I feel like I'm going to be one of the few (if only) dissenting voices against everyone else here: I actually LIKE the screens in the back of the chair in front of me. My general experience with them for long flights, while buggy with a bad screen, etc. has been very good. This is due to what is generally a pretty good selection of movies, often with many I haven't seen but know about and would like to see, or fun surprises that I would have never considered otherwise. (example: I got to see "Shin Godzilla" on a flight to Japan recently. I had never heard about it, but it turned out to be one of the most interesting movies I saw of the multiple I selected, and just generally a very interesting movie in general with strong commentary against the government's handling of the power plant disaster) These turn out to be very beneficial for me, as when I'm on a long plane ride I often "shut down" and don't want to do anything except brainlessly watch movies or potentially read certain books that suck me in very well. On the long flights to Australia and Japan I've done recently this has allowed the flight to pass quickly and easily for me.
I'm sad to see them go. I don't want to watch movies on some silly app on my phone which is much smaller than the screens now. I want to use my phone to read books and save the battery charge for texting people or driving when I land.
Some of the airlines (e.g. Alaskan) will actually rent you an iPad loaded with movies for a couple of bucks. Still saves on weight, and let's the people who really want a curated experience to use it.
To add to this, the screens are definitely buggy still and ~15 min reboots are not uncommon, but all of these are HARDWIRED. I'm scared of how bad it will be when everyone tries to connect to the wifi to stream the same content.
Managing the local streaming server is not going to be any easier either.
I've seen it on Air Canada (or Red or Jazz, or whatever it was called that day), and it actually worked quite well. They offered to rent tablets for people who didn't have devices.
I suspect managing the streaming server isn't going to be much more complicated than managing the old wired content sever... On the other hand, not needind kilometers of cables for entertainment, not needing to maintain them, makes a huge difference for the airlines. This is not as simple as pulling a cable in your house, planes have crashed because of fires from bad maintenance/install of cables, including cables for entertainment.
Anecdotal, I know, but I was on a flight a few months ago where the wire for the hand held controller for the entertainment system had gotten so hot it burnt my hand. I'm not sure how far away the autoignition temperature of cotton is from the burn-my-hand-temperature, but I suppose it's possible that if it was cotton on that wire as opposed to my skin it may have caught fire. And while the wire delivering that content was non critical and probably on a seperate power network to the main systems of the plane, a fire on a plane is a fire on a plane regardless of which system caused it.
Maybe it's a function of how many people are using it so far but the WiFi entertainment option on United works great. With AmazonFire tablets available for $50 it seems pretty silly at this point for airlines to install extremely expensive screens that also take up leg space in many cases.
It may be a pain for the family that travels once a year but, hey, they didn't actually have movie options until recently anyway. I'm sure they can deal with it.
I posted above but my experience with United and those sitting around me on my two international flights was horrible. Nobody could connect, or some could and then would get disconnected 10 minutes into the movie. I'd rather have a crappy screen on the back of the seat that works.
I've used it maybe a dozen times and never had an issue. That said I always travel with pre-loaded TV and movies (and books) in any case so the inflight system is just a bonus.
I used to travel between New Zealand and UK every few months for years (about 28 hours in the air), and as soon as I get on the plane I want to forget my device exists. Or any device for that matter - please don't give me an ipad to fiddle with.
I associate it with work and the outside world, and love these small chances to switch off completely.
I suspect many here who are running startups would be surprised to hear what a wonderful short PROPER holiday long haul flights can be. No comms - just sleep, kindle, and those crappy screens on the back of the seat. Wonderful.
After about 15 years of this an unexpected side effect - planes put me to sleep. Even if it's the wrong time of day or I've recently had caffeine, just the environment association now makes me usually fall asleep before the wheels are up.
On the Qantas domestic aircraft without seat-back screens they hand out iPads that can access the aircraft's entertainment streaming, and there's a strap thing to hook the tablet onto the seat in front - so the overall experience isn't all that different.
With the exception that you can also download their IFE app onto your own devices if you want.
The selection of movies is one (useful) thing. Having the back of my head constantly poked from behind by less than delicate fingers is something I won't miss at all.
I'm sad to see them go. I don't want to watch movies on some silly app on my phone which is much smaller than the screens now. I want to use my phone to read books and save the battery charge for texting people or driving when I land.