you should see a complete image with 16:9 shown at the corners and no truncating of the triangles. If you don't see the full image, check if you monitor supports "full pixel", "dot by dot" or some other description of a mode that allows a 1:1 relationship between the incoming signal and the pixels on your display. Some displays do not allow the disabling of "overscan" so you will not be able to make this adjustment. The monoscope is also useful for checking over sharpening, or filtering of the image. Ideally the round patterns comprised of wedges should be clear, sharp with no asymetrical gray bars or ovals. Distortions in the pattern usually indicate that a scaler is being used in the display. Also check that the squares comprised of 2x2 pixel black squares are distinct. If sharpening is used, the black or white portions of these squares is often exaggerated. And finally can you read the text on the bottom of the pattern for the company that created it? If you can, you are likely getting a full 1920 x 1080 image.

Of course there are many other important settings for Contrast and color, but these settings need to be adjusted according to your average room light. I recommend turning off all of the processing that is available in todays displays such as Noise reduction, DRC (Sony) or whatever a given CE company happens to be calling their image enhancement feature. If you have a good blu-ray disc, "Black Hawk Down" for example, you should be able to see the film grain from the original master faithfully reproduced. If it looks mottled or irregular, there is a good chance your display is using noise reduction or other processing and hurting, rather than helping the picture quality.'

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=207

Hope the link is ok for the forum.


EDIT2:

PS3 controller access instructions - it's really very easy.

From the disc menu press the Green Triangle button to bring up the access icons.

Then simply press 7669 on the numeric keypad and then click the ENTER icon. Speed is not a factor so no need to rush.

I'm looking through the tests now and will perform a calibration tonight when its dark.

[stuart1976]

Nice find there.

Will have to take a look at this tonight.

Also, Ratatouille, on Blu-Ray has a very good HD picture calibration tool as well.

[amita]

good stuff, i'll give that a go!

[KeanosMagicHat]

Good little tool that considering it is free and apparently on all Sony Pictures Blu-Ray discs.

I especially found the second test screen, the monoscope, useful as it confirmed 1:1 pixel mapping on my screen (Samsung F86).

Well almost .... it seems my screen is physically 1 vertical line of pixels off centre with the left hand edge of the bezel obscuring 1 line and an 1 line gap on the right side.

Not that it worries me at all. All the other shapes the walkthrough recommends you look at are reproduced faithfully on my TV and I am able to easily read the address of the supplier of the test screen.

Hope others find it useful and it'll do me until I get my mitts on DVE.

[diddy6662002]

This is handy, thanks for the info

Will try it on res evil extinction tonight

[diddy6662002]

Ok Tried it and it worked, thing is if you have never done a calibration before this tool is not the best. You need a HD test card likr the one sky did that talks you through what you need to do otherwise it kinda looks like the matrix

[Pecker]

There have been THX Optimizers on SD DVDs for a while, and many people with DVE, or who've calibrated using sensors/software, or got someone from ISF in, have foundthe Optimizer is often very inaccurate, and uses different levels from disc to disc.

Not sure if that's the case with this, just be careful.

SteveW

[whiskyboozer]

I have managed to get the calibration tool up BUT it has confused the hell out of me, aint got a clue what the screens are for or what I should be looking for. Anyone give me a super idiots guide

[diddy6662002]

Originally Posted by whiskyboozer

I have managed to get the calibration tool up BUT it has confused the hell out of me, aint got a clue what the screens are for or what I should be looking for. Anyone give me a super idiots guide

Same here, it works fine but what I am supposed to do, there is not guide to tell you what to do otherwise how should you know. A duff test card if you have no instructions.