Choosing movies to watch onboard
Mar 7, 2013, 5:38 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: YYZ
Programs: AC SEMM / HH Diamond
Posts: 3,158
Choosing movies to watch onboard
When I sit down for a long haul flight, one of the first things I typically do (while the flight is still boarding) is scan the available movies on the IFE, and then look them up on IMDB while I still have connectivity - basically I'm looking for guidance about which are the good movies, and which ones I should skip.
It seemed to me there should be an easier way of doing this, so last weekend I wrote a web app to do it for me. Some background - I'm in the software business, but it's been many years since I actually wrote code for a living ... so I do little projects like this to do something that I need, and also just to keep myself current with technology. That's a long way of saying that it's very basic (only works for AC) and there could well be bugs in it ... but for now it seems to be functional, and it may be useful to some people here, so I'm sharing.
It's very simple; enter the start & end cities, and your email address. The app will churn for a minute or so, reading the movies off the Air Canada web site, and looking up the ratings and descriptions from IMDB. It will sort all the movies by their IMDB rating, and send you an email with all the info. I did it that way so I'd have an email with me in-flight, when there's no connectivity.
This is not a software development forum so I don't want to discuss the implementation here ... and I don't have much time to do more work on it anyway; if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to PM me, but there are no warranties - the best you can likely hope for is a complete refund of what you paid for it
Anyway, if it does work for you, then you're more than welcome to use it - just go here: http://viewflight.appspot.com/
Edit: This detail is mentioned later in the thread, but in response to a PM I'll highlight it here. You can now also get the movie listings by sending an email (which works in China, etc). Simply send an email to [email protected], with a subject of the airport codes for your departure & arrival cities, and optionally the number of movie plots you want to see. The email body is ignored.
Example subject lines:
YYZ FRA
SYD YVR 100
It seemed to me there should be an easier way of doing this, so last weekend I wrote a web app to do it for me. Some background - I'm in the software business, but it's been many years since I actually wrote code for a living ... so I do little projects like this to do something that I need, and also just to keep myself current with technology. That's a long way of saying that it's very basic (only works for AC) and there could well be bugs in it ... but for now it seems to be functional, and it may be useful to some people here, so I'm sharing.
It's very simple; enter the start & end cities, and your email address. The app will churn for a minute or so, reading the movies off the Air Canada web site, and looking up the ratings and descriptions from IMDB. It will sort all the movies by their IMDB rating, and send you an email with all the info. I did it that way so I'd have an email with me in-flight, when there's no connectivity.
This is not a software development forum so I don't want to discuss the implementation here ... and I don't have much time to do more work on it anyway; if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to PM me, but there are no warranties - the best you can likely hope for is a complete refund of what you paid for it
Anyway, if it does work for you, then you're more than welcome to use it - just go here: http://viewflight.appspot.com/
Edit: This detail is mentioned later in the thread, but in response to a PM I'll highlight it here. You can now also get the movie listings by sending an email (which works in China, etc). Simply send an email to [email protected], with a subject of the airport codes for your departure & arrival cities, and optionally the number of movie plots you want to see. The email body is ignored.
Example subject lines:
YYZ FRA
SYD YVR 100
Last edited by canopus27; Apr 1, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Mar 7, 2013, 6:59 pm
#5
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: YVR/YYD/ZRH
Programs: AC, UA, DL, BA, SPG
Posts: 129
With regard to the app, might worth while displaying the movies as well, in addition to reveal it only via email.
Mar 7, 2013, 9:01 pm
#7
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 6,222
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.448 Mobile Safari/534.8+)
My idea of a brilliant app.
Having said that have you considered using rottentomatoes.com instead if imdb?
My idea of a brilliant app.
Having said that have you considered using rottentomatoes.com instead if imdb?
Mar 7, 2013, 9:46 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: AC.SE
Posts: 2,578
Mar 8, 2013, 1:34 am
#10
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 6,222
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.448 Mobile Safari/534.8+)
And I don't even fly Air Canada!
Originally Posted by Silvercity
I watch movies exclusively on my iPad. I never turn on the IFE cause they only work 50% of the time. I also don't have to scan through those annoying commercials. Lastly its a true HD picture.
Mar 8, 2013, 1:37 am
#11
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 4,153
Turn on the IFE. Find out it doesn't work. Get a compensation voucher for up to $250. Use comp credits toward the purchase of iPads and Bose headsets.
Mar 8, 2013, 4:23 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: YYT
Programs: AC E35k, HHonors Silver
Posts: 743
I must have better luck than you. In 85k of travel last year and 65k the year before I never encountered broken IFE. Not once. I agree about the commercials though.
Mar 8, 2013, 6:35 am
#15
Join Date: May 2010
Location: YYZ
Programs: dDiamond, A50K*G, AA Gold, Fairmont Plat, AMEX Plat, SPG Gold, Avis First
Posts: 60
The thing that really bugs me about the commercials is the ones that are short and you can't really fast forward through - I'm thinking the HSBC ones. Or the Claymore ETF/Black Rock iShares one. If I have to see that guy take his first business trip to India, or hear the guy talk about his twins one more time I think I'll lose it!! 
Great idea on the app though - I do the same with imdb.
Great idea on the app though - I do the same with imdb.