PPT to dvd-video conversion with

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mitch Gallant
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Mitch Gallant

I am evaluating PresenterSoft's product "PowerVideoMaker" as a ppt to video
converter. Here are some results:


I have only tried one conversion so far and there appears to be a problem
with vertical flicker on my computer after a conversion (I haven't burnt a
DVD yet). The following is my configuration:

WinXP Pro SP2 fully patched; PIII 850 MHz 512 M RAM, 12 Gb HD space
available

File to be converted is 22 slides with several embedded (wav) and liked
(MP3) audio files. Most slides have sliding transitions. Size ~ 40 Mbytes

Target conversion format: DVD video 720x480 30 fps etc. (standard
DVD-targetting high quality setting)

Conversion occurs successfully (taking about 1 hr 15 min). Output mpg file
is about 570 Mb

The problem is that when I play that output MPG file (with Windows Media
Player 10) on my computer, there is an annoying vertical jitter (noise). It
seems to appear randomly on most slides (not related to slides containing
audio clips).

Has anyone else evaulated this product? I really like the simplicity of this
product, but obviously the flicker is not acceptable.

- Mitch Gallant
 
Mitch,

I've tried this as well as the competing products. I have not found any
that give quality (acceptable to me) results.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com
 
Can you elaborate? I was told that wmv output woudl yield better results
than MPG .. I'm pretty sure that jitter is intrinsic (and not my display).
What about CamTasia output?

(btw, in case there is some confusion, I have posted other threads recently
that have focused mainly one DVD/VCD/SVCD slide-shows of static images and
audio .. ; Here I am referring to the full video conversion of the ppt
presentation)

- Mitch
 
Mitch,

All of these converstion tools seem to work in one of two ways.

Method 1. Export the presentation to HTLM and then capture each step of the
animations by manipulating the HTML. The problem here is the HTML output
leaves much to be desired.

Method 2. Capture the video display to a file. The problem here is very
few machines have the power to capture more than 5-8 frames a second and it
looks like it. Lowering screen resolution helps bring the FPS up but, well
it's low resolution.

I am not knocking either, just saying that the final product just doesn't
measure up to what most people expect from a DVD...

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com
 
Alright. I have succeeded in obtaining quite good results using
PresenterSoft's PowerVideoMaker v2.0.1 PPT to video converter using this
approach:

- Preferred Video Format: WMV High Quality - 8000 Kbps and 720x480 video
resolution
- Select "Use Timings if exist" (to use PowerPoint transition timings
etc..)
As indicated below, there seems to be a problem if MPG output is selected
with PowerVideoMaker. The source PPT presentation was a 22 slide file (with
several internal animation transitions and audio clips .. both embedded and
linked MP3 files).
- selected 6 % safe border

The starter PPT file was 2.9 Mb (I reduced it from 40 Mb initially, by
downsizing the original images using Microsoft Office Picture Manager). The
WMV converted video file was 72 Mb.
The audio and image quality was quite good. The only annoying artifacts
found in the WMV was some slide transitions with 'pixilated' (Dissolve)
transitions were not smooth . with pauses in the dissolve effect compared to
the original PPT transition. The 6% border was a bit marginal. 8 - 10%
would be optimal.
The PowerVideoMaker conversoin took about 1hr 20 min (on PIII 850 MHz 512 M
ram, 12 Gb HD).

The WMV file was then used as input file to DVD project using Ulead DVD
MovieFactory 3SE.
In the final MovieFactory burn screen, the "Include personal folder to disc"
was selected so that a folder on the DVD is created that can conveniently
store the original PPT presentation (and also the wmv file if desired plus
other useful data). This process takes about 1.5 hours (since WMV must be
converted to DVD MPG format).

Burnt using DVD+R medium. Looks very good on large screen and standard
consumer-grade Toshiba DVD player.

I have also seen a similar presentatin converted using PowerVideoMaker which
converted to VCD which looks fairly good.

- Mitch Gallant
 
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