Playing DVD Movies In Flight - Your Experiences?

It was no problem with the flight attendants as long as you wait for their clearance...usually
at cruise altitudes. But I did get some funny looks from other passengers. They may have been
inquisitive, bothered or just plain envious of the entire situation.

I'm surprised that 'J' Business Class doesn't offer them to everyone instead of those tiny Sony
video machines.

They'd certainly be less trouble-prone.

On a recent DFW-FRA leg, AA MD11, the 8mm tape video systems built into
the seats in f/c had apparently broken down (and since AA is retiring
their MD11s they aren't going to be repaired). So instead of the big
suitcase full of 8mm tapes they had a bunch of smaller cases, each with
the Panasonic portable standalone DVD player (approx. 5" screen) and a
bunch of DVDs. I didn't get one -- I should have, just to see if the DVDs
would play in the laptop.

On the return flight, also an MD11, the interior was older (seats did not
have the power lumbar support, laptop power jacks, individual reading
lights, etc. -- and, again, as AA is retiring their MD11s they aren't
about to refit this one) but the video players were working, so no DVD
players.

G. Ganaplonki wrote in message
<38534c48...@news.orng1.occa.home.com>...

My husband and I have a Powerbook G3 with DVD drive. Since we bought it
one year ago, we have watched literally dozens of movies on dozens of
flights, both international and domestic (almost entirely on Delta).

As another poster mentioned, the DVD drive is under the same rules as
the laptop - don't use it until either (1) the seatbelt sign is turned
off, or (2) you are informed that you're permitted to use electronic
devices (Delta will often do this at 10,000 feet - they'll make an
announcement). Likewise, turn off the laptop when told to do so (this is
usually at final, 10,000 feet, although it is occasionally earlier).

For very short flights, I've found it's not worth hauling out the
laptop, because by the time I'm allowed to get it out, turn it on, get
out the headphones, plug them in, and play the movie, it's sometimes
just a short amount of time before landing.

In coach class, the laptop takes up the entire tray table, so don't even
think about trying to balance a drink there, too.

We've never had trouble from FA's - to the contrary, those who notice it
are fascinated by it (I suspect they've seen enough of Inspector Gadget
to drive them nuts). People you sit near will be fascinated by it, too.
When we flew ATL-FRA in January, my husband was sitting on the
aisle. There was a kid in the row behind him, across the aisle, who was
leaning out into the aisle so he could watch "Highlander" (ok, no sound,
but still :).

--Helen

Conal
--
Conal Ho
Graduate Student
Dept. of Anthropology
University of California, Santa Cruz

I wonder if anyone from Singapore Airlines is reading this? IIRC,
Singapore Airlines were the ones who disallowed the use of laptops if
they had a CD-ROM drive built in. Here this airline is not only
allowing their use, they actually passed out DVD *players* during the
flight!

Way to go, American! I'm definitely booking my next flight on either
AA or Reno Air (if it still exists as a separate entity ;-)

Or perhaps different levels of superstition/paranoia...

If you want to be technical, a DVD-ROM drive is not the same as a CD-ROM
drive.

Sabena bans CD-ROM drives, but none of the FAs even blinked with me
using the DVD-ROM drive. Note that if they had asked me to turn it off,
I would have.

It used to be that any *external* attachments (such as external mice on
PC laptops) were banned. My DVD-ROM drive, like everything else on my
Powerbook G3, is internal.

--Helen

at cruise altitudes and only on certain carriers. Some of the US Airlines are the strictest.
(What else is new!) But I did get some funny looks from other passengers. They may have been

video machines. Qantas and CP were both pretty good about mine.

I suppose it would also depend if you were watching Mr. Roberts goes to school, Lassie or Deep
Throat.

If you do watch this way, please use a headset! I was flying SIN-NRT in BC on
NW last month and some guy was playing a Barney the Purple Dinosaur DVD for
his kids this way -- with the volume full-up so they could all hear. yikes!
A F/A asked him to turn it down just before the entire cabin was about to
riot. His reaction incidated that he didn't see the problem, although he did
comply by turning it down (although not all the way).

Dave S.

A riot was in order if you ask me... I understand we should all "get along" but
this goes far outside the borders of civility.

-g

> what I can't figure out is why my headphones don't work with the plane's
> sound system (on those with real plugs instead of those piped-air things)
> and why the airline headphones don't work with my 'book.

Most (electronic) airline headphones use dual plugs, with each plug
carrying one channel (left or right), IIRC. Most normal stereo
headphones have both channels on the same plug. I have seen adapters
around (included with some noise-canceling headphones, especially) that
will let you connect normal stereo headphones to the airline jacks; I
haven't seen any that would let you plug the dual-plug airline
headphones into a normal stereo jack. (Exception: Virgin Atlantic uses
regular stereo jacks and lets you keep the headphones; I use a pair of
'em as my cheap semi-disposable headphones for the office.)

--
Christopher Davis * <ckd...@ckdhr.com> * <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/ckd/>
Put location information in your DNS! <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/dns-loc/>

Christopher K Davis wrote in message ...

