E175 PTV's
 

I thought i remember reading somewhere that AC was going to start installing PTV's in their E175's fleet this month. Does anyone know when we should expect to see them in service with the PTV's active?

The reason why i'm asking is because i'm booked on an E175 in early Feb and i was wonder what were the odds of getting an E175 with it's IFE installed.

All the E175's come with VOD installed. They've been on every one I've ever flow (did 180,000 miles last year which included a bunch of these.)

And every single flight has had these VOD's covered by a paper sticker : "Coming Soon etc etc."

I don't know when AC plans on rolling them out. I flew ATL-YYZ once and my seat mate was with the company that did the programming and installation. He really didn't know why they weren't turned on; seemed kind of mystified.

Maybe they are waiting for some department in AC to issue the authorization or something and the paperwork has gone missing. In any event, it's been many months now they've had these, and it just looks plain dumb on their part.

I'd imagine its a regulatory issue with TC certifying the system. Just ask WS how long certifying an IFE system can take. :rolleyes:

A reason could be that they just don't have any content to put on the PTVs, and no means to widely distrubte it across all of mainline.

AC fires up the IFE
 

From todays Daily:

New IFE system for Embraer fleet set to be launched. Starting next week, we will begin launching the new state-of-the-art Thales i4500 in-flight entertainment system on our fleet of Embraer 175 and 190 aircraft. This in-seat entertainment system, which is being introduced fleet-wide, features 8.9-inch wide digital in-seat monitors and touch-screen controls offering audio and video on demand programming at every seat. The units will be installed on a progressive basis. Look for more updates on the progress of the IFE introduction as we roll it out across the fleet. :) ^

So they would spend all of this money on blank screens? Forgive me, but that's a tad ridiculous.

At least AC's seats have the screen installations. What I couldn't figure when on one of my WestJet flights is why they would take delivery of a new aircraft with seats that had no cut-out for the screens that were going to be installed at a later date. Would it not make sense to have factory installed videoscreens, or at least the cut-outs? The backs of these seats were smooth leather that would have to be cut open for screen installation.

I see I have a 175 on my flight to EWR in late March, so maybe there'll be some IFE by then.

Same with the AC CRJ-705s I've flown recently. They have a sticker on the seatback saying "Watch this space" or some such.

That's cool. Since they're rolling them out next week, i think the odds of me getting one for my early Feb flights are pretty bad.

But you never know......

Did anybody already had a flight on E190/E175 with working PTV's and would like to comment?

rollout was delayed as the question as to who would do mtc work on the system ( ac mtc or inflight canada ) went to arbitration.

the system is finally going to be turned on feb 13th !

:D:D:D:D Can't wait, AC's inflight entertainment on the screens during transcon is really well done.

Doesn't appear to be activated yet...but then again...the E190 I was scheduled on yesterday spent an hour at the gate with us on it and then went mechanical. The plane was apparently only 10 days into it's AC service. In seat TV was blank the whole time.

On the plus(?) side, there were 2 SE's sitting directly in front of me loudly talking about how great they were, and that they were gaming the system for free tickets/upgrades/etc.. Apparently they make themselves as annoying as possible to concierge's, SE Desk, and reservations by complaining about perceived slights of one stripe or another, and then threaten to take their massive volume of business elsewhere. According to their self-aggrandising, this results in free tickets, upgrades and other various perks.

If I was as petty as they seem to be, I would report their names to AC. I'll just wait for karma to get them.

Obviously not FTers. Probably CanFlyers. :rolleyes:

On the AVOD: Is it really "on demand" in the sense that you can switch the video off? I never watch the IFE, because I use the time for reading, and I'd find it very distracting if I had an illuminated screen in front of my eyes the whole time.

perhaps it is on demand, as in paying.. like some westjet movies.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

so who's tried the avod out ?

this comment was posted by a flight attendant on another board



I just flew the Embrarer with the Thales system installed in it. If I can tell you the both J and Y passengers were ecstatic about the new On Demand system! It seemed that at least 85% of the aircraft was using it in one capacity or another.(ie customized song playlists, tv shows like CSI and the Office, recent Hollywood flicks.) The general mood from the passengers upon arrival was much more upbeat and positive then normal. It is going to be a resounding success when the remainder of the fleet is equipped with this system......

^ ^ ^ :D ^ ^ ^ ^

E75 Vid System
 

Flew YUL to ORD last night on the E75 and the new vid system was working great; only complaint was volume wasn't quite loud enough with the AC headphones. Recommend bringing your own with adjustable volume controls.
Very limited movies & TV,but its a start. ^

Can you switch the video off completely, or is the screen always on in flight?

Flew DCA - YYZ last night (what a zoo), AVOD was up and running. I could see no way of turning off the screen completely, but then again it wasn't a majour distraction in "screensaver" mode.

