Windows Phone Thoughts: Movie Mastery On The Go: MoviesCE v2.1 Review

Conclusions
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.