Well, I see this differently. There's a difference between airlines passing
out DVD players versus allowing passengers to use their personal DVD-ROM
laptops. The airlines can trust that the DVDs they pass out will not
interfere with the airplane's navigation/flight systems whereas a
passenger's own DVD-ROM laptop does not come with that guarantee. You know
what I mean? So it's not surprising that Singapore airlines would not allow
passengers to use their personal laptops with DVD but would pass out
Singapore approved DVD players.

Excellent point. DVD-ROMs are not CD-ROMs. But Alitalia does mention that
any computer peripherals or attachments cannot be used and DVD-ROM is in
this category.

Hey...this is Alitalia's statement, you know. In any case, its not clear to
me if an expansion bay CD-ROM is a peripheral attachment. After alll, an
internal hard drive is not considered a peripheral attachment...or is it?

So does AA.

LH certainly has this in their printed "passenger information", but the
last LH flight I was on, the spoken announcement was similar to US
domestic carriers -- on which I've NEVER heard any announcement
prohibiting CD players, nor laptops with CD-ROM drives, at above 10K feet.

--- jeh

Also, if they cut in with an announcement, it will blast your ears out!
(If you use your own 'phones, that is.) At least this was my
experience on a UA 777 a couple years ago.

--
craz...@city-net.com | "I say what it occurs to me to say
Greg Pacek | when I think I hear people say
Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Earth | things. More I cannot say."

On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 23:40:03 GMT, j...@cmkrnl.com (Jamie Hanrahan)
wrote:

>On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:10:53 -0700, "Paul Tauger"
><tauger...@SPAMusa.net> wrote:

>So does AA.
>

Huh??? I've been practically living on AA F for the last four years and
I've NEVER seen an AA MD-80, refurbished or not, with IFE of *any* kind.

What were the headphones FOR???

Meanwhile, on those AA flights that DO have IFE, the AA 'phones use a
standard stereo minijack, they work fine in my laptop headphone jack, and
standard 'phones work fine in the airplane's jacks. What do you mean,
"won't work outside the plane"?

--- jeh

There was a big note imprinted on the headphones bag that the
headphones would not work with anything other than the IFE. Didn't
plug it into my laptop to find out for sure, though.

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999 03:34:40 GMT, j...@cmkrnl.com (Jamie Hanrahan)
wrote:

>On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 21:08:27 -0600, Nick Vlahos <elmhur...@yahoo.com>

Not really.

There is no significant difference in the way a Panasonic portable DVD
player operates and the way a laptop DVD-ROM drive operates that would
make one "safe" and the other "unsafe."

True enough, but as Mr. Spock once said: "A difference which MAKES no
difference IS no difference."

As if any of them could tell the difference just by looking. ;-)

On a recent Northwest flight the woman next to me used a laptop with
an external mouse throughout the flight - none of the flight
attendants hassled her, and the plane did not crash nor did it
experience navigational problems. I'm glad to see that the paranoia is
starting to ease, at least on some airlines. I know I'll be keeping
that in mind when I make my next booking. ;-)

>my only complaints are that the sound output sometimes isn't loud enough to
>compensate for the ambient roar (solvable with better headphones),

Yeah, I hear (pun intended) that there are noice cancelling headphones
(by Sony?) that work well. I plan to invest in some before my next
flight.

That goes without saying - or at least it should...

Probably the same guy who brings his brood up to the windows in the
terminal so that the kiddies can get a good view of the planes (and
the people sitting in the seats by the window can get a good view of
their butts). Why is it that people with kids feel that they no longer
need to be considerate, and that the whole world should tolerate their
uncontrolled, squalling brats?

But that's another thread. ;-)

HUH? OH, did you *buy* those seats in the terminal with the great view?

Suggestion: Give the guy with his brood your seat and YOU go stand in
front of the window.

Sheesh.

-g

In other words, what does ownership of the seats have to do with
common courtesy?

Remind me to stand up in front of you next time you're in, say, a
movie theater or at a play so you can watch my ass instead of the
show.

Gee, you wouldn't by any chance be one of those inconsiderate boors
who subject their little terrors on innocent bystanders, would you?

I'll be agog to hear you explaining to the security guard which seats in
the terminal you "own" :-).

This is merely a slightly different flavor of "You must work for the
company" :-).

The fact is, even those of us not employed by the Parent Company may well
consider that those who want a guaranteed view should buy one up on the
observation deck, or should politely request that the person in front of
them move so they can see better.

Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)

>How would you be aware if it did have navigational problems?

The plane would land in CMI?

The pilot would order all electronic devices shut off due to
intereference?

Thanks for the tip. I've never heard of brookstone's - where do you
get them?

The fact is, it's goddamn RUDE to put your ASS in someone's FACE just
so you and your BRATS can see out the window.

Newsflash: When you go to a theatre, you are paying to see what's
on the stage. When you take a flight, you are paying to get where
you are going, NOT to see the spectacle from your seat in the terminal.
HTH.