The MAP and NEWS channels are not yet working. I was a little concerned that it would be uncomfortable with the passenger behind hitting the touch screen all the time, but inthe end I never felt a thing.

The Y seating was amazing, probably the most leg room in the fleet, The J cabin was fine EXCEPT the overhead storage on the left side is virtually non existant.

It was the first time for a while that I had flown in J and was suprised to see all metal cutlery back, specially on a DCA flight.

ex-egll

Just tried it...
 

Just tried the new AVOD on E175 DFW-YYZ and E190 YYZ-YLW in J. It is very nice, but as outlined above, not yet fully operational. In addition to News and Map the Games section is not available, they did not install the games and the gamepad you would need for this section. On both flights they had initial problems with the AVOD and had to reboot the whole system, which takes about 5 - 10 minutes.

You do not need to touch hard on the screen to make it work, so there is theoretically nothing to fear regarding your seat being pushed from the passenger behind you. I noticed that the E175 had a little pad on the armrest in the J-Cabin only, with 4 arrow keys, 1 enter key and 2 for volume. I found that easier to handle not having to reach forward and touch the screen all the time. The pad is not available on E175 in the Y-Cabin and the E190 today did not have it at all - I thought that the seats would be identical on the new EMBs?

You can choose from a (up to now limited) variety of movies and TV shows which you can fast forward and rewind in three different speeds. You can also create your own playlist from the various CD albums.

You can not shut off the whole system from your seat, but if you feel disturbed by the start screen - which is basically black with some red design lines and not very bright anyhow - just go to the audio section and select "screen off".

Overall a pleasant experience and I look very much forward to the time this system is fully working.


I found the single seats to be very nice, 1A has enough legroom to stretch out, but 2A would be even better, 3A has significant reduced recline of the seat.

I took a look into the Y-Cabin as well and it appears that 12 D & 12F have tons of legroom, 12 A & 12 C were also ok, but if you can choose, go for D&F.

Any more updates? What are the movies and TV programs available?

I'm interested in hearing about what movies are on the E190 this month also... I have a YLW-YYZ in J coming up next week.

Given that the other place you mention is supposed to be the domain of backslapping AC apologists, that sounds rather unlikely, don;t you think? :o

I don't think it's available on all the EMBs yet. I flew an E90 YYT to YYZ yesterday (Feb. 19) and the screens were still dark. :(

Of course YYT always gets the shaft from AC, so I shouldn't be surprised. ;)

--SD

The selection was very limited. They had "Lord of War" with Nicolas Cage and "Just like Heaven" with Reese Witherspoon and some other movies I unfortunately can not remember right now. The TV section had at least one edition of "CSI" - sorry, I forgot to write all the stuff down they had available.

Update from AC Daily
 

"A new world of entertainment is now onboard. The new Thales i4500 seat back in-flight entertainment system is now onboard most of our Embraer 175 and 190 aircraft. This in-seat entertainment system features 8.9-inch-wide digital monitors with touch-screen controls featuring audio and video on demand programming at every seat. To date, 20 units have been successfully installed and customer reaction has been excellent. We are only two months away from installing the system, along with all-new seats, in the A320 aircraft – the units will be installed fleet-wide on a progressive basis. The installation of this new entertainment system is one more step we are taking to improve our product and make our customers travel experience on Air Canada an enjoyable one."

That's good news....I'm probably taking the E190 non stop flight from YEG to YUL next week and I'll be in J. So now I don't have to book on WS and watch soap operas and can see some quality programming.

It just dawned on me that these are "touch screens". Any feedback yet on how filthy and covered with smudges they are? Are the groomers expected to clean these off after every flight? I would expect people will be using whatever is handy to wipe off the screen...leading me to hope they are scratch resistant...

The programming is pretty light. What's there is OK, but the selection is not as good as on the A330/40 systems. Hopefully we'll get more content in time.

DF

They looked fine to me the other day. The one annoying thing about the touch screen is the fact that there is no sign that your touch has been accepted. A change of icon or a sound would be nice. I find myself resetting menus and double clicking when only a single click is required.

The clarity of the screen is very good and is visible even when your seatmate leaves the shades up.

DF

Has installation begun on the RJ 705 fleet?

LOL!!!!!!!!!

End of the month.........someone in the know mentioned it!

Not quite true ...
 

Flew last week and had a kid sitting behind me making selections on the screen ... every time he changed channels/volume I felt my seat bump forward ... very very annoying :( :td:

Perhaps the FA's should mentione that it's a 'touch' screen system and not a 'punch' screen system. :rolleyes:

Take a look at the back of the last seat in J and you will see a screen installed. Not for the first person in economy since they have their own screen on the bulk head. While most of the screen is covered by the bulk head wall a small portion can still be seen. I wonder if the last seat in economy also has one. :confused: