Qantas Trans Tasman Pretend IFE

[serfty]

First saw it last week. Frustrated as I was on a window seat and had left any BYOD up top.

I saw in seat screens and had no thought to BYOD so seated myself appropriately.

Seems that unless you want to watch one of a small group of programs, even if IFE appears to be available it's may be BYOD. And you can't tell until you select anything.

 

[kpro]

I noticed this last year in October as well, though I assume it's across the all routes that the 738's serve. I didn't want to bother taking out my iPad so I had to make do with whatever QF thought were the popular shows.

I'm guessing that technologically the back-end servers must allow storage of videos in various formats - MPEG2/MPEG4/HEVC, but the seat-end eX2 screens can only decode older formats. So to fit in more content, QF encode only the most popular shows in a legacy format, then the rest of the shows in a newer format. But it does beg the question as to the difference compared to the A332 and A380 as these have the older screens in Y as well. Perhaps the servers have more storage.

 

[clifford]

I always assume that there is nothing worth watching on airlines' IFE (maybe EK excepted) and just use my own.

 

[elanshin]

I'm guessing that technologically the back-end servers must allow storage of videos in various formats - MPEG2/MPEG4/HEVC, but the seat-end eX2 screens can only decode older formats. So to fit in more content, QF encode only the most popular shows in a legacy format, then the rest of the shows in a newer format. But it does beg the question as to the difference compared to the A332 and A380 as these have the older screens in Y as well. Perhaps the servers have more storage.

Aren't the a330s and a380s usung eX3? Maybe that might be the difference.

 

[kpro]

Aren't the a330s and a380s usung eX3?

In F, J and PE, QF upgraded the seat side to eX3 on the A380's and A332's. In Y they're still eX2 screens. On the A333's, Y also got an upgrade at the seat-end.

This type are eX2-


Not sure how the server side differs between all the aircraft, though as part of the refresh they aligned the interface so from a UI perspective they feel all the same.

 

[moa999]

Serfty said trans-Tasman.. wouldn't that normally mean 737s.

 

[kpro]

Serfty said trans-Tasman.. wouldn't that normally mean 737s.

Yes.

But it does beg the question as to the difference compared to the A332 and A380 as these have the older screens in Y as well. Perhaps the servers have more storage.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Seems pointless having a screen if half the content isn’t available, seems dumb to set it up that way
Domestically IFE should be the same across the fleet so you know what to expect, international is pretty bad on Qantas compared to Emirates

 

[kyanar]

Depen

Serfty said trans-Tasman.. wouldn't that normally mean 737s.

Depends where you're flying from. BNE to AKL morning and the afternoon return is an A330.

 

[jrfsp]

I think they have removed some content to improve performance. The screens on the 737s dont work particularly well anymore.

 

[kpro]

I think they have removed some content to improve performance. The screens on the 737s dont work particularly well anymore.

I think the slowness mostly comes from the new modern UI they put on. Every video in a category is placed on a single, long, scrollable page and represented by a big piece of cover art.

This new age style of UI is better suited to a capacitive multi-touch display and not the older resistive touch screens of the eX2 era. Think smart phones pre-iPhone vs after.

I'm sure the older processor doesn't help things much either, though I think the A380 economy IFE is even slower then the 738's and A332's.

 

[johndoe]

I just encountered this on the weekend - and found this thread as was about to ask if others had experienced this/give others a heads up. Seems like its not all aircraft as didn't have this for my flights in March. Also didn't have the app downloaded. Only the movies in premiere are available. So frustrating! The 737 trans tasman offering is really falling behind which is sad.

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Yes about 50% 737 trans-Tasman have phantom ife, and 50% shorter selection list.

Whereas bne-wlg (on e190) has no ife at all. Need to make sure your device is charged up as also no power source onboard available to pax.

 

[Basalt]

We encountered this on our BNE-MEL flight last week (737 of course). Very annoying, as johndoe noted the bulk of the material was only available via BYOD with the exception of premiere. The A321XLR replacements can't come soon enough!

 

[AFF Editor]

We got in touch with Qantas to ask why this is the case with the seatback IFE on the Boeing 737-800s. You can read their response here:

Qantas' Limited Boeing 737 Seatback Entertainment

Many of the featured movies and TV shows on the Qantas Boeing 737-800 seatback in-flight entertainment screens are not available to watch on the TV screen provided.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[kpro]

Not really any new information there.

TLDR - content has always been limited on the 737's, recent updates to the UI made this more obvious as it lists additional content you can watch through the app. Reasoning is possibly due to storage constraints.

 

[Michael Hurley]

Teh same issue is present on the 380 /787 long haul. The content on QF compares poorly with EK, AA, UA Delta etc.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Teh same issue is present on the 380 /787 long haul. The content on QF compares poorly with EK, AA, UA Delta etc.

What issue ?

 

[encryptededdy]

Teh same issue is present on the 380 /787 long haul. The content on QF compares poorly with EK, AA, UA Delta etc.

I don't think the 787/380 has content that's available on WiFi streaming only (well, they don't even have WiFi).

If you're talking about general content availability, I somewhat agree re. EK but not really when compared to the US carriers (although I haven't flown Delta).

 

[NSun]

The 737s shouldn't need as much content as wide bodies, but I think what is frustrating is that the system goes out of its way to display content only available on the app, tells us to download the app, yet you need to have downloaded it in advance because there isn't yet Wifi on Trans-Tasman.