So I had my first experience with video on-demand a couple days ago on a Delta flight back from East Coast.

The flight was delayed two hours getting out of JFK so it came in pretty handy. If you haven't seen this yet, here's how it works: It's a touchscreen set-up located in the seat back. On the screen it gives you a pretty straightforward interface that lets you select from movies, TV shows, video games, music or the interminable flight progress screen that shows you the the little airplane icon that never seems to move.

Much of the quality content is on a fee basis, but there was a fair amount of decent free material available. The TV programming was provided by Dish Network so it was pretty cool to sit back with shows I'd watch at home such as Survivorman. There was a Survivorman marathon happening during my flight so I think I watched about 4 episodes of the show -- including an entire episode while we sat on the ground.

You can use your own headphones or you can buy a pair on the plane. Keep them handy because since the technology is integral to the plane, you can be watching TV at times that it's not otherwise OK to use personal electronics.

It felt very revolutionary to be watching my choice of entertainment during the flight. Odd that just watching TV felt luxurious. The biggest downside was the signal was not stable. There was a lot of freezing and picture-scrambling during the flight. Something about it being just regular TV changed my expectations of having a clear signal somehow. Somewhere in the middle of the flight the signal cut out completely. Must have been out of satellite range or something (odd since you're way up in the air!). Once we got closer to Seattle the TV flickered to life again. Fortunately the music choices were actually pretty decent and that's coming from a music snob. I didn't spend any money on premium programming, but if I was on a long international flight, that $5 charge probably would have seemed like nothing.

All in all, great progress and I look foward to the day when video on-demand is standard on all flights. Just a few kinks to work out, but this was way better than another detailed reading of SkyMall.