No, I certainly wouldn't. If I ever had 'little terrors', they'd be
parents by now -- but in fact I never had any. Why would you think
I did?

Btw, if you can't see over the head of little children, maybe you
ought to travel with a phone book to sit on.

Hey! There are *plenty* of people--*dozens* annually--who actually
*want* to fly to CMI :-).

Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)

My point was that self-interest isn't actually the only reason for
people to disagree with you. Sometimes they just don't see the issue in
the same way.

Maybe we're talking different airports. The seats I'm thinking of have a
walkable path between them and the window. People's asses float by in
front of the sitters all the time, just as they do with seats not facing
the window. Nobody's squeezing in anywhere where they're not supposed to
be standing or walking.

Unless you're talking a different arrangement, I don't see that this is
any ruder than walking by a seated person, which presumably you
occasionally do :-). Ass-to-face proximity isn't inherently rude. And if
you've taken that seat in order to see out, I don't consider that you'd be
the slightest bit rude to say "excuse me, but I would really like to see
out as well, which is why I took this seat---could you possibly move down
to that clear spot so that we can both see out?"

Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)

Well, I agree with you that there is no significant difference. But I'm not
talking about actual difference. Rather, I'm talking about perceived
differences by the Airlines themselves. In other words, the Airlines
perceive that their DVDs are safer than passenger's. You get my point? Its
about perceived difference and not actual difference.

I have the Sony phones. $200.00 a year ago. Love em.

Ganesha Ganapati <sma...@crescotek.com> wrote in message
news:385bd176...@news.orng1.occa.home.com...

<el...@spam.free.at.last> wrote in message
news:83j96e$jf1$1...@netnews.upenn.edu...

The key word here is attachments. In other words they should not have a problem
with something built into the unit, that's almost certainly what the policy is intended
to mean but some people are bound to interpret it incorrectly. The reasoning for
this is twofold, firstly external cables are a potential source of interference, more
on this in a sec and secondly the built in combo would have been tested by the
vendor for interference (assuming it's a mass market item designed to be sold
in the US, Europe or Japan) whereas the combination you build yourself by
snapping together cables has almost certainly never been explicitly tested for
interference.

A friend of mine once showed me an after market computer mouse made in China he
had bought for $10. In use it interfered with the reception on a TV half way across the
room, the interference was correlated to the movement of the mouse, the cable was
not shielded in any way. This kind of thing is why some airlines prohibit anything with a
detachable cable.

Not if their destination is SFO... ;-)

(HAHAHA - *dozens* - ROFL!)

Floating asses are not the problem - the interruption of view is
momentary as long as they keep moving, and some are actually a
pleasant diversion. ;-) I'm talking about people who walk right up and
stand in front of you, plonk their kids on the window ledge, and stand
there for an extended period of time looking out the window while
simultaneously offering you a close-up view of the family fart
factories.

The point is, I shouldn't have to; common courtesy would disallow this
from occurring in the first place. However, when it comes to children,
many parents seem to feel that common courtesy does not apply. Such as
the parents who bring their screaming hellions into a James Bond
movie. Or the parents who feel their little darlings should "see the
nice planes" and plonk them up in the window right in front of the
people who were sitting there.

Maybe it's just my bad luck, but I see this sort of thing happen a
lot. ;-)

The brookstones are nice because you can control noise reduction level and
volume level in an independant manner. Wherever you buy your brand make sure
they'll take
'em back. Buy them right before your trip, keep the box and the receipt, and if
you don't like em-when you get back return them.

I did this with the Brookstone's and never needed to return them...but I don't
know these Sony's BAP is talking about..

-g

Cheer up -- when your taste in movies becomes more adult and when
you're beyond gawking at "the nice planes", you'll find you're no
longer competing with small children.

Balt4house <balt4...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19991220082759...@ng-ba1.aol.com...

Ganesha Ganapati <discont...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:385dbb6c...@news.orng1.occa.home.com...

> ;-)
>
> OK, where are they? I've never heard of them...

Excuse me, but who appointed you judge of mature taste? From the
churlishness of most of your posts, it would seem you have not matured
past the bratty 5-year-old stage. Good to see the Christmas season
hasn't dampened your essential meanness.

Someone (probably you?) bitching that small children are blocking his
view out the (floor-to-ceiling) terminal window -- and *I* am the mean
one??? Another retard...

???

If you're going to flame someone, at least *try* to make some sense!

:-)

In a mall, maybe -- visited one today. Or there's http://www.brookstone.com
Some pretty nifty stuff.

-Dan

el...@spam.free.at.last wrote:

Sorry, it was not me. Your posts are just so snotty for no apparent reason
except putting people down that it is hard not to reply. And "retard"?
That's REAL mature.

> OK, where are they? I've never heard of them...

ObRTA: there's a Brookstone's at Boston's Logan International Airport in
terminal C, just to the left of the Delta counter area.

--
Christopher Davis * <ckd...@ckdhr.com> * <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/ckd/>
Put location information in your DNS! <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/dns-loc/>