Treo 650 on Southwest Airlines?

[toy_room7]

Hi Everyone,

I am going to Vegas in Febuary (not a frequent flyer here by the way) and have been asking around and am getting conflicting answers. I wanted get everyone's feedback on this. I wanted to watch movies off of my TREO while in flight, now i know i can't use it while ascending and descending but what about while in cruise?

Below is a link to the Southwest Policy and in my opinion my TREO can be viewed as either permissible or non permissible. Anybody have thoughts on this?

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/electronics.html

I guess a side question would be if there was a way to watch a movie and set the TREO to not receive any calls, texts or whatnot. I tried turning everything off and the calls were still being received.

Thanks for the insight...

[kdallen]

When the radio is truly off, the Treo cannot receive or transmit. If you press and hold down the power button, you'll see that the phone itself is turning off. If you have Sprint, you get the logo screen showing that it's powering down. If you wake up the Treo (and don't have it set for automatic phone turn on via Chatter, or a launcher app, etc.), without specifically turning the radio back on, then it's a permissable PDA.

[groovehouse]

I've flown SW twice with my Treo, using it for movies and mp3s and have had no problems. I even carry an extra battery!

[Maddogmike]

I have a Sprint Treo 650 and as mentioned earlier... I "capitulate" to the FAA and turn the phone part off (hold the power off button down several seconds until the screen confims phone shutdown) then I go into the PDA mode by BRIEFLY hitting the same power on/off button to turn the PDA functions on. I listen to my MP3's and play blackjack, poker, or battleship...err..."seawar".

I personally think the "cell phones interfere with avionics" is a crock and a means to sell the "airphone" service, or simply just to keep the peace between the phone talking crowd and the shut-the-hell-up-while-I-have-to-sit-next-to-you crowd...

and yes, I belong to the latter, anyway.....:rolleyes:

Maddog

[hoffnet]

I've flown several airlines, including Southwest, and have never had a problem using my Treo. As other's have pointed out, simply turn off the phone when told to, and don't use the PDA/MP3/Camera, etc functions till you're allowed. I also shut down bluetooth just in case anyone ever asks.

[Christopher463]

I guess a side question would be if there was a way to watch a movie and set the TREO to not receive any calls, texts or whatnot. I tried turning everything off and the calls were still being received.

Thanks for the insight...

If you turn the phone off (hold the Call End button until something spectacular happens) you can still use the Treo as a normal PDA. There will be no way to recieve a call or a txt or anything.

[reusable]

Let's deal with your concern regarding using the device. Your TREO 650 is a phone and PDA. You can activate the PDA portion without the phone being on. Also, you are not transmitting anything, which is why I thing you're confused. Here is the rule:

When indicated by Flight Attendant announcements, during the cruise phase of flight these devices may be operated: DVD, CD, and tape players, personal digital assistants (PDAs or hand-held computers), electronic calculators, hand held electronic games, electronic cameras, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers, and devices that compose e-mail or text messages without transmitting or receiving.

OK, now for your question. I watch movies all of the time on my TREO 650. You need to purchase Pocket DVD Studio: http://www.pqdvd.com/watch_dvd_on_pocket_pc.html
It allows you to record DVDs onto your hard drive. I carry several movies on my Toshiba laptop that also has a SD slot so I can drop and drag movies onto it. I suggest that you get a 1 Gig card, which will allow you to store 2 movies and some music. You can usually find them on sales for $49.00 after rebates, etc.

Next, you'll need a player. I downloaded a freeware program called CORE Pocket Media Player v. 0.71h for a couple of reasons (http://mytreo.net/downloads/details-...t_Media_Player).

1. You can play movies on the Real Player that comes with the TREO. It has 2 major disadvantages.
a. You cannot get ride of the control bar at the bottom of the screen. You end up viewing a very small movie.
b. You also have to use PalmOne quick transfer the movies, since Real will only recognize asf. files. The Quick Transfer program converts the avi. file into asf. files during the transfer process...the result? A very longggggggggg sync.

