Dig-E-Players no longer available on Amtrak trains

[Superliner Diner]

From other internet sources, originally from Arrow:

01 DIGEPLAYER SERVICE DISCONTINUED IMMEDIATELY

02

03 RAILWAY MEDIA, THE COMPANY THAT PROVIDED THE DIGEPLAYER

04 VIDEO DEVICES THAT WERE AVAILABLE ON CERTAIN AMTRAK TRAINS,

05 IS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.

06

07 DIGEPLAYER WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL AT ANY

08 STATION, NOR WILL THE DEVICES BE PROVIDED TO SLEEPING CAR

09 PASSENGERS ON THE COAST STARLIGHT.

10

11 RAILWAY MEDIA IS CONTACTING PASSENGERS WHO HAVE FUTURE

12 RESERVATIONS FOR DIGEPLAYER.

13

14 INFORMATION ABOUT DIGEPLAYER HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM ARROW.

15

16 PASSENGERS ARE OF COURSE WELCOME TO BRING ON THEIR OWN

17 DVD PLAYERS AND LAPTOP COMPUTERS IN ORDER TO PLAY THEIR

18 OWN PROGRAMS. HEADPHONES MUST BE USED WITH THESE DEVICES.

 

[Anthony]

I can't say I'm surprised.

 

[had8ley]

I can't say I'm surprised.

One of the few goodies left bites the dust...and you even had to pay to get it, except for one lucky train.

 

[haolerider]

I can't say I'm surprised.

One of the few goodies left bites the dust...and you even had to pay to get it, except for one lucky train.

This never really caught on in a big way - after the initial excitement on several trains. I don't think Railway Media ever reached a critical mass of passengers interested in paying so much money for the equipment. The real loss to Amtrak is not so much the loss of the equipment on the trains, but the ability to sell Amtrak promotional items in the stations - at no cost to Amtrak.

 

[Rafi]

I can't say I'm surprised.

One of the few goodies left bites the dust...and you even had to pay to get it, except for one lucky train.

You know, in retrospect, I wonder why they picked the Starlight for the free rental promotion. It seems to me that it would have been better to pick a "feeder" Long Distance train with better on-time performance (and consequently, more connections to other trains) to increase the odds of repeat rentals for the connecting trains.

For example: a family gets a free rental on the Cap Limited or Lake Shore. The kids make it half-way through a movie before falling asleep, and they wake up too late to finish the movie before arriving in Chicago, where they're continuing on one of the west-coast bound trains.

"Dad! Can we get another for the next trip? I need to finish that movie." And an addict is born.

With the Starlight, the connections are fewer than trains like the Cap and Lakeshore, and odds are the renters are going to pretty much watch everything they want to see in one sitting.

Just my "too little, too late" take.

Rafi

 

[AlanB]

Rafi,

I believe that the Starlight was picked because I believe that Amtrak is hoping to once again return that train back to its flagship train for the west coast. So Digi was to be one more perk I guess to help restore the luster to that run.

I could be wrong too I suppose, but that's my guess.

 

[Guest]

So . . . will movies be back in the lounge? I always thought the major reason that they were discontinued was so that they wouldn't compete with the digiplayer.

 

[PRR 60]

So . . . will movies be back in the lounge? I always thought the major reason that they were discontinued was so that they wouldn't compete with the digiplayer.

I think the digeplayer was Amtrak's way out of the movies in the lounge. The equipment was old and movie licenses are not cheap. As far as I know, the lounge movies are gone for good. It will be interesting to see what Amtrak does to provide en route entertainment.

I have not heard if the Digecor's airline operations were also discontinued or whether this only affects Amtrak.

 

[daveyb99]

Might be a better chance for success if these were available onboard.

 

[RailFanLNK]

Even though I have taken in some movies in the lounge car, for the most part...my beat up hearing made it really hard to follow the movie, especially with people talking, kids running up and down the aisles etc. One thing I like about taking the train is the relaxation part and doing movies etc isn't quite the way I want to travel. But I do not have kids and I'm sure the digeplayer and lounge movies are a gem for people with lil' cretins! :lol:

Al

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Dig-E-Player dead? My heart bleeds. Boo Hoo.

Perhaps, but not likely, they'll reinstate movies in the lower level mini-theaters of the Pacific Parlour cars on the Coast Starlight.

And the players WERE available onboard sometimes - I've heard PA announcements pushing them; plastic payment only.

Saw a little Dig-E-Player brochure once, and thought "Why would I pay for these junk movies that I wouldn't watch for free at home?"

Maybe a better business model would have included options to customize player content at station rental points, instead of the one size fits all, lowest common denominator approach. Or at least a variety of preprogrammed packages - comedy, action, drama, kiddie by smaller age range, etc.

 

[RailBirder]

We had complentary Digi-E players on the Coast Starlight this past July and were excited to try them out. Had 2 rooms, so we got 2 players. There were no instructions about how to turn them on, and we couldn't get them to turn on. Finally figured out both had dead batteries, and had to plug them in. When we picked them up, they asked how many people were in the room, I told her 2 people, so she put 2 sets of headphones in the bag. Hello...there is only one headset jack, so we couldn't watch anything together, hence we didn't watch anything. Later I found out "we should have asked for a headset jack splitter"?? They made a big deal about how we were responsible for them, and if they were stolen we would have to pay for them. The whole trip we saw many people carrying their Digi-E players everywhere they went, diner, lounge car, etc..it was kinda funny. I expected a questionaire or survey at the end of the trip to give them feedback..nothing. Glad we got to try them out for free, would have been pissed if I'd paid money for them.

 

[buckhouse2006]

Just used it on the Coast Starlight in August.

Wasn't that thrilled with it. It was hard to watch (too small of the screen). Hard to find plugs to plug it in (except in the room). The headphones were terrible. Couldn't keep it around my ears. Used my own one.

 

[Eris]

we got two on the coast starlight (three of us in the family bedroom)- i'd been looking forward to getting the kids one, since i have two little kids and our own DVD player... thought i could set them up with the kids one while i watched actual grown-up dvds on our player (or movies on the other digeplayer). unfortunately, they were OUT of the kids units, so we got two regular ones, which had a couple of kid-watchable/doable things, but mostly they ended up using the dvd player. it was ok, was very nice for being no additional cost, wouldn't consider renting one, not surprised they've given up on the rail market.

 

[yarrow]

glad they are gone. not our cup of tea. was in king st station in seattle monday and the kiosk open was full of digi players and merchandise. was in union station in portland yesterday and the kiosk was empty. i wondered what had happened. wonder what becomes of the other stuff they sold(posters, shirts, etc)? did it belong to amtrak?

 

[denmarks]

What I hated about the player was that if you turned it off half way through a movie to go eat when you turned it back on you had to skip forward to where you left off. I finally learned to write down the hour and minute to make that procedure easier.

 

[user 683]

I always wondered how they could compete with all the personal media players, game devices, MP3, ipod, laptops, etc. I suppose some of their motivation was to provide programming similar to programs the airlines play on longer flights - i.e. movie, news show, documentary, etc., but you then need players that function. It sounds like the players weren't that great.

 

[hello]

We were on the Coast Starlight this month, and also received free Digiplayers. They were a nice way to pass a few evening hours -- but I agree, I wouldn't have wanted to pay for them.

We were told in LAUS to turn them into our attendant as we left the train, but as we arrived in Eugene at 2 in the morning (14 hours late) -- the attendant was sleeping!! The conductor let us out and said to just leave them in our rooms. We checked in Portland (on the way back to LAUS) and the Railway clerk showed that each one had been accounted for -- but he did say that when the program first started they did lose a LOT of players.