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Unable to watch live tv

Michaelpaul918
Explorer C

On my last flight all the features of the free entertainment worked except for the  live TV.  Music, games, recorded shows, flight tracker all were good. But while the liveguide pulled up, when I clicked on the play button nothing happened. I could see other passengers watching live tv.  I was using a Samsung tablet  android (TM-320 Android Version 4.4.2).  Seems strange that other features worked except for the live.  I tried Firefox and chrome browsers, cleared cache and restarted but no go.   Anybody else have this or similar issue? 

12 REPLIES 12

Re: Unable to watch live tv

spark
Explorer C

Same here.  Last 3 flights no live tv.  I can look at destination info, listen to music but when I try to watch a live tv channel, it never loads the content.

Re: Unable to watch live tv

dave143
Explorer C

Hello,

I have a Samsung phone which uses Android 5.0.2   Here is how I solved Dish live TV access problem:  Download "Airtime Player" app.  Download "FlashFox" browser. When on your flight,  set phone to airplane mode.  Set phone to wifi access.  Open southwest.com from FlashFox browser.  Select Live TV option.  All of the apps above are free.  The reason for the problem is that Android is not compatible with Adobe Flash. Dish TV signal format is Adobe Flash. FlashFox allows the Android device to open the Android flash format. Do not try to download Adobe Flash from a third party site, as you are likely to get a virus and have to reset your device. This happened to me.  But all is well now.

Re: Unable to watch live tv

bec102896
Aviator A

Sorry the tv didn't work for you

 

I think you may need to have the airtime player app installed on your tablet for it to work (I know you need it for movies but not sure about tv as I don't watch tv I'm usually surfing the web) 

 

i also know some devices are not supported for the tv I'm not sure though if that device is compatible or not off the top of my head 

 

hopefully it will work on your next flight!

Blake 

Re: Unable to watch live tv

Bradf
Explorer C

I have have the same problem. It has been for about 6 months and I have been on 10 to 15 different flights. I also have a Droid with the 4.2 operating system and the conditions are the same everything works except Dishould TV.

Re: Unable to watch live tv

Passenger1C
Aviator C

I agree with @bec102896. Download the Airtime Player app. 


SWA Passenger, Community Champion

Re: Unable to watch live tv

dfwskier
Aviator A

When I fly I use a Chromebook which, for those of you unfamiliar with Chromebooks, is a pretty bare bones device. I use it because it has an 11 hour battery life and recharges completely in about 1.5 hours. I've never downloaded the Airtime player app, and because I'm using a Chromebook I'd be surprised if the software was preloaded on the machine.

 

I watch broadvast TV all the time, and have never had any difficuty. I've never tried to watch a movie as most of my flights are shorter than the movies' lengths, so I see no point in even trying.

 

The point I'm rying to get to is that, given what I said above, I suspect something other than the lack of the Airtime Player is wrong with your ability to watch broadcast TV.

 

Someone else mentioned device compatibility...

Re: Unable to watch live tv

00000137736605
Explorer C

I have the same issue and I have air time installed on a samsung 9 (very new)

Re: Unable to watch live tv

poppagene
Explorer C

You need to be using a tablet with Android 5.0 or newer. My older Samsung tablet stopped showing TV on Southwest for the same reason as you are experiencing. I bought a tablet with a newer version of Android and now I'm back in business.

Re: Unable to watch live tv

00000137736605
Explorer C

same issue, i have a samsung tablet and phone (4 in total) all worked fine 2 months ago now none work for live tv but all work for movies and flight tracker.