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![]() How media is used in PowerPoint along with some Quick Answers "Your tutorial saved us countless hours, THANK YOU!" Unknown Email from our in-box |
| Multimedia and PowerPoint Tutorial | Quick Answers to Media Questions |
The Basics
Using the MCI Player in PowerPointThe MCI player has been a part of Windows since Windows 3.0a. It was designed with the concept that as technology in media compression improved, the improvements could be "plugged in" to the player. You may have heard the term "codec" tossed around when talking about multimedia. In simple terms, codec means the COmpressor/DECompressor used to manipulate a media file. (Think of it as a small program.) With it the user can compress a media file to shrink it's size for transport and the receiving computer can decompress it for playback. In most aspects you can think of it doing the same thing WinZip does for other types of files. The biggest difference is that *some* data is thrown away if it's not needed. By having replaceable codecs we can install the ones we want or need to both compress the media file and to decompress it for playback. The caveat of course is that the codec must be compatible with the Windows MCI Player if it is used in PowerPoint. (Not all codecs are compatible, Apple's QuickTime is a good example of one that is not.) If I compress a file with a specific codec and send it to your PC, your PC must have the same codec installed to play the media. In almost all cases where a PowerPoint presentation is sent to another PC and the media fails to play, the cause is a missing or improperly configured codec. Test your video in the MCI PlayerYou may test your machine set up by manually
starting the MCI player and opening the media file to be tested. To do
so click Start > Run and type "mplayer.exe" in the command line box and
click OK. (For Windows 2000 type "mplay32.exe" and for Windows XP type
"mplayer2.exe") If this fails to start the player or if your PC can't
locate it, use the Windows search feature for "mplay*.exe" and it should
find it for you. Once found double click it to start it. Codecs, a must have for PowerPoint MediaAbove we talked about codecs and how they work
with the MCI player. The next issue is what to do if you have a media
file that requires a codec not installed on your machine. First, it is
important to understand there are hundreds of codecs and new ones appear
almost daily. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that you can not
have every possible codec on your machine, nor would you want to. I
caution users here, having too many codecs can, and often does, cause
conflicts resulting in failure to play the media properly. There are
several "codec packs" available on the internet and my recommendation is
to install ONLY the codecs you know for certain you need and NOT to
install the entire pack. (A popular downloadable codec pack is
K Lite.)
Another alternative (and a better one in my opinion) is to use what I
would call mainstream codecs. These may be downloaded from the
Microsoft Download Center. The advantage here is that Microsoft
spends the time and effort to make certain these codecs work as they
should and can properly be registered for use by the MCI player. Determine what codec(s) you needLets take a common situation I see users running into and walk through how to correct any issues. In this case we are going to assume a few things: You are running Windows 98se, ME, 2000, XP or Vista. You are running PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, or 2007. You have obtained a multimedia file you wish to use. If you can not insert and play the media file the first order of business is to determine what sort of file it is. While the file name extension (AVI, WMV, MP3, etc.) can give us some clues, I often find that files are mislabeled and are not really what they claim to be. I highly recommend the use of a small program called GSpot. This is a free utility and is an excellent method of gaining information on a media file, including determining the codec being used. If you do not have the proper codec installed to play the file, GSpot will inform you of this and in most cases tell you what codec is needed. With this information you may download and install the needed codec as explained above. This will now allow you to play the media file on your machine and in PowerPoint, however if it is not a standard Windows codec it will not play on other machines when you send them your presentation. Make the media files work when I distribute my presentationIn order to play the presentation on other machines
there are two possible methods. The first is to have the recipient
install the needed codec and hope they do it properly. The second option
is to convert the media file using a standard codec found on all Windows
PCs. (This is what PFCMedia and PFCPro do.) It sounds complicatedI don't think there is anything that changes as
fast as media use on PCs and keeping up with it is a real challenge for
the average user. Lets face it, most PowerPoint users just want to use
media, not become experts in all the technologies for it. Nothing seems to work for meOne of the biggest problems I see users
experiencing is having installed too many codecs that conflict with each
other, and installing multiple video applications, players, etc. There
are a number of free media players out there that people install to
solve a given problem, unfortunately it quite often creates other
problems. |
My videos play in Media Player but not PowerPointPowerPoint uses the Windows MCI player (not the Windows Media Player) to play all video in your presentations. Videos, along with their associated codecs, must match the MCI player requirements. See Tutorial on left. I get a black or white screen with audio but no videoThe most common cause of this is a path/file name that is too long. Try moving your presentations to a folder with a shorter path (Example "C:\test"). Move the video file to the same folder and then re-insert it in your presentation. My presentations/videos fail when moved to another PCPowerPoint links to media files, it does not embed them. You must move the media files along with the presentation. Additionally, the media files should ALWAYS be in the same folder as the presentation BEFORE you insert them in the presentation to preserve linking when moved. Some media files don't work at allPowerPoint respects Digital Rights Management (Copyrights) and will not play media files with it. The other possibility is that you do not have the correct codec installed. (See media terms below for "codec".) I can't get QuickTime files to workQuickTime is format from Apple that is not compatible with the Windows MCI Player. You must convert QuickTime files to a Windows format or insert the Apple QuickTime Player as an "object" in your presentation. (For legal reasons PFCMedia and PFCPro do NOT support QuickTime processing.) How do I insert a YouTube videoYouTube uses a proprietary format that is not compatible with the MCI Player. Files from YouTube must be converted to a standard Widows format. (A Google search will give you many convertors.) PFCPro will insert a player control in your presentation which will link directly to the video across the internet and "stream" it to your presentation. (See PFCPro description.) My existing presentations with media stopped workingThe most common cause for this is the installation of codecs or applications that changed your system settings. In almost all cases the simplest fix is to download and re-install Windows Media Player. While not used directly in PowerPoint, re-installing the Windows Media Player corrects your system settings. Meaning of common media termsAC3 - A very high quality
audio codec commonly used in commercial DVDs. It may contain multiple
sound tracks for different languages. My Slides don't "fit" my Monitor.With so many new monitor sizes and ratios (wide screen) its often difficult to make the presentation fill the screen and the result are black areas displayed when the presentation is given. The trick of course is to alter the slides dimensions to meet the needs of the display, unfortunately finding just the right size can be a frustrating experience of experimenting until you find something close enough to work. To help with this we built a small utility to help you calculate the exact size needed regardless of the ratio or size of the monitor. The best part, we provide it free to all PowerPoint users and you can get a copy right here. |