In flight Entertainment- UA versus CO metal
 

Is there any hope of getting consistency across United when it comes to in flight entertainment? I was on UA metal and watched a few movies. I saw in the Hemispheres magazine the movie I wanted would be offered on my transcon flight, so decided not to bring my ipad on that flight. Guess what, was legacy continental metal and all they had was the Directv. So, not only was there no free tv, but I had nothing to watch since I foolishly put my hopes in the Hemispheres magazine.

Is there any way there could be a consistant in flight entertainment experience across the United fleet? If not, could we get rid of the Hemispheres magazine on the legacy Continental metal so I'm not reminded what I could be watching if I was on a legacy United metal? On a personal note, I (and most...many?) people have a dvr at home, so watching "live tv" with commercials isn't fun...it is boarding on painful.

you could check the flight status days before, which will tell you EXACTLY what entertainment on demand your flight will have.

it's always been dependent on metal, even ON UA. some planes have overhead programming, some have in-seat AVOD, etc. Same on CO.

Not a chance. All sCO 737-700/800/900 aircraft will have DTV, all sUA A319/A320s will be keeping the drop down monitors, the sUA 757 2-cabins will be keeping the CRTs for the forseeable future. The 2-cabin sUA 763s are getting nose to tail AVOD etc, I believe there's 5 flying around right now. So in short the answer is no there won't be a consistant IFE experience across the fleet.

I prefer "live" TV to AVOD, to each their own. If it borders on painful, don't watch, or watch one of the stored content channels which have movies and TV shows without commercials.

I'd take Direct TV over blurry drop down screens any day.

Long-haul is relatively consistent. They are all using the same selection of content now (excepting the planes with non-flat C which are being converted/retired) and the difference is basically how many videos the system can handle. Short-haul the different systems will remain. And don't expect any overlap between short/long-haul and you'll be fine.

Free IFE > DirecTV that includes incredibly loud announcements to "Swipe Now!"

+++1....ual.com is VERY clear about what kind of inflight entertainment you'll have days before the flight so I'm not exactly sure why having DirectTV would have been a surprise, especially since you must have been on a 737 which is a big sign you weren't going to be on UA metal. If I'm on a 737, I ALWAYS check to make sure it's not one of those planes w/o DirectTV because I much prefer to the drop down screens or old CRTs on the 757s. I have about 13 channels at home and have never had a dvr so DirectTV is a big treat for someone like me who doesn't purchase the latest electronic gadget nor do I fly with them...remember regular cell phones?? Yup, I still have one of those :)

There's several channels of looping content without any commercials, and I thought that those had all the movies on the transcon IFE list.

DTV + Movies/Shows
 

The first 6+ stations of DTV are actually commercial free movies and a variety of TV shows. If you are going to complain, at least get your facts straight first.

Personally, on the domestic flights, I prefer the CO DTV to UA's ancient drop-down one channel of programming.

Same here, DTV is much better than overhead. And after seeing those circa-1980s overheads on my recent PMUA 757 flight, I'm not about to change my opinion.

On topic - anyone know why the PMCO Long haul and PMUA Long haul IFE have a different GUI?

The PMUA version seems a bit "faster" for lack of a better word, and more intuitive. The PMCO is a bit more bland in terms of interface, and functionality is less responsive. If they are both made by Panasonic and appear to be essentially the same - why can't they standardize the GUI and interface???

Even the newly configured 767 ghetto birds with the new BF seats, seem to have the clunkier PMCO wrap on the IFE. Thoughts, ideas or insights???

Because they bought different versions of the software when they procured the system.

I've been on 60 UA segments this year and exactly 1 has had DirecTV. I'd love to have it especially now that there's an NFL game on Thursday nights when I'm always in the air...

No NFL Network. http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/trav...nelLineup.aspx