Export PPT to MPEG/DVD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sleurhutje
  • Start date Start date
S

Sleurhutje

Hi,

I need to export presentations on a monthly basis (company presentations) to
a DVD/(S)VCD so that a cheap DVD player can play this presentation all day
long on a screen in the waiting areas. Using computers in these areas is out
of the question after several have been stolen.

I tried Microsoft Producer and the TechSmith screen capturing software, but
without any results that satisfies me. The former doesn't use the transition
effects that are in the presentation (only static slides) and the latter
results in a distorted result with flickering transitions (despite of using
a P4ht/2.8GHz with 1GB RAM/120GB HDD and a GeForce AGP 8x videocard).

Is there a good and high quality solution for converting PPT presentations
to video? It doesn't have to be license free software.



Jeroen
 
I still think the best results, if you have the hardware, come from either
of 2 methods (but my background is in video and smoothness of playback is of
ultimate importance):
Simplest - connect a TV output from the PC to a domestic DVD recorder
(s-video preferably). Many such recorders construct their own menu system
so you'd almost certainly have to rip the MPEG file and recreate the DVD.
Or - connect the TV output from one PC to the capture input of another and
capture as MPEG2 (there are several cheap products on the market that can
capture direct to MPEG2).
There are several products such as Ulead's DVD Pictureshow that create a DVD
out of a pile of JPEGs, but again the transitions are lost.

You're likely to notice a loss of quality on the TV, which is a symptom of
the many differences between a computer display and a video monitor. Some
things to steer clear of:
1) horizontal movement can appear jerky due to interlacing
2) very thin lines (again, particularly horizontal) shimmer
3) saturated or very bright colours flare up (avoid red and large areas of
pure white - use 95% grey instead).
4) the TV does not display the whole image - be prepared to allow for a
5-10% margin all round the slides.
5) more things...
 
Use a DVD authoring application.
They cost a fraction of the price of PowerPoint and do
what they are designed for- making DVD presentations.
Pinnacle are the leaders here.

They do all the things powerpoint can for showing a Kiosk
type show in DVD quality. They show text, graphics, video,
sound, and still photographs.

You can then either use existing PowerPoint pages and
export each page as a jpeg or much better, construct the
whole presentation from the DVD application.


So use PowerPoint for computer screen shows and DVD
applications for DVD shows!
Scotia
 
Even cheaper and simpler would be to save the slides as images and then use
Movie Maker 2 (requires Windows XP) which is free and offers a large
selection of transitions. Audio can be added, as well as video footage.
It's also extremely intuitive and easy to use.
 
Does the application you're referring to allow for animations and builds?
Or does it just string together still images?
I only ask because the original post suggests that is an important crierion.
 
Have you given Windows Media Encoder a try? If not I would recommend it
with one caveat, the user interface isn't very intuitive so be prepared to
spend a little time figuring it out.

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team
 
Media Encoder uses screen capturing on the same machine as where the encoder
is running. I tried this also, but results in disturbed playback as well. It
also produces a .wmv file which isn't accepted by default on Nero Vision
Express. Also ULead Media Studio/Video Produce, Magix Video Studio, Pinnacle
Video Studio and Adobe Premiere 6.5 have problems with this file format.

Since transitions are important and the presentation is made by one of our
customers (must say they're very nice and highly advanced, but very readable
even on a TV screen), there is no options to use other software. The only
solution left is to play the presentation on a VGA-to-Video convertor and
capture the videostream on a computer with captura capabilities. Then I have
an MPEG stream which can be used, although much of the quality is lost (JPEG
slides converted are much better readable, but they are static).


Jeroen.
 
Now, it is recommended that PowerPoint2DVD from
http://www.powerpoint-to-dvd.com can convert PPT to MPEG/DVD/miniDVD,
and the background music or pics are supported, you can play your PPT
on TV automatically or manually, and many selection menu provided.
 
Back
Top