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Video on sCO Equip
Most of my experience is on aircraft with no in-seat video in the US.
When I've flown overseas, most aircraft have in-seat video, and this is how it tends to work:
1. The screen is off by default
2. The "on" button is recessed into the seat, so it's hard to turn on by accident
3. The default programming tends to be a flight map
When I look around the plane, most PAX are either watching a movie they chose or watching the map or the screen is off.
On domestic sCO equipment, I notice the following:
1. The screen is on by default
2. It takes about 10 attempts to get it off
3. It turns back on when the pre-flight announcements start; beginning with a lecture from Jeff about how great he is, followed by safety information, followed by several minutes of advertising content
4. After that, it another 10 attempts to get it off
5. The button is above the plane of the armrest, so the slightest brush across it will turn it on again
Due to the default "on" behavior, the screens are "on" in a much higher proportion of the plane than is the case with any other carrier I've flown.
Most people sit there and do nothing for 2-3 hours, then, finally, people start turning the screens off. Most of the people who haven't turned off the screens after 2-3 hours are either working hard, reading, or asleep.
I haven't observed a single individual pay for content and watch a movie on those screens.
While the screens are on, they are endlessly cycling through advertisement after advertisement after advertisement. The cycle of advertising seems to repeat itself every 20 minutes or so. Therefore, on a 6 hour flight, the same message is repeated about 18 times. And, since one's eye takes in more than just what's in front, each PAX is exposed to these messages from every angle, constantly.
CO seems to be using the "captive" nature of the fact that we're stuck in those seats as a marketing tool to blast us with endless marketing. In fact, one of the advertisements is an advertisement to advertise.
I've never experienced anything like this on any other airline anywhere in the world.
Questions for discussion:
1. Are there other airlines that do this kind of thing?
2. For those of us who are sUA and accustomed to flying in a dark space, how are you affected by the constant bombardment of advertising and screen flicker from every place on the aircraft?
I encountered this new 'improvement' for the first time recently, and I'm not impressed. Particuarly since the equipment had to be rebooted three times, and each time there's no way to bypass the already-viewed start-up cycle of ads.
I noticed folks who have obviously already encountered this jamming a page from the inflight magazine over the monitor to try to block it out and I did the same. It helps to turn the monitor brightness as low as it will go before you do this.
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I'm not sure what the '10' tries means...you just have to hold or press the Brightness - a couple of times to turn it off. I do agree that it's easy to accidentally turn it back on.
Personally, and I've flown a lot of the 737's with the Direct TV / advertising over the last 3 years, it bothers me a lot less than the ads pasted on the tray tables, but very much a YMMV type of thing. I don't get how people can board a 4-hour flight without anything to read, but that's just me.
I have seen quite a few people swipe their CCs and use the video...has come in handy when forced to fly on SuperBowl Sunday when they're one row in front of me and one seat over.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitchmu
2. For those of us who are sUA and accustomed to flying in a dark space, how are you affected by the constant bombardment of advertising and screen flicker from every place on the aircraft?
I book away from CO aircraft to avoid this issue, as well as the blaring announcement about purchasing DirecTV.
2. For those of us who are sUA and accustomed to flying in a dark space, how are you affected by the constant bombardment of advertising and screen flicker from every place on the aircraft?
I book away from CO aircraft to avoid this issue, as well as the blaring announcement about purchasing DirecTV.
I read something similar a few times and thought that people were making a big thing about something so small. Just got off two pmCO flights with directTV and agree. It's not the advertisements alone, its the sum of everything. Air travel is hectic, loud, unkempt, why add one more thing?
I found it extremely obnoxious and if two similar aircrafts met my schedule, I would book something without directTV.
Programs: Formerly over-entitled UA 1K, now under-entitled UA PP.
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Agree with other posters about avoiding sCO equipment, for many reasons.
At some point, though, this is going to become 1 airline, and that choice won't exist. And, sometimes the route with sCO equipment is the best choice in terms of schedule or the only direct option.
Is there a way to find out if an aircraft is equipped with DirectTV?
