remdk

The IFE Discussion thread is for praise, complaint, comment about the IFE and its contents. What is good and what is bad about the IFE? are there too many, or too few choices in a category? Does it work or are there problems? Does it often freeze up and refuse to restart? Does it change channels without being asked to?
We do not want reviews of the individual channels but do you have hints to share with us? Would you share with us how, just prior to landing in DOH, to find the screen with gate numbers of connecting flights?
Lets get creative and help each other!

Under development.
If anyone wishes to help develop a Wiki to describe the purpose and contents of this thread please contact me.

remdk

Reserved for future use.

mpkz

Hate fast forwarding through their stupid ads. Hate having my video interrupted by the "state of the art Hamad International Airport" video which has very limited actual useful info (for example about lounges)

Otherwise, not many complaints. Pretty good overall selection. Categories a bit weird sometimes though.

MKE-MR

I've noticed that it rarely changes, at least for the short-form (TV) selections.
After a few flights this year, I've exhausted the ENTIRE TV selection that's of interest to me, which is about 6-8 shows. Do they update quarterly? Yearly? It's certainly not monthly for the majority of content.

FlyingScientist

I am under the expression that a large fraction of the music CDs have been there for the last 5 years.

MV Owner

Dear All,

I would like your help with this question which relates to inflight entertainment equipment.

We are flying on a return flight from London to Phuket which has 3 plane types in total (Airbus A350-900, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, Airbus A380-800). We are flying in economy class.

To make the flight more enjoyable I have purchased some Bose QC25 noise reducing headphones which include a Bose 'dual or single 3.5mm airline adaptor'. One of the prongs on the adaptor pivots to convert the adaptor from a dual prong to a single prong adaptor.

I have attached photos of the 3.5mm plug and the adaptor. The spacing between the two plugs (when in dual mode) is around 13mm.

Please can you confirm if this is suitable for the above planes and if it is not please provide a link to a suitable adaptor or a photo of the economy in flight headphones that Qatar provide

Confirmation of this information will allow me to board the flight knowing that my headphones are suitable for the Qatar systems.

Kind Regards



MV

Dr. HFH

I have the same one. It works fine on the 359. I haven't been on the others; but I suspect that they're set up similarly.

mr_botak

It should work fine on all three - as an aside I think HKT in the new year is a mix of A333 and 77W.

Dr. HFH

FWIW, it also works fine on the 346, though that one wasn't mentioned by the OP.

plunet

The IFE thread hasn't had much mileage yet, and I guess there's an increasing trend for passengers to bring their own distractions on their own devices. But even with your own content and devices IFE does have a use, even just as moving wallpaper. And based upon my opinion, the QR provided J headsets are not that bad.

So far I've travelled on QRs 777 and 787s, and although the IFE on the 787 was more "up to date" with the touchscreen and touch handset control, I found it generally more frustrating than the 777.

• The airshow/map times out after about 15mins on the 787. The 777 will play the airshow and map for as long as you like.
• The touch handset on the 787 is quite often "laggy" and slow to respond. WHilst the old-school button handset on the 777 is harder to use, it responds.
• The content slection on the 787 seems to be a lot less than the 777. As a data point flying out in Nov16 and returning in Dec16, Dahl's "The BFG" was not available on the 787, whereas it was on the 777. And there was no distinction of this difference in the inflight guide which inferred it was available.
• In retrospect, my views of the 787 might be a bit tarnished as on my first flight it could have probably benefitted from a reset/reboot from the crew as it was struggling just to play a movie without getting stuck and jumping, but I wasn't that bothered as I had some work to get on with. My return flight 787 sector was a lot better.

I don't think I was wowed by the selection of movies - but it was adequate. I did dip into some of the music and ended up buying an album as a consequence of listening to something onboard!

Is the IFE on the 350 and 388 similar to the 787?

What do others think?

impeymac

Pretty much, yes.

I more or less agree with your observations. I really used to like the relatively simple IFE access & reliability that was on the 777 & older Airbus planes, much more helpful than the seemingly over complicated newer systems. If we could return to that but keep the newer, larger IFE selections I'd be happy. However, I do like being able to look at the map on the handset while watching a movie on the bigger screen. I also like the music/radio selections & have spent many a happy hour going through the "Best of...." offerings for the various 70's years.

As a side sleeper I avoid the QR headphones & use my own in-ear buds which work without the need for a two pin adaptor, they also seem to reduce noise to a lower level.

Johnnieboy

I am always surprised by how much less content there is on the 787 system (eg fewer films). Does anyone know why this is? It seems to have the same system as the other aircraft (esp the A350 & A380), so presumably it's just a case of adding more memory to store more content, or am I over-simplifying things?

N1Rotate

The 777s have Panasonic IFE system. The 787 has an older generation Thales system, the A380 and A350 have a newer generation Thales AVANT system. The touchscreen controllers are bit more responsive on the A380/A350. This year an upgraded Thales touchscreen controller will debut which should be even more responsive.

FlyerTalker37

I would add one issue that I only have on the A380 (I only tired their A380, A330, B777 always in J or F not sur if the same issue persists in Y).
I have a great headset way better than the one they provide, but when I use it, my ears are "bleeding" as the minimum volume is really loud. If I use their then it is more audible but I find it really unconfortable for a long haul flight.

Lefly

For the 4/8 max QR flights/year we use, IFE content is good enough

My issue is with the QR headsets using batteries.
On CAI-DOH, both mine and my daughter's died within 15 minutes. Got another 2, same result. In the end I used them turned off (not really great sound...) while my daughter used our own small noise cancelling headset.