There are a lot of geeks out there that have a very large digital movie database. When it comes to managing a large media database you end up using a lot of online portals like IMDB, RottenTomatoes, OpenSubtitles and more. This can get quite tedious when you need to visit multiple websites for different kinds of information pertaining to a movie or TV show. Portitle is a Windows application that adds media lookup support to the right click context menu.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

With Portitle installed, all you have to do is right click on a media file and choose the “browse with Portitle” option. It will open a unique page in your browser which includes all the necessary links associated with the TV or movie you’re looking up. Obviously, it does require a constant internet connection to use properly so keep that in mind.

Pros

• Adds “browse with Portitle” option to right click context menu in Windows
• When evoked, opens the Portitle website with related links based on media files name and signature
  • You have instant access to movie database information, subtitles, trailers and more
• Incredibly lightweight and uses your default browser

Cons

• Not always accurate especially with obscure content, then again it even had a hard time recognizing Game of Thrones

Discussion

Portitle is a pretty simple application that does one thing, it adds an option to the right click context menu. That option will open a link in your browser, which means you need internet access in order to use the application properly. Because it doesn’t actually add a working program to Windows, it can be considered a simple extension instead.

You do need to install the application or extension in order to use it properly. I did not encounter any bloatware or additional software requirements during the install process.

Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s useless. In fact, it’s quite the opposite especially for movie and TV buffs. If you have a lot of media stored on your computer that you like to research from time to time, this app will do just that. It will also take you to the appropriate links where you can acquire working subtitles and more.

It works like this, you click on the Portitle option and it opens the related web page in your default browser. More specifically, it uses the file name or signature to identify the content, and then opens the appropriate links on the Portitle webpage. It gives you instant access to links from a plethora of sites like the following:

• Google
• IMDB
• Sidereel
• TVDB
• Wikipedia
• YouTheater
• AllMovie
• RottenTomatoes
• iTunes
• YouTube
• TrailerAddict
• OpenSubtitles
• SubtitlesBank
• Subscene
• Various torrent sites

As you can see, that’s a pretty robust set of options which afford a great deal of information and resources. Unfortunately, I found during testing with the app that it wasn’t exactly the most accurate piece of software in the world. A search done with a file named “Game of Thrones Season 2 Episode 1” turned up an episode of Californication titled “Wish You Were Here”. Searches performed with the movies The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises turned back accurate results, but they’re certainly a lot more popular. The consensus here is that the popular stuff is more likely to be determined accurately than the obscure stuff. Although, Game of Thrones is an incredibly popular series, so I’m not sure why Portitle didn’t recognize it.

Because Portitle doesn’t truly run in the background, there are no resource usage stats to report.

Conclusion and download link

Portitle is a very simple extension for Windows –if you will- that allows you to instantly browse links associated with a media file. You right click on the file, and browse to the Portitle website through a context menu shortcut. The site then offers related links based on the name of the file and its signature. You can quickly gain access to trailers, subtitles, movie information and even download links- though the legality of the latter option is definitely questionable. It’s not the most accurate piece of the software in the world, but it will get the job done for popular and mainstream content. If you have a lot of obscure titles, documentaries or things of that nature this app may cause more trouble for you than good. Otherwise, check it out if any of the extended links seem like they’d be helpful to you. It’s also available in the form of a Chrome browser extension, and Android application (coming soon).

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.0

Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista, Seven, Eight

Download size: 314KB

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/45

Is it portable? No

Portitle homepage