If you really want seat back video, you could fly the nonstop JetBlue flight from JFK to Long Beach or Boston to Long Beach.
I know that you asked about Hartford, but consider this: The extra time that it might take you to drive to JFK or Boston and catch a nonstop might be less than the extra distance of leaving from Hartford, flying to Dallas, waiting for a connection, then off to LA.
Just a thought!
(My brother just did that to go to Connecticut from Denver. Rather than catching a connection to BDL, he took a nonstop to JFK - in the end, the door to door time was about the same, but he didn't have to worry about missing a connection)