[nakedrobot2]

The PA when heard over the headphones (when watching a movie, etc.) is even worse - I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 100dB. Sometimes a movie has quiet audio, or quiet moments requiring you to turn up the volume a lot. More than once I have been painfully ear-raped by the flight attendant PA system in my earphones for this reason.

Just another instance of outrageously bad customer service in the airline industry. I'm convinced at this point that they simply despise their entire customer base.

[ZoFreX]

I've stopped using the in-flight systems because of this. I use in-ear earphones on flights, as the design of them (basically ear plugs with speakers in the middle) blocks out sound and as a result I can have the volume lower, with the idea of preserving what's left of my hearing. Because of that design I not only _can_ have the volume low, but _have_ to have the volume low - and when the PA announcements override the volume to max, it's very loud indeed. On Virgin Atlantic flights, it hits the physical pain threshold, so I've stopped plugging in to these systems entirely and use my phone/iPad/whatever instead.

[MichaelGG]

I'm sorta curious why anyone is using in in flight systems in the first place. Doesn't nearly everyone own personal devices capable of playing hours of music or videos? Even with 32 GB of storage, total, I'm able to hold more video than I can watch in a day.

[davb]

Not all seats come equipped with power sockets. Watching movies on long-haul (transatlantic) flights, after using your device while waiting to board, had a good chance of running the battery flat before the trip is complete.

Economy seats sometimes have a pitch so narrow that it's difficult to get a tablet sitting at a comfortable viewing angle.

Additionally, it's sometimes convenient to use the in-flight entertainment systems when travelling with someone else. My girlfriend and I can watch the same movie, at the same time, without awkwardly balancing a tablet between us and having to use a headphone splitter.

[miahi]

You have to prepare for it - have a full battery (most of the planes don't have USB or the plug doesn't supply enough current), have the movies/music already on the phone/tablet. Not everyone is using the phone for this kind of entertainment, so they have to prepare before, and because most of the entertainment is now "in the cloud" and consumed on the fly, you have to know how to copy them for offline use.

Also, the in-flight entertainment system is better positioned than a normal phone or tablet - you need a special case or something to hold a tablet/phone in a kind of vertical position on the little table (also needs preparing for), and you have to look down to it all the time - which is bad for your back, especially in the crammed plane seats.

[marcosdumay]

DRM?

I never tried watching movies in an airplane, and if I wanted to, I know I'd do it easily. But most people do not get video in a format that they know how to watch in an environment without an internet connection.

[barrkel]

In flight systems typically have fairly recent movies, that sometimes haven't even come out on consumer media yet.

[raldi]

The trick is to use an inline volume control, like this: http://mobile.walmart.com/ip/Koss-In-Line-Headphone-Volume-C...

Then turn the airplane's volume to max and adjust your inline volume to a comfortable level. In my experience, the announcements will then also be at a comfortable level.

[bashinator]

In my experience, the announcements are always in the top 95% of the channel's dynamic range. Setting the volume such that the announcements are at a reasonable level renders everything else way too quiet.

[raldi]

But, in my experience, the way that's implemented is that when there's an announcement, everyone's volume is temporarily overridden to 100%.

Hence my solution: Set things up so your volume is always at 100%, and the inline volume control device is throttling that down to a comfortable level.

[spdustin]

Mine too. I believe you're exactly right here. Volume seems to be attenuated from 100% at the armrest by the digital control, and overridden back to 100% when the PA is keyed. I've done exactly what you described and I stopped getting audibly assaulted on flights where I opted to listen to channel 9, or to watch a censored movie.

[steve-howard]

I flew several years ago on American Airlines around the time they were promoting the feature-length airline advertisement Up in the Air. [1]

I dozed off with my headphones plugged in, listening to something relaxing on a low volume. Several times I was awakened without warning when they showed the film trailer at full volume. Boy did that piss me off.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/business/media/21adco.html

[sjwright]

This is why some headphones (notably the Bose QC15) have a little hi/lo switch on the connector. When using the in-flight entertainment, set it to "lo" which attenuates all incoming sound. Then you compensate by turning up the entertainment volume.

This works because most aircraft systems deliver PA announcements at a pre-set volume and isn't affected by the entertainment volume.

(The other thing I tend to do is simply disconnect my QC15 during announcements and listen (or not) to the announcement broadcast in the cabin, attenuated by the headphone's noise cancellation.)

[nkantar]

Disconnecting numerous times throughout a long flight (e.g., LAX–LHR) is not only massively inconvenient and also repeatedly ineffective. By the time I've yanked the cord out, I've already been deafened (and scared shitless) by the beginning of the announcement.

I do like the headphone-level filtering idea, though, and might look into this for my traveling needs.

[cnvogel]

Noise-Cancelling headphones with external inputs, by their principle of operation, already have to funnel everything through a DSP. So it would be easy to implement a compressor/limiter for the external input signal. Is this feature available on any of the commercially available headphones?

As an explanation: A compressor/limiter is a device in audio processing used for leveling (compressing) the dynamic range, by making quiet things louder, and making louder things quieter. In the extreme case, one can configure a threshold of (power, loudness, amplitude, depending on the operation of the devices) which cannot be exceeded. [All you sound engineers, please excuse the simplification...]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

[helper]

Every time I'm on a flight this happens. I would love an in-line filter for audio above a certain volume level.

[helper]

Not surprisingly, things like this already exist[1]. Has anyone ever tried one of these?

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Kidz-Gear-Volume-Limit-Cable/dp/B005UH...

[6stringmerc]

“Ah, for the days when aviation was a gentlemen’s pursuit. Back before every Joe Sweatsock could wedge himself behind a lunch tray and jet off to Raleigh-Durham.”

– Sideshow Bob

Having seen the airline industry change over the course of 30 years, I simply despise the customer base as well, and fly as infrequently as possible.