DirecTV Issues
 

I understand problems happen from time to time with new equipment, but this is starting to get ridiculous.

This weekend, THREE of my four segments had some sort of DirecTV malfunction, and I had to be the one to guide the crew on an attempted resolution on two of the flights.

CO 249 - FLL/IAH - system worked OK
CO 467 - IAH/SEA - onboard video OK, satellite could not lock on a signal even while at the gate, and programming was going in and out constantly - once in flight, it was totally unusable. I had the lead FA reboot the system, and it corrected for a few minutes, but lost the lock again and they gave up
CO 1766 - SEA/IAH - I missed the upgrade (*cry*), and found my seatmates on the exit row (others reported this throughout the aircraft) unable to process their payment, both with a Chase card ($4) and other cards ($6). No system reset attempted, but the crew took a note of the affected seats for a maintenance report
CO 1748 - IAH/FLL - same problem as CO 467, but this time I asked the lead FA to reboot the system while we were at the gate - she did so, but it took TWO reboots before the dish would lock properly, then programming was OK

This is not the first time I've noticed the system is very unstable and signal loss is becoming a big problem. Not sure if it's a hardware or software issue, but CO and DirecTV need to look into this and get it fixed.

Agree that the system is very finicky. It's annoying for us because we have almost zero control over it.

The reset you talk about isn't really a reset and it isn't an approved procedure (read: it doesn't really work). All we can do is put the system to sleep then wake it up again but it isn't a reboot. The cockpit can turn the system off via a switch but I'm not positive if this is a hard reboot. They could also cycle the breaker but that's never an approved procedure to 'fix' the entertainment system.

Maybe tv_man can chime in with some suggestions, and advise on what the three different 'reset' methods really do (sleep button at FA control panel, IFE button in 'pit and circuit breaker) and if they work to fix any problems experienced in flight or at the gate.

It's frustrating or us too because the only official solution is to apologize and tell the PAX to request a refund.

Thanks pptp,

I know some reboot is occurring because the system goes dark, then goes through a complex restart process beginning with acquiring a network address and downloading programming from the satellite (different seats will go through this process independently as they receive their network address).

I thought I saw the FA do this from the control panel above the jumpseat, but perhaps it was the flight deck resetting the system by turning it off and on. I know on a previous flight, the crew did this proactively and said the Captain would be resetting the system from the flight deck.

Normal banking might take the satellite off-lock, but if the programming is not available when the aircraft is at the gate or flying straight/level, there is a problem with the system and I think CO and DirecTV should agree on an approved crew process for resetting it on the spot.

Yanking the circuit breaker sounds good to me - but probably not to DirecTV.

I've seen it fail 2 of 4 times I've flown a DirecTV capable aircraft, but those were issues where the seats wouldn't process credit cards. So F got TV while those in Y did not.

On the other hand Frontier's DirecTV system seems to be fairly problem free.

I've seen it only serve stored content a few times and my only gripe after that time is that the FAs continue to announce even after being told that live content is not working, that you can swipe a card and get live content. I sure hope that people don't get charged in such case.

Anyone know if CO use the same DIRECTV setup as Jetblue? I noticed none of it worked in all 3 of my recent flights. The movie channels and a few of the showtime programming worked but none of the other channels. Frustrating.

Yes the same system but an upgraded model, both run by LIVETV.

Thank you...
 

To all for the feedback, greatly appreciated.

As you may have read earlier on this site, the antenna tracking issue is being agressively fixed. It's just taking awhile because it requires an antenna swap.

The issue involving not taking credit cards needs a bit of research...

Thanks for the input.

How about recommendations for any type of soft/hard reset that can be performed by the FA's or the pilots (sleep switch at FA panel/IFE switch in 'pit/breaker in 'pit) and if it would be an approved procedure or just a quick and dirty fix for when the system doesn't seem to be working? Or can most of the problems be tracked to the antenna thus making any reset not worth trying?

Sounds like that is the case.

I have a question on this however, when changing the antenna does it have a delay again with the FAA? As I remember it initially it required a STC (supplemental type certificate, I think it was called) for each model aircraft that took evaluation times, changing something as major as the antenna sounds to me there may be delay just due to another STC having to be completed for each model?

I normally always have my iTouch loaded with video for long legs. EWR-LAX and PDX a normal run for me.

Last Friday morning I didn't load up before LAX-EWR and found the DirecTV out.

Talk about painful !

Antenna
 

A new type of antenna would require an STC. This antenna swap is changing out the bad unit with one that has an approved modification and is accomplished with the appropriate engineering paperwork; no STC required.

^
nice hope it all goes smoothly and these rough edges are fixed up soon.

It would be nice to know what the best method of reset / reboot is for the DirecTV system is.

But, my big question is what if someone already swiped and activated their DirecTV, and then a reset is performed. Would they lose their payment and have to pay again? Would they get double charged?

Just finished SAN-IAH-SAN with family of FF. On both flights, only 1 (middle on bulkhead) of 3 would take my card. So, I hooked up my 1-to-2 headphone splitters and let the kids watch TV. Great for me as only paid for one TV, but a problem CO should have fixed a week ago on the outbound and didn't bother to fix even on today's inbound on the same equipment.