Keeping Track of Your Movie Collection with CeeMedia

Written by: MD Weems • Edited by: Michele McDonough
Published Sep 20, 2008 • Related Guides: Windows | Linux | Movie

For those interested in movie cataloging software for Linux operating systems, here is a review of CeeMedia to help you know if it is the right option for you.

What is CeeMedia and How Does it Work?

When it comes to Linux movie cataloging software, there are several good applications out there on the market. I checked out CeeMedia and here is what I found:

For those who don't know what CeeMedia is, it is basically a Linux application that allows you to catalog your movie collection. It is very similar to Alexandria in that it can search for information on the movie from all over the web, then pull up and insert the information into the program for you. So, after it searches, it will automatically put in the movie cover, images, ratings, and other information into the program for you. It will search through Amazon, IMDb, and All Movie Guide for the information to plug into the program on the movie that you select, help you keep track of all of the different features that are on the DVDs you own, and allow you to search through your movies by several different categories. You can even cache specific internet searches so that you get the information even faster when you perform that search next.

The latest release of CeeMedia is version 0.5.2.1 and it has several new features and updates, including an “I've seen this movie” button that you can click on in the right-click menu. It also has a “Release Date” category that you can set up so that it will alert you in a calendar popup, which is good for those movie buffs who are looking forward to specific movies being released.

CeeMedia runs on the Ubuntu Linux system, but you can run it on just about any other Linux system out there today as well – so don't worry if you aren't a Ubuntu user. But, there are some requirements that your system will have to meet to be able to run CeeMedia:

Python 2.3 or better
PyGtk 2.6 or better
Python-Glade 2.5 or better

Now, for those of you who are Windows users, CeeMedia probably won't work right. There is a support area on their site for it, but it is widely reported that it crashes or acts really odd when you are using it on a Windows platform. I wouldn't recommend it, but the site says that it will run on Windows, so maybe with a little tweaking, you can get it to run.

My Review
Rating

The program itself has a really clean and sleek interface that is extremely easy to use. I haven't seen many places on the web where people have posted that they have had it crash on them. In fact, I think I've only seen one report. So, that is a good point. The installation of the program takes just about 10 minutes or less and is really easy – even for me.

When you install CeeMedia and start it up, you will find that it is so easy to add movies into the program. By clicking on Add Movie, you can select from the drop-down menu on how you want to retrieve the information. You can then hit search and a search window will pop up that will allow you to search for the information several different ways, as general or as specific as you want to get. When the program finds the information that you asked for, it will show it to you in a text box, and you can modify it however you want – which I think is cool. You can also mark the movie in several different ways, like seen, adult, favorite, rating, and so on. To search through your movie collection, you can easily use the shelf view that will put the movie covers on a nice little wooden background.

But there are a few downers on CeeMedia. When you are using the index, you can only save it by completely exiting the whole program. This stinks in that if you just want to save the index and keep using it since you have to get out of the program and go back in. Since the application hasn't had an update released in two years, it can crash on you while you are in the middle of something and you'll lose everything you just did. It also doesn't have an automatic index, which stinks because you have to add the entries one at a time. So these are some down sides to the program itself.

Overall though, I give CeeMedia a good 4 out of 5 just because it is so easy to use. If you would like to find out more about CeeMedia, you can visit their website at http://ceemedia.sosdg.org.

Keeping Track of Your Movie Collection with CeeMedia

What is CeeMedia and How Does it Work?

My ReviewRating

My Review
Rating