I have in-flight consistency across all airlines and all aircraft: a book to read, a pad and paper to write personal correspondence with, and fools (be they fellow passengers or crew) to watch.

As to electronic entertainment: toss all the video (recorded or live), music, and games and just give me Ch. 9.

Wow, thats ridiculous. I bet they'd make a mint on Thursday nights with all of the business travelers.

I remember many years ago, I was on a flight and the Giants were playing Minnesota -- they had the radio call on the IFE system somehow. This was back in the mid 90s. I have no idea how and have never seen it since but I'd love to get a live game on the headphones.

Flew BWI-DEN today and they do have NFL Network now. In fact, they have Red Zone available on Sundays as well. They ended up giving it away for free due to a lengthy maintenance delay, it looked like every other person was tuned to college football.

To the OP, it's been stated elsewhere, but no harm in doing it here too: subsidiary United flights (PMUA planes and crew) have flight numbers 200-999; subsidiary Continental flights (PMCO planes and crew) have flight numbers 1-199 and 1000-1999.

Also, FWIW, several PMCO 737s have no IFE, and all of the 757-300s have drop down screens. The PMCO 757-200s have AVOD systems similar to the 777s, though with a more limited selection.

#FAIL on the PMUA user interface!!!

Give me a break, a CURSOR on a touch interface? And no visual feedback when a button is selected?

FF/REW counter doesn't update so no idea how far you've gone. Not to mention using the wrong symbol: >>| and |<< which means skip to next/previous rather than >> and << which are universal symbols for rewind and fast forward respectively.

+1 I prefer the planes as well to UA's ancient fleet. Anymore it's just Airbus or RJs to choose from.

The DirectTV (former CO metal) has numerous movie options.These are internal selections not broadcasted by DTV. Lots of options.

It can't get any easier. It tells you exactly what will be on the plane within 24 hours of takeoff. I wish it was more consistent but since when is anything in the airline business consistent?

Truth

I prefer these in this order

1. AVOD
2. DirecTV
3. shared entertainment

I wish it were easier to tell > 24 hours out. I recently chose a transcon on a CO 738 for tge good chance of Direct TV (SFO over a transcon to LAX on a PMUA 320)... found out at T-24 it was one without DTV unfortunately.

IAH-LGA
 

My bad. I booked the above back in January and flied it on 9/22. It was an airbus with no direct TV. They had one movie on the drop down screens and it was not a good one. As out of EWR I am always flying PMCO birds I am so use to Direct TV..... Thanks goodness I had a good book to read on my iPad.

If I'm in C/F - of course

If I'm in Y, give me the reverse any day

Yes, shared IFE on PMUA aircraft is free but for frequent travelers it get's old quick and includes a limited selection. In the past month I've seen battleship 3 times and What to Expect when you're expecting twice.

One thing I like about UA aircraft is the audio option during the ~30 minutes that electronics have to be off. Though the offerings are inconsistent and many channels have no content.

The two prong adapters on the non DTV PMCO narrowbodies is pretty asinine. The adapters are poorly made and don't always work so you are stuck listening through only one ear. The audio options on these flights are inconsistent and not every channel has content.

Though I will be honest as much as I want UA to make significant investments in improving IFE it will be very unlikely I ever pay for it when I'm in Y. Maybe I fork over $8 for DTV on a transcon or to watch a game but not for a ~2-3 hour flight. I took a VX flt a month ago and they wanted $15 for wifi and $8 per AVOD movie. Sorry, I want to be entertained but not by paying an additional $20-40 in food/ife

I'll still take AVOD first, even in Y. After that I use neither. The shared overhead is useless to me and I won't pay for the DirecTV.