Originally Posted by
FlyWorld
On United Continental aircraft, there is no "off" button.
The procedure to become free from the endless cycle of advertising is to "turn the brightness down all the way" and the button press counts that I shared (more than 100 button presses per round trip journey) are what it takes to get the brightness low enough that the screen becomes black. Until, they turn it back on again, and force you to repeat that process again.
It's become so tedious and frustrating that I've now found a way to cover the screen with a magazine, which takes less effort than battling the Smisek regime for a modicum of peace for the duration of my flight. This works well on the new ultra painful flier-unfriendly Recaro seats, but doesn't work on the old Continental seats.
Your problem and your solution are neither new nor unique.
Several years ago I read on this forum about the TV screen turning itself on during the flight that sometimes turned itself off but sometimes didn't. At the time people's solution was to tape a piece of cardbord to cover the entire screen area. I took that advice and have been keeping a piece of tailor-made cardboard and a few strips of very sticky tape in my backpack. Over the years I have found this setup very handy when travelling on sCO planes.
Unfortunately I still don't have a good solution for the flickering light coming from neighboring screens either. Naturally I reach my sleep mask as my plan B when that becomes too bothersome.