EsquireFlyer

No, none of the old seats in any cabin of the 777 have the iPod connection port, so the non-stocking of the cable on those flights is deliberate.

gfowler-ord-1k

Not yet, the 777 conversions will begin sometime this summer.

rsolomon

Makes sense - though stocking at most *1* per flight seems like "deliberate" something else

Richard

EsquireFlyer

Yeah, that part is really stupid.

Lightman7

OK - here is a thought - If we want to see a cheaper connector available, why not approach a manufacturer who can make it happen? For those of you who know about Monoprice, they are a decent source of reasonably priced cables - they were the first out with a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter for the Macbooks. I see also that Cables to Go has them now too. These adapters are not huge market demand, so if these two companies make them, I would think they might be open to making a United connector if there aren't licensing issues. Maybe a bunch of people emailing these companies might get them looking at the market for such a cable.

rsolomon

The sad part is that I've heard no complaints about the $30 price-tag, just the availability. There's no reason the cables couldn't be more available - even at that price point! I'm sure most of the money goes to the Apple crypto license for video out... We non-fruit people would be fine with something that just let us dump composite or S-video into the system and could be even cheaper by NOT having the fruit chip inside.

This seems like some kind of convoluted "decision" by United to limit supply, but I don't claim to understand the reasoning involved.

Richard

kokonutz

This is a real supply/demand screw up.

If I am able to get one on one of my upcoming flights, I'll have to check out the ebay price strength of it. I see none currently listed.

Seriously, though, come the frick on, United.

US @ DEN

Got my cord today on 4/29 SYD-SFO. The duty free agents had nothing in the cart in the front, but apparently dug one out of the back supplies. And the kicker? I was in new C, but a 744 w/o iPod jack/capability! Oh well, next trip

ZRH2SFO

Just got mine on today's 901 FRA-ZRH. My UD FA had no idea what I was talking about. Explained it to her three times and she still had the Duty Free FA come up to ask me what I need.
Asked for one already on my outbound (900) a couple of weeks ago but they had sold the one they had (even tough I asked before the meal service but them I slept through the Duty Free offerings).
Btw, it worked ok with my iPod Touch. However, the screen goes to sleep mode every 15 - 20 minutes and has to be awaken each time.

EsquireFlyer

I bought one on EZE-IAD. Unfortunately, it was defective somehow. However, United PR kindly overnighted me a replacement cable in time for my next flight in the new C. ^ I returned the defective cable to UA.

fone

Just got one on LAX - NRT leg. FA had to search for quite long before returning to me with the item. System was not very well designed for so many wires running to the console. Just the power cable and the audio channels (and maybe video channels) are connected IMO. When I press play on the IFE, it just puts the audio through to my headphones, it should be able to command the ipod to "play" if it is in the pause mode. Was able to get the system on my car to play and pause the ipod on ignition on and off automatically. The ipod connectors did not have the latch on them, just plug in and hope it does not fall off, so not so good design IMO.

ll22949

On a related note, I fley HKG/SFO today and plugged my iPhone 3g into the regular USB cable. It made my iPhone go crazy. It would flash charging, then freeze for a few seconds, then turn off the screen, then turn on the screen saying it was not charging. This happened over and over again for about 5 times before I unplugged it. ARGH

NickP 1K

I flew LAX-NRT week before and NO cable and no connector (new C seats)

Flew back NRT-LAX last week and purchased a cable! What irks me (UA PR here?) is that the entertainment guide says you can ask for one to purchase after take off, I had to wait 3 hours after take off until they would open the duty free cart for purchases.

I'm checking the cable now and will try to get a wiring diagram up this month... It will need an Apple authentication device on the cable, which it looks like the cable mfr did support.

I'm going to contact the mfr in Taiwan and see if they can sell any sideways... If not the option is to buy a cheap video out cable (knock offs with authentication can be found) and then do a mod to the cable to change from RCA outputs to the Panasonic din connector.

In regards to using the cable: you can tell a good Graphics/GPU is on the Panasonic IFE system as my video's that were QVGA (320x240) looked quite good on the screen, really good upscaling.

One more thing unrelated to the iPod cable but on the new IFE: On the 747's the new system has an annoying .5 second lag of audio for the passenger announcements through the headphones. You hear the overhead speakers correctly but if you have headphones on during a PA you get it delayed .5 seconds so if you hear both overhead and headphones it's quite unintelligible audio.

rsolomon

Awesome, thank you! Those of us using non-Apple video sources probably just need the aircraft end - I'm assuming it takes standard composite or S-video in, plus audio.

Richard

Pat89339

When I boarded my ORD-AMS flight on 5/2, the first FA to pass by I stopped and asked her who would be handling duty free, because I wanted to ask for the iPod connector, since I understand they only stock 1 on the cart. She said she would be assisting in the sales and that if they had one on board it would be mine.

As NickP 1k stated above, it was really annoying that nearly half the flight was over before I got the cord. Once I was plugged in and selected my movie, I didn't have any trouble about the screen timing out as ZRH2SFO stated above, but I was using an iPhone, not a iTouch. In fact, I did notice that the screen on my iPhone was frozen with the first frame of the movie the whole time, even though it was playing on the screen. Also the soundtrack would sometimes be not tracking, but I don't know whether that was an issue of the conversion to mp4 or the system.

Also it appears to charge your iPhone at the same time, because even after watching the movie, the battery was still 100%.

I did ask on my return flight from FRA if they had any on board and they didn't.

I am loaning it out to another FTer who is departing on an international trip tomorrow and will ask to see if they also have an issue with the soundtrack being off.