Tim Allen
04-19-2004, 06:00 PM
<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-teaser.gif" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> DVD/video collection manager<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <a href="http://pocketpc.pennetier.com">Patrice Pennetier</a><br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=99232">Download from Handango</a> (affiliate link)<br /><b>Price:</b> $24.95 USD<br /><b>System Requirements:</b> Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003; 1Mb storage space for the application plus extra for the database depending on number of movies stored.<br /><br /><b>Pros:</b><li>Movie details, cover images and quotes can be downloaded from the Internet;<br /><li>Innovative message update feature.<br /><b>Cons:</b><li>Some user interface issues;<br /><li>Of limited use without a connected Pocket PC;<br /><li>Internet search supports US movie titles only;<br /><li>Limited querying capabilities.<b>Summary:</b><br />MoviesCE has been around a while, but the recently released version 2 effectively transforms it into a new product through the ability to download movie data from the Web. If you're looking to take the next step with your movie obsession and start cataloguing your DVD or video collection, then MoviesCE does the job, albeit with some limitations.<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>What Is It?</b></span><br />MoviesCE is a specialised database that allows you to store a variety of information about your DVD (or video) collection. I'm not normally much of a fan of inventory applications like this; you can typically do much the same with a general purpose database/list manager such as ListPro or even a simple spreadsheet if pushed. So MoviesCE had better add something special to make it worth the investment.<br /><br /><span><b>Data Entry Part 1 - Searching for Titles on the Web</b></span><br />MoviesCE is shipped as an empty database, so the first thing you need to do is setup your collection.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-addmovie.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The add movie dialog.</i><br /><br />Whilst you can enter all your movie details manually yourself, the unique selling point of MoviesCE is the ability to download movie information from the Internet, thus saving a lot of time and effort setting up your collection.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-webfind1.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 2: Searching for a movie title on the Internet.</i><br /><br />You can search for a movie title, a director or an actor. You can even key in a barcode from the back of your DVD to go straight to your specific movie, but this only works for region 1 titles. In fact, no matter how you do it the search will only bring back US titles, although in most cases this isn't too much of a problem as most movies are released worldwide. Most of my DVDs are region 2 and I was able to locate them all, but sometimes I couldn't find my specific special/widescreen/collector's edition, or the cover image was different. Occasionally the titles are different as well, for example you won't find Leon (released as The Professional in the US) or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (...Sorcerer's Stone in the US).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-webfind2.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 3: The search results.</i><br /><br />Another issue here is that long movie titles don't fit in the find results list, and as there's no sideways scrolling or wordwrap, it can be difficult to distinguish between similar titles without laboriously fetching the full details for each one in turn. The same problem also exists on the main screen.<br /><br />The data is currently retrieved from sources such as Amazon and the <a href="http://www.imdb.com">Internet Movie Database</a>. The Internet search involves first going to Patrice's own server though, to perform user authentication plus downloading of any messages (see below). In spite of querying several sites, the search is generally pretty fast - or at least it was using broadband via WiFi, but painfully slow via USB ActiveSync passthrough.<br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Data Entry Part 2 - What you get back from the Internet</b></span><br />Once you've found your movie and selected it, a variety of basic details are displayed, such as the director, first four actors, studio, running time, age rating, etc. One minor problem here is that the actors list is an alphabetical list of seemingly all the cast, and because there's only space for four you don't always see the main stars.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-castcovers.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 4: The cast and cover image page.</i><br /><br />You also get a (very) short plot synopsis, some quotes and an image of the DVD cover. The ability to download covers seems trivial at first, but actually seeing your movie, 'in the flesh' as it were, really makes a big difference.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-tech.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 5: The technical information page.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-story.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 6: The plot synopsis page.</i><br /><br />The quotes are also surprisingly good; there's typically a large and interesting selection for most movies, and all your favourites are there.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-quotes.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 7: The quotes page.</i><br /><br />On the downside, I found that several movies had incomplete details, such as missing director and actors (The Two Towers four disc box set), missing story and quotes (Ronin) or no cover image (Goldeneye special edition). Obviously you can always fill in the blanks yourself, and in the case of covers you can load in your own scanned images, but that just seems like too much effort to me.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-extradetails.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 8: The full technical information page.</i><br /><br />In fact, you have to enter some details yourself anyway. Once you've clicked to save the selected movie, you're presented with more detailed screens where you can enter the DVD region, sound format, screen aspect ratio and category. Unfortunately you can only assign a single category to each movie, whereas I wanted to have combinations such as 'Fantasy' and 'Children', or 'Science-Fiction' and 'Animation'.