avi video in powerpoint

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jana
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Jana

I am trying to play an *.avi video imbedded in a power point slide. The
video plays in media player OK. When the video is inserted on the slide,
the still image looks good (anti-aliased). When the video is played the
images are very pixilated (blocky) and the text on screen is very hard to
read. Has anyone seen this before? What is the secret to playing smooth,
anti-aliased video in PowerPoint?

Thanks!
 
Jana said:
I am trying to play an *.avi video imbedded in a power point slide.
Click to expand...

Actually, the video is linked, because video can't be embedded into PPT.
That's neither here nor there with regard to your problem now, but at some
point in time it may be something you're glad you know.
The
video plays in media player OK.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking, PPT uses the MCI Media Player to play multimedia files.
If you're talking about the file playing fine in Windows Media Player, it
probably doesn't make much difference. See
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/multimedia.htm for
specifics.
When the video is inserted on the slide,
the still image looks good (anti-aliased). When the video is played the
images are very pixilated (blocky) and the text on screen is very hard to
read. Has anyone seen this before? What is the secret to playing smooth,
anti-aliased video in PowerPoint?
Click to expand...

Did you resize the video after you inserted it into PPT? What codec was used
to create it?

Test the file in the MCI Media Player as described in the multimedia
tutorial. How does it look there?
 
Hi there. Thanks for the input.

Actually, I had already found Sonia's site and read her tutorials about
PowerPoint & Multimedia, which were excellent, but unfortunately did not
solve my problem yet. My *.avi plays well in the MCI Media Player and in
QuickTime for that matter.

The video was created with TechSmith's Camtasia Studio. QuickTime reports
the video codec as TechSmith EnSharpen.

I inserted the video into the slide using the Insert: Movies and Sounds
menu. I did not resize the object in any way. The pixelated display almost
looks like it could be a color/palette issue. ??

How were videos that you have played in PowerPoint created? What codec did
you use? Maybe I could use Camtasia to capture my video, but reencode it
before inserting it into powerpoint.

Thanks for your help!!

-Jana
 
Hm. If the video plays well in the MCI player, then it should look good in
PPT as well, since that's what should be playing it in PPT. (These weird
things are so frustrating! You're doing everything right, so you shouldn't
be having problems!)

You might try re-encoding with a different codec. I kow that Cinepak is
pretty universal -- it's not always the greatest quality, but it might be
worth a try, anyway.

I wonder if an MPEG would perform any better?

Oh, which version of PPT are you working in? (Just curious.)

Echo

Jana said:
Hi there. Thanks for the input.

Actually, I had already found Sonia's site and read her tutorials about
PowerPoint & Multimedia, which were excellent, but unfortunately did not
solve my problem yet. My *.avi plays well in the MCI Media Player and in
QuickTime for that matter.

The video was created with TechSmith's Camtasia Studio. QuickTime reports
the video codec as TechSmith EnSharpen.

I inserted the video into the slide using the Insert: Movies and Sounds
menu. I did not resize the object in any way. The pixelated display
almost
looks like it could be a color/palette issue. ??

How were videos that you have played in PowerPoint created? What codec
did
you use? Maybe I could use Camtasia to capture my video, but reencode it
before inserting it into powerpoint.

Thanks for your help!!

-Jana
Click to expand...
 
I am using PowerPoint 97.

I have been trying to export the video from Camtasia with using different
codecs. So far, I am getting the same results in PP.

I am going to reinstall my video card drivers and try some videos from
different sources.

If you have any other ideas, please let me know. Thanks!


Echo S said:
Hm. If the video plays well in the MCI player, then it should look good in
PPT as well, since that's what should be playing it in PPT. (These weird
things are so frustrating! You're doing everything right, so you shouldn't
be having problems!)

You might try re-encoding with a different codec. I kow that Cinepak is
pretty universal -- it's not always the greatest quality, but it might be
worth a try, anyway.

I wonder if an MPEG would perform any better?

Oh, which version of PPT are you working in? (Just curious.)

Echo
Click to expand...
 
I am using PowerPoint 97.

I have been trying to export the video from Camtasia with using different
codecs. So far, I am getting the same results in PP.
Click to expand...

avi pretty much sucks as a DELIVERY codec by today's standards. Much better
to use MPEG. Better quality at lower bit rates, universal playback if >=
W98, easy to decode for the host computer. If you don't have an MPEG-1
encoder you can use something free like TMPGenc at http://www.tmpgenc.net/
or one of the billion or so tools at download.com

avi is still a very common CAPTURE codec for the PC. So most PC
editing/capture programs use AVI in it's uncompressed (or not compressed
very much) form, but as a delivery codec it has been long overtaken by
MPEG-1, QT, REAL and of course WiMP.


regards


dean laffan

r e a l w o r l d p r o d u c t i o n s
6 7 l i t t l e g e o r g e s t, f i t z r o y
m e l b o u r n e, a u s t r a l i a, 3 0 6 5

ph +613-9419-3966
Mobile 0418-525-315
 
I agree that MPEG1 is probably the best codec available today for linked
video content in Powerpoint files. The MPEG1 standard has been around for
so long that just about every computer configuration can play it. You don't
have the insanely confusing number of codecs like MPEG2, and you don't need
a 3rd party player like Quicktime. MPEG4 may replace it someday, but until
then MPEG1 is the way to go.

KK.

*** http://FootageShack.com - Buy and Sell stock video footage for
presentations ***
 
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