Aircraft video display unit and system

A system for displaying video content to an aircraft passenger, the system comprising:

• a video display unit attached to an interior portion of an aircraft, the video display unit comprising a display screen, a local area network interface, and an infrared transceiver, the video display unit performing steps comprising:
• displaying a user interface on the display screen,
• receiving, via the infrared transceiver, signals indicating a user selection of an item from the user interface, and
• transmitting, via the network interface, data that is based at least in part on the user selection;
• and a passenger control unit comprising an infrared transmitter, the passenger control unit performing steps comprising:
• receiving a user input representing the user selection, and
• transmitting the signals indicating the user selection to the video display unit.

A system for providing video content, the system being located on-board an aircraft, the system comprising:

• a plurality of passenger seats;
• a local area network;
• a plurality of video display units, each video display unit of the plurality being located proximate to at least one of the plurality of passenger seats, each video display unit comprising:
• a display screen;
• a network interface communicatively linked to the local area network;
• a maintenance interface;
• a printed circuit board having disposed thereon a processor, the processor executing instructions that enable the processor to decode video signals;
• a server communicatively linked to the local area network, the server transmitting encoded video signals over the local area network;
• and
• wherein each of the plurality of video display units performs steps comprising:
• receiving the encoded video signals via the network interface card;
• the processor of the video display unit decoding the encoded video signals;
• displaying the video content on the display screen;
• receiving, via the maintenance interface, test signals;
• and
• transmitting, via maintenance interface, responses to the test signals representing the status of the printed circuit board.