Is this a unique way that CO has implemented DirectTV or do all aircraft with DirectTV have these attributes? From prior post, sounds like US is even worse, so perhaps this is a "feature" of DirectTV that all airlines use?
My experience with other airlines that have video in the seat was standard airline video experience, not DirectTV.
Is there a way to find out if an aircraft is equipped with DirectTV?
yes, on the mobile site pull up your flight and under Amenities and Inflight Entertainment it will say if your flight has DTV.
I don't think your assertion WRT no one paying for DTV in coach is correct. Every flight I've been on (including red eyes) I've seen people watching. Granted unless there's a major sporting event it's a low percentage, but people definitely are watching.
Also, as another poster mentioned, it's very easy to turn the screen off. I've only heard a few FAs say how to turn it off. I wonder if the're discouraged from doing that because fewer people will see the ads if all the screens are off.
As I have no other option than fly CO flights out of SJO, I have found that the way to turn them off is just to lower the brightness till it goes dark, not the minimum, but just keep turning it down and it will be off for the rest of the flight.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitchmu
Is this a unique way that CO has implemented DirectTV or do all aircraft with DirectTV have these attributes?
Yes. The lack of an off-button (or rather, the unconventional method of turning off the TV) is unique to CO. JetBlue and Delta both have off buttons on their TV offerings, and you don't have this issue with excessive TVs on and light in the cabin. In fact, DL's even snoozes if you never touch it.
I believe it stems from the unconventional nature by which CO financed the TV -- basically DTV owns and maintains the system, and CO didn't have to pay for it. As such, DTV has incentive to keep it on to encourage purchase (SWIPE NOW!).
I've found that in general, maybe 10% or 20% of the plane at most knows how to turn these things off. Some FAs make an announcement, often on redeye flights, but in the end, these TVs are usually flickering everywhere while people are asleep.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by njcommodore
I don't think your assertion WRT no one paying for DTV in coach is correct. Every flight I've been on (including red eyes) I've seen people watching.
Please review my original post. I said that I have never observed someone paying to use this service, I never asserted that nobody on the aircraft has ever used it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by channa
Yes. The lack of an off-button (or rather, the unconventional method of turning off the TV) is unique to CO. JetBlue and Delta both have off buttons on their TV offerings, and you don't have this issue with excessive TVs on and light in the cabin. In fact, DL's even snoozes if you never touch it.
I believe it stems from the unconventional nature by which CO financed the TV -- basically DTV owns and maintains the system, and CO didn't have to pay for it. As such, DTV has incentive to keep it on to encourage purchase (SWIPE NOW!).
There are two issues here -
1. How difficult it is to turn it off, and the fact that it's on by default, and the fact that it turns on again after you turn it off before/after "Jeffy talk + safety briefing", and the fact that it never turns off, and the fact that a slight brush of the raised button turns it on yet again. These issues, collectively, can be put into the bucket of "too many flickering signals all over the place, most of which nobody is watching".
In this category, do Delta and JetBlue, for example, start "on" by default then require the user to turn it off? Or, do they start "off" by default and only go on when turned on?
2. I'd say the second distinct issue is the obnoxious and endless cycle of advertising that never stops.
If the TV is on with Delta or JetBlue, for example, and no paid content is chosen, do they also do this endless advertising or do they have something a little less offensive with perhaps less flickering and repetition?
Your comments about the financing were interesting. Does CO get a revenue share of the cash that DirectTV brings in both from movie purchases and from advertising income?
It sounds like CO gave DirectTV free reign to "max out" efforts at revenue maximization without regard to the impact it has on flying experience.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Nov 19, 12 at 3:33 pm..
Reason: merge
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Quote:
Originally Posted by channa
...I believe it stems from the unconventional nature by which CO financed the TV -- basically DTV owns and maintains the system, and CO didn't have to pay for it. As such, DTV has incentive to keep it on to encourage purchase (SWIPE NOW!).
...
Does this explain the lack of music channels on these DTV systems (unlike JetBlue), which to me is the most annoying (un-)feature. Is there any other IFE system in existence which doesn't have audio-only channels?
