Chris Topher said:
I have an MPEG that plays in Windows Media Player just fine, and will
insert
into a slide without any trouble; but when I play the movie, the sound
plays
normally, but the video component just shows a black screen. Does anyone
know
what's wrong, or what I can do to fix this?
For some reason unbeknownst to common man, PowerPoint will embed pictures
and audio into the presentation, but only links to video files. A good
practice when constructing presentations with video is to put the
presentation and video files in the same folder (i.e., create a folder just
for the presentation and videos). If you are going to be making a ton of
presentations with the same videos over and over again, it may make more
sense to create a \my documents\my videos\my PowerPoint videos\ folder and
insert from there. However, this will kill the presentation if you try to
move it to another machine. A separate folder as mentioned earlier is the
only sure way. When you insert a video into a presentation and try to run
it, PowerPoint will first check the original path to the video. If it fails,
it then checks the folder that contains the presentation itself. If that
fails, your presentation/video won't play.
Next is the issue of installed video codecs (code/decode) - just because a
video player runs in media player means nothing as PowerPoint uses a
different video playback system. Your best bet here is download one of the
various "codec packs" available for free on the net (see the k-lite packs at
www.free-codecs.com).
The next thing to worry about are your video drivers, make sure they are up
to date. Your problem may stem from a driver issue. Try this:
1. Right click on the desktop
2. Select Properties
3. Select Settings
4. Select Advanced
5. Select Troubleshooting
6. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider back a notch at a time, checking
your presentation video. I've seen some circumstances where we've had to
turn it all the way down in order for a video to work.
Good luck,
dam