<br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Data Entry Part 3 - Your own Personal Information</b></span><br />Once you have the main details sorted, you can then enter your own more specific information about each movie, such as when you last saw it, whether it's loaned to anyone plus some free-text notes. Here the application allows you to cheat a bit as there's also an 'Owner' checkbox, so you can record all the movies you'd like to own as well as those you already do.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-checkmovie.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 9: The strangely named 'Check Movies' screen for entering your own movie attributes.</i><br /><br /><span><b>So Then, What Shall I Watch Tonight?</b></span><br />Phew, having got all the raw data in, it's time to sit back and wallow in the bounteous information resource you've created. A variety of questions spring to mind:<li>Which movies haven't I seen for at least six months? Or twelve months?<br /><li>I've got only an hour and a half to kill - what can I see in that time?<br /><li>What were the exact words spoken by Maximus when he revealed his identity in Gladiator? Or the jive dudes in Airplane? Or Matthew's eulogy to Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral?<br /><li>Which horror movies do I own? Which science-fiction ones?<br /><li>Which of my movies were directed by Ridley Scott? Or Martin Scorsese? Or Ron Howard?<br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-filterselection.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 10: The filter selection screen.</i><br /><br />You can answer many of these and more besides, but unfortunately the first question - and by far the most useful in my opinion - can't be answered by MoviesCE. You can search for those movies not seen at all, i.e. irrespective of date, but how many of your films are you not likely to have ever seen?<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-filteredlist.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 11: The main list filtered to show action movies only, and with covers un-zoomed.</i><br /><br />Overall the filter criteria are pretty limited, and there's also no way to further refine the results of a previous search.<br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Other Features and Options</b></span><br />Patrice has introduced what I think is a fairly unique feature, namely the ability to send MoviesCE users messages via the application itself. These are actually downloaded when you connect to the Internet to search for movie titles, and supposedly cover things like program update news, hints and tips, etc. However I only received one over several weeks of use, so it remains to be seen just how useful this will actually be compared to simply sending emails to registered users.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-messages.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 12: The messages screen showing a tip I received.</i><br /><br />You can also display a slideshow of your movie covers, where you're treated to the full size cover images in all their glory.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-slideshow.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 13: Slideshow in progress.</i><br /><br />There are various configuration options covering things like the quality of cover images, the default DVD region and the second language to specify sound formats in.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-options1.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 14: The first options page.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-options2.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 15: The second options page.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-options3.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 16: You guessed it - the third options page.</i><br /><br />Unfortunately one thing you can't configure is where to store the database files, and as they're not stored in My Documents you'll have to remember to back them up yourself.<br /><br />You can also define your own categories, sound formats and movie types.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/allen-apr04-moviesce-editmenu.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 17: The edit menu.</i> <br /><PAGEBREAK> <br /><br /><span><b>Conclusions</b></span><br />So in the end does MoviesCE add anything special enough to make it worth the extra investment? The answer, I think, is yes, as the movie information download is a killer feature in what is otherwise just a simple customised database. The cover images and quotes especially, as these are things that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to do yourself.<br /><br />However there are some inevitable caveats, some of which may be showstoppers for you. Firstly you obviously need a connected Pocket PC to really make use of it, and a fast connection at that. It also uses a lot of memory. Even with the movie information download, I still found entering my movie collection a time-consuming process, and I only have 50-odd movies - I know some of you will have 10 times this amount. I'd like to see some way of speeding up the bulk entry of movies, maybe via pre-defined bundles based on trilogies, series, common themes or categories, etc.<br /><br />The user interface generally lacks polish, with a slightly unprofessional look and feel probably due in some part to the use of Embedded Visual Basic as the development language. For example, each screen in the application is a top-level window, and sometimes they don't refresh properly if you switch applications half way through doing something; the error message dialogs have 'Visual Basic' as the title and the application uses the default VB icon; and screen response can be a bit sluggish.<br /><br />Price-wise MoviesCE does come in towards the expensive end of Pocket PC software, but it may help to think of it partly as a service rather than just a standalone application. This is not written by a faceless software house but by one person, and someone who should be applauded for innovative thinking, especially as I understand from Patrice that he has some more exciting and original ideas lined up for the next version.<br /><br />Ultimately MoviesCE allows you to take your DVD/video collection with you, and saves you the tiresome bother of getting up from the sofa to browse your collection. All we need now is a robot to actually get your chosen movie off the shelf and put it in the player for you.