Inflight entertainment on AirNZ Boeing 777-300 (economy) question

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lchiu7

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#205955 4-Dec-2016 16:15

No upgrades for me alas so on my last US trip had to travel in economy on the AirNZ 777-300 (I guess) from AKL/LAX return.

On both sectors I found the in-flight system very unresponsive to touch and I had to press several times to register actions. I often ended up using the remote as it became quite frustrating. Have others noticed this or did I just get unlucky and get a bad seat going both ways?

I think they are Panasonic based systems from I heard once but I can't confirm that.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

hairy1

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#1682067 4-Dec-2016 16:45

@sbiddle is the expert here. I have found the -300 interface pretty slow since they upgraded the interface. The -200 is great with no lag. That was all new hardware.

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kiwifidget

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#1682079 4-Dec-2016 16:48

Just flew back from US on Air New Zealand also (SFO) on same type of plane. I found the same as you. Had to resort to the remote.

Fortunately I slept most of the flight so wasnt inconvenienced too much by it.

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sbiddle

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#1682110 4-Dec-2016 19:31

I have nothing really to say about from the fact the Air NZ Panasonic eX2 deployment on the 77W's is an absolute joke. I flew 4 or 5 flights last year in a row and had IFE issues every flight. I had 4 seat reboots (2 per flight) between Auckland the London on two separate aircraft in different seats.

The newer Android based eX3 system on the 789 and 777R (777-200 refit) is a lot better system and also has multi touch so supports gestures. The introduction of the eX3 was very problematic as well with Panasonic techs flying for a few months on aircraft to try and resolve issues. I had a flight back from YVR this time last year on a 77R and had no IFE the whole way as around a dozen seats died. They do seemed to have made progress on the stability and I've now had a few flights this year where it's all been fine. The only issue I've had was on my way back from Japan 2 weeks ago I did have my screen on the 789 self reboot.

The good news is when the 77W refit starts in February the eX2 system is being ripped out and replaced with an eX3 system. The only downside is they're also ripping out the Spaceseat. :(

lchiu7

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#1682177 4-Dec-2016 21:53

I was sure it was Panasonic as when I went to CES in January I stopped by the Panasonic booth to see their IFE systems. They looked like what AirNZ had but were much more sophisticated. The techs told me that AirNZ was one of their larger customers but clearly the implementation has not been that great. I have not experienced their Android based systems

As with the other people posting in this thread I rarely use the IFE apart from listening to music and occasionally ordering food. I prefer to bring my own entertainment in the form of TV shows and movie on my tablet.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

sbiddle

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#1682213 5-Dec-2016 06:35

The eX3 based Android system has a near identical layout and skin. It's interesting to see everybody try and use multi touch on it for scrolling through menus which fails miserably!