I typically load my iPod with a few hours worth of movies/tv shows, but I still enjoy IFE if it's AVOD. Otherwise I'm limited by battery life and storage space. With AVOD I can watch things I may not have had a chance to otherwise (I rarely make it to the movies or the video store). Plus I can then save the iPod for the times when I'm sitting in the gate, or stuck on a bus, or train, etc.

I wish the airlines would spend the money on more enjoyable amenities. Other than a book, I can't imagine being burdened with (or entangled in the wires of) much of the crap that folks seem to need to carry along). Nor does the IFE provide much in the way of constructive "entertainment" (although I believe more sophisticated geographic trackers would get my attention - unlike Lindbergh, satisfied that the green meadow above the rocky cliffs was Ireland, I've been around long enough to want to know ... in Ireland we're passing over).

Listen to music? My God, we're barraged with music all the time, including the bass drum in the car next to me at the red light. Quiet is one of the greatest blessing of hearing. As for movies, my home TV provides more and more variety of movies than I'll ever watch, and a flight without the usual Hollywood dreck can be pleasant.

Gossip or news on the IFE? Both will be there when we land, ready to assail and assault us from screens and speakers everywhere but in the crapper.

Just think, if you didn't have your laptop, your IPod, your gameset or the alternatives on the IFE, you might actually have to engage in polite discourse (with sense enough of when to shut up) with the folks about you.

I have a hard time hearing with standard headphones, so unless I start carrying a pair of noise cancelling headphones, IFE is not much use to me. Let me do some work on the laptop, do some reading, or snooze and I’m happy.

I can take or leave movies. The IFE rarely has anything I haven't seen or want to see. The one time there was something I really wanted to see on UA, it froze 10 minutes in. My neighbor even offered to trade seats, but it froze on her system, too.

Besides, I started flying in the days before IFE, so I became accustomed to using long-haul flights as opportunities to read thick books.

I like taking an iPod for music, though, especially when I'm trying to sleep. The music that best lulls me to sleep is classical, and airlines' classical music tends to be on a fairly short loop and full of conventional selections, so I prefer my own playlist of soft instrumental music, which is several hours long.

I flew LHR>ORD shortly after the terrorism scare of 2006, and I didn't have a chance to buy a book. Fortunately, I had my laptop along and spent the first three hours of the flight organizing and editing my travel photos. It was a daytime flight, so I didn't feel like sleeping. Fortunately, there was a tolerable (not great) movie on the IFE, so I watched that, but I would have preferred a book.

I like the flight map, but IFE is not a deal-breaker for me. I have a book, my own mp3 player, don't usually care what is showing for a movie. My *complaint* about IFE is the touch-screen and lack of knowledge on the part of the general public about how hard a touch-screen should be touched.
Too many flights have been taken with someone who thinks it should be poked and pushed instead of touched.

When I'm trying to sleep, that poke between movies can be a real pain.

I completely agree with the OP. I hate to think that I have paid for a very expensive but useless (to me) AVOD system in my flight ticket. But the worst thing is when the AVOD box under the seat in front of me takes away the rest of very scarce leg-room in cattle class. I'm quite tall, so this really is no joke!

Yes, I always check Seat Guru to find out which seats have limited legroom due to the IFE equipment.

My IFE consists of 2 Xanax and a couple of gin and tonics. I then proceed to watch movies on the back of my eyelids for 6-8 hours.

IFE to me is just about as important as the in-flight magazine.

Me too, but sometimes there is no on-line check in and I am checking in to a full flight e.g. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (LH) or there is on-line seat selection but all seats except my computer pre-allocated ones are already taken (SFO/KLM).

Not important in the least.

Why it's important to me, in short:

1. I can't sleep on planes

2. I'm always flying long haul in coach without in seat power

3. My Zune's battery will deplete in a few hours time leaving me to twiddle my thumbs without IFE or a book.

4. I like to see what part of the world I'm flying over and the moving map is a helpful feature to see that.

http://www.thepocketsolution.com/PSI...y+Booster.html

I like that, too. Lately, I've been taking my GPS on board with me -- I haven't tried it transpac yet, but it works great on my U.S. flights (and provides much more detail than the moving map).

And for iPod users . . .
 

there is this:

http://www.gadgetreview.com/2006/03/...d-battery-pack.

I have one and it's terrific. My iPod will run for 24+ hours with this (actually, I've never had the iPod run out of juice, so I don't know how long it will work), plus it protects it, too. Even nicer is the rubberized jacket which prevents the iPod from sliding around on a tray table.

Every time I have been on a long haul international flight and sitting in Economy I am thankful for the IFE. I have a laptop with moved and a DVD player and such. However, on every long haul flight I have been on,. the person in front of me has recline all the way to the point where there is no room for me to open my laptop enough to be able to view it. Mine you, I have a 12inch laptop, not very big.

When the person in front of me reclines, the little IFE screen is in my face and about the only thing I can see the whole flight. Thank god its there!

IFE is great when travelling Long Haul.
If there are some noisy kids near you, the headseats can help deaden their noise as well as keep the little darlings occupied on doing something else than kicking the back of your seat.
I agree that it's a pain if the AVOD is under the seat in front of you but IMHO if you're on a plane for more than 6 hours it's essential in alieviating the boredom.
I always bring a book along but with narrow seats on some aircraft you can struggle to turn the pages.
The only time i think IFE is waste of time wis when you are on a plane with the drop down screans as you are always either too far or too close t the screan or there is omeone taller than you in front.