AVOD (mostly recycled from my post in the other thread):
The screens themselves are a huge improvement. 9" widescreen in the back, and 10-point something in BF. It's not just the size, but the quality. Very fine prints (like on Airshow) are highly legible.
The main menu has 4 categories: Music, Movies, Short Features and Games.
A. Music - 182 CDs whole CDs. 11 classical, 16 country, 16 jazz, 62 pop, 31 R&B, 24 rock and 23 world.
The "Pop" and "Rock" categories mostly comprise of extremely popular discs, and some compilations. Usually one per performer. For example, U2's Greatest Hits, or Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". "Rock" is actually classic rock. Newer and alternative rock are all in the "Pop" category.
Don't know enough about R&B or country to comment,
but the "Classical" category is extremely disappointing. Interesting and decent CDs, but there are just too few selections, and not a single full opera. They do have a "3 Tenors" CD.
"World" is also disappointing. I am used to listening to the Japanese and Chinese channels on the old system, and that has much more variety. There's also no New Age or Down Tempo stuff that I really love on the old Ch 14.
My opinion is that they need to add those old 20 channels back, to augment the new selection.
B. Movies, 295 total - 39 action, 31 classics, 41 comedy, 67 dramas, 41 familys, 31 thrillers, 45 world (including quite a few Chinese/HK movies)
C. Short Features, 164 total - 25 comedy, 19 drama, 19 entertainment, 37 family, 25 global, 24 HBO on demand, 15 lifestyle. Some of them have multiple episodes. You get many current and past TV series. For example, 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy (all season 1).
D. Games, 26 total - 6 arcade, 13 board/puzzle, 1 educational (Berlitz), 2 gaming, 4 kids.
Pictures of the system, starts here:
http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p463659465/?photo=381495601
I didn't take a picture of the handset. On the phone side, there's small buttons for a whole keyboard, but I didn't find a use for them. When playing games, the handset works like the old ones, but for controlling AV choices, you use the touchscreen.
About the touch screen. Many people worry about having people push on your seatback all the time. My experience is that they are very sensitive to touch, so absolutely no need to press on them. The menus are usually quite responsive - much much faster than the ones on AF's 773 (non-AVOD). The only time it slows a little is when I try to choose move through the CD choices within a category between Page 1 and Page for the first time. Often takes 2-3 seconds. But subsequent pages load (includign back to Page 1 and going to Page 2 again) immediately.
Two other things. One, there's no more "Welcome Abroad" in Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese or any language. It's now a static "Continental Inflight Entertainment" screen. Second, the audiophiles will notice a slight hiss on all channels (audio or video). Surprising for a totally digital system. They are still using the two-prong plugs in coach.