2. The Core player has 2 major advantages:
a. You can play the movie in Full mode, which gets ride of the control buttons. You can also stretch the movie to fit the entire screen. Hugh advantage!
b. The Core player also recognizes avi. files so you can drop and drag the movies from your harddrive onto your SD card. Most of my movies are around 350 MB, which transfer in under 3 minutes.

Here again the program is free, which is a homerun.

The Pocket DVD Studio program was $32 when I purchased it before the holidays. Might be a little more now. Quality is as good as advertised with CD quality sound.

As long as I'm on the subject, I suggest that you purchase highend earbuds for your phone (you'll need an 2.5 mm adapter since all of the earphones are 3.5 mm. I purchase Shure E2c buds. They do an amazing job of blocking out all of the jet noise and are very comfortable.

Hope this answers your questions.

Regards,

David


Hi Everyone,

I am going to Vegas in Febuary (not a frequent flyer here by the way) and have been asking around and am getting conflicting answers. I wanted get everyone's feedback on this. I wanted to watch movies off of my TREO while in flight, now i know i can't use it while ascending and descending but what about while in cruise?

Below is a link to the Southwest Policy and in my opinion my TREO can be viewed as either permissible or non permissible. Anybody have thoughts on this?

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/electronics.html

I guess a side question would be if there was a way to watch a movie and set the TREO to not receive any calls, texts or whatnot. I tried turning everything off and the calls were still being received.

Thanks for the insight...[/quote]

[plunker]

I have a Sprint Treo 650 and as mentioned earlier... I "capitulate" to the FAA and turn the phone part off (hold the power off button down several seconds until the screen confims phone shutdown) then I go into the PDA mode by BRIEFLY hitting the same power on/off button to turn the PDA functions on. I listen to my MP3's and play blackjack, poker, or battleship...err..."seawar".

I personally think the "cell phones interfere with avionics" is a crock and a means to sell the "airphone" service, or simply just to keep the peace between the phone talking crowd and the shut-the-hell-up-while-I-have-to-sit-next-to-you crowd...

and yes, I belong to the latter, anyway.....:rolleyes:

Maddog

Phones do not interfere with the plane or they would have you check them with your bags. The problem is how the phone companies track or bill your calls because you can be on your home tower or one in Rome which ever signal is stronger and that works with your phone.

I've talked with private pilots that use their phones all the time.

[JimeB]

Plunker,

Just a little bit of clarification. I'm a 737 Captain for a major airline. Cell phones and other devices do sometimes interfere with the navigational radios on airplanes. It is a very rare occurance but has happened to me a couple of times. While in cruise it's no big deal but when you are close to the ground and need that radio it becomes a big deal. When it rarely does happen it is usually on an older airplane. So, while it rarely happens and usually (at least with me) on older airplanes, and the FAA doesn't like to make exceptions, that is why the restriction is there. It has nothing to do with phone service on the airlines.
I have used my PDA functin when I'm deadheading in the back & the F/A's have told me to cut it off during approach. Their guidance is "if it has an on or off switch, it has to be off". Don't shoot them, they're just the messenger.
Enjoy the trip.

JimeB

[plunker]

Plunker,

Just a little bit of clarification. I'm a 737 Captain for a major airline. Cell phones and other devices do sometimes interfere with the navigational radios on airplanes. It is a very rare occurance but has happened to me a couple of times. While in cruise it's no big deal but when you are close to the ground and need that radio it becomes a big deal. When it rarely does happen it is usually on an older airplane. So, while it rarely happens and usually (at least with me) on older airplanes, and the FAA doesn't like to make exceptions, that is why the restriction is there. It has nothing to do with phone service on the airlines.
I have used my PDA functin when I'm deadheading in the back & the F/A's have told me to cut it off during approach. Their guidance is "if it has an on or off switch, it has to be off". Don't shoot them, they're just the messenger.
Enjoy the trip.

JimeB

737 Huh! isn't that a pretty new plane . Not many newer 747,757. I'll besure to turn mine off.
Thank you