jet blue tv

[flyingitalian]

Just curious about how that thing works. Are you able to use it on all flights? If not what is the restriction and why? How reliable is it? Do individual seat tvs break? How often? Are they easily fixed? Just curious. Since its touted so much do the passengers get irate when their seat set is broken? Nice airline an product by the way.

 

[a320drivr]

Keep in mind I am not an engineer. The TV's are quite reliable. They do break on ocassion but are usually fixed right away. Most problems are with the controller in the seat that usually have to be replaced from what I see in the logbook. Sometimes a screen goes blank and they just pop out and a new one goes in. The TV's work in all phases of flight except on the San Juan flights. There is an antenna mounted right in front of the tail. Its enclosed and rotates to pick up the signal. We are in the process of adding 100 channels of XM radio, 4 movie channels, and more free TV channels. Last I heard that would be completed by the end of summer. I also heard from a mechanic that one of the airplanes is wired for internet access via a wireless card and that a trial will be run on that so see how it works and if passengers really want it.

 

[STL717]

Why is there no TV on the SJU flights?

 

[a320drivr]

Nope. No TV on SJU flights. Thats why they are adding a video server for movies on the SJU flights and the other cities we will be serving in the Dominican Republic.

 

[KC-10 Driver]

No LiveTV on the SJU flights due to the non-availability of the satellite signal away from the mainland U.S. I guess the satellite signal is not available over the open water.

The signal is available for the portion of the flight that is over or close to the continental U.S. The signal is lost after coasting out.

 

[Stinkbug]

I heard from a real inside source that with all the Puerto Ricans going down to San Juan that JetBlue was afraid that the TVs would be stolen. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[UpNDownGuy]

Just my opinion, but...

The "live TV" thing is vastly over-hyped. I've been on B6 flights before, and I'd prefer movies anyday. Any time the aircraft banks, the signal is lost mometarily, which is somewhat annoying after a while. Also, you get local programming for that time of day. For instance, I flew SEA-JFK on a redeye. Because it was 1:00 am, I got about 20 channels of infomercials. Not very entertaining.
By contrast, I just flew LAX-KIX on JAL. They had the private movie channel option, which was a far better deal. Even on a 12 hour flight, I didn't run out of first-run movies, which made the trip pass much quicker.
I'm sure the live TV is much cheaper than having a selection of first-run movies, so economics undoubtly plays a factor here. Every airline has to decide what level of service they can reasonably provide for the ticket price they charge, and B6 offers very low ticket prices.

 

[V2+10]

I flew SEA-JFK on a redeye. Because it was 1:00 am, I got about 20 channels of infomercials. Not very entertaining.

Next time don't take the redeye and fly prime time. I'm sure you would find it much more entertaining. You should have been sleeping anyway.

V2

 

[Freddie Spencer]

Not a cool a blue-aid drinker, just a happy customer...

Any time the aircraft banks

Not true, the only time I have noticed is when they turnin' and burnin' right after depature, or crankin it in for 13R/L at JFK.

 

[jetblue320]

No LiveTV on the SJU flights due to the non-availability of the satellite signal away from the mainland U.S. I guess the satellite signal is not available over the open water.

The signal is available for the portion of the flight that is over or close to the continental U.S. The signal is lost after coasting out.

Well, not exactly correct. The satellite signal is available but I believe it is a different "package" much like your home service. DirectTV is avaialable in Puerto Rico so it is not lack of signal. It is probably a different satellite feed and triggers additional fees and the company couldn't justify the addtional expense. I have heard this from the LiveTV folks as well.

And to UpandDown Guy;
the TV's do not blank out on every turn. They used to do it a lot more but they have found a fix somehow over the years.

C yaaa

 

[KC-10 Driver]

320-

You are right. I explained it the way I did for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

As I reread my own post, though, it was neither very clear nor simple.

Thanks for setting the record straight.

One random thought. I do not know the answer to this. However, perhaps the cost of the additional DirectTV service enroute to the Caribbean will be considered now that we will be increasing our Caribbean flying (starting service to Aquadilla, P.R.; and to Santo Domingo & Santiago, D.R. in a few months).

 

[blahshmah]

I'm looking forward to seeing some movies!!! That is gonna be great!!!

 

[side stick-n]

If I am not mistaken, which according to my wife is every time I open my mouth, the TV issue is due to a slightly different problem. As you know the antenna (dish) moves. Once it aquires the satellite, it moves to maintain the connection. However, when the airplane banks (amount, I don't know) the dish is unable to move enough to keep the connection. Thus the blank out. As previously mentioned, this only occurs during the departure and arrival segments of flight. These are normally the only times we bank more than 5-7 degrees.

The lack of signal over the water is for the same reason. The satellite is centered over the US mainland. Once we get far enough off the coast, the dish can't make the adjustment to stay connected. This was explained to me by a very knowledgable source and seems to make sense. If this is the case, I would expect it to work well north of the Canadian boarder and south into Mexico. I did suggest that to prevent this from occuring we maintain a 10 degree bank in cruise flight all the way to SJU and back. On the European routes, we could go to 90 and still have LiveTV. Yep, that'll work!

And NO, the avatar is NOT my wife.

 

[kn65]

Oh just your side piece then