HD Video in PPT?

[Paul Jackman]

How can I search the archives for past posts? I am particularly interested
in discussions about using high definition video in PowerPoint
presentations.

Paul

 

[Austin Myers]

Paul ask away and I'll see if I can help out.



Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Echo S]

Austin's your man, Paul! Ask away!

As for the other part of the question, I can't actually remember any
discussions here about HD video, but when I need to search newsgroup
archives, I use Google Groups. http://groups.google.com will take you to the
main page. Then hit the "advanced search" option. Input your keywords and
search in newsgroup microsoft.public.powerpoint

Searching in group microsoft.public.* will search in all the Microsoft
public newsgroups that are archived in Google Groups.

 

[Paul Jackman]

Austin,
Some of the original dialog stated that inserting high definition video was
no different than inserting .avi .mov or mpeg. I guess my question is this.
any PowerPoint show is pc based so how can a PC running PPT play HD video
files even at the low end HD from DVD which runs at somewhere around
12-13mbps?
Or is it PPT converted to DVD and then playing HD clips? I think there are
some high end laptops that may be able to handle these files. But what I am
trying to do is to justify using PowerPoint presentations in Digital Signage
applications through HD capable displays and projectors.

In general PPT is an application of choice for many digital signage
projects.

Paul
--
Jackman Media(tm) http://www.jacktech.net

Paul ask away and I'll see if I can help out.



Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Austin Myers]

Paul,

As you noted, it is a lot of data and it will take a beefy PC to handle it
well. But with that said, I've ran videos that are in the 20 to 25 meg a
second range with minimal problems on a 2.6 GHz machine. There are really
two areas that need to be addressed, lots of RAM and a great video card with
lots of RAM.

Two other issues to be aware of is: A. How the presentation is built and
what it contains, and B. the video's format.

Concerning the presentation, you will want to avoid having a slide
transition and immediately firing the video. I like to give a two or three
second delay before stating the video, even if I need to throw a bit of text
up to cover the "dead time". Also, don't try to do a lot of fancy
animations while the video is playing. PPT animations ARE CPU intensive and
loading the CPU with both tasks will almost certainly give less than
suboptimal results.

The video format (codec used) will also play a role in video playback. I
would highly recommend using the Microsoft WMV 9 codec for this. The
advantage is that Windows (DirectX) is designed to work hand in glove with
WMV files. In fact some of the work will actually be handled by the video
card (Off loading he main CPU) if the card is capable of doing so. (FYI:
PFCMedia will handle the conversion automatically for you. You can get a
free trail version from www.pfcmedia.com)


All in all, if you watch out for the things mentioned above you should have
no problem doing what you want. (Ummm, did I mention RAM is good and more
RAM is better? <g>)




Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

Austin,
Some of the original dialog stated that inserting high definition video
was
no different than inserting .avi .mov or mpeg. I guess my question is
this.
any PowerPoint show is pc based so how can a PC running PPT play HD video
files even at the low end HD from DVD which runs at somewhere around
12-13mbps?
Or is it PPT converted to DVD and then playing HD clips? I think there are
some high end laptops that may be able to handle these files. But what I
am
trying to do is to justify using PowerPoint presentations in Digital
Signage
applications through HD capable displays and projectors.

In general PPT is an application of choice for many digital signage
projects.

Paul

 

[Paul Jackman]

Okay, so as I have done before with other avi or mov clips, I can run 2 or
more HD videos simultaneously inserted on one slide? This shouldn't put any
more of a demand on the CPU.

All I would have to do is" insert movie from file" to start with previous
and the display (projector) will recognize it and play it correctly. I
notice that when two clips are run simultaneously on a slide the second clip
still starts about 1/2 second after the first. You can only see this if the
clips are identical, otherwise you wouldn't notice it. I don't think this
will be an issue with what I am doing.

I am trying to match the end result with video servers, but there I am up
against players capable of 40mbps including 5.1 sound. I guess setting this
up and trying it is the best test.

Thanks

 

[Troy @ TLC Creative]

Paul,

Austin is your expert and everything he said makes 100% sense to me. If you
are capable of dictating the software on the computer look at OfficeFX
Professional's (www.instanteffects.com) system requirements (and budget). If
that looks good, shoot their tech support an email asking about HD video use
and your exact area of use (digital signage). Tell them Troy from TLC
Creative Services referred you and you should get some interesting solutions
(they have been working with a major producer of network shows for a mobile
HD solution and things are really sounding great - live feed HD through
firewire that can be switched as needed, without any slide transition!).

 

[Austin Myers]

I don't think so Paul. While you may run one HD video I don't believe you
will be able to run two at the same time. That's more of a machine issue
than PowerPoint. The problem you will run into is that there isn't a hard
drive I can think of that will transfer that much data at a sustained rate.
(Most hard drives are rated in *burst* mode so be careful about manufactures
claims.) You might consider installing a second hard drive (a fast one) and
place one video one one and the other on the second drive. In such a
situation I'd go with SATA drives.

Another alternative is to realy load the machine up with RAM (say 4 gig or
better) and dedicate part of it to a RAM drive. You could then load the
video into RAM and link it to the the pressie. Not cheap but very, very
fast.

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Paul Jackman]

It would be better then in video post production to create the video in
Final Cut Pro and layer each video mastered as PIP "Picture In Picture" for
as many as is needed 2, 3, or 4 independent or interactive screens in one
PPT slide.

But I guess all this effort would be better created in video played by a DVD
or video server without the PC
I still feel that PowerPoint has a definite place in Digital Signage and I
will continue to advocate it.

Paul Jackman