PowerPoint 2003 won't play a video that 2000 would.

[KP Conrad]

PPT 2003 will not play a video that PPTXP would play. Even if I have the
video saved in the same folder as the presentation. Despite trying pack and
go or anything else - it won't work. XP worked with gliches, but I could
circumvent them. The inserted video looks like a black box and when you
click to run it goes to the image but never plays the video.

 

[Austin Myers]

Is this a different machine? Are all service packs installed? Have you
upgraded DirectX, your video drivers, and Windows Media Player?

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

 

[KP Conrad]

Thank you, Austin. Yes, this is a different machine. The PPT presentation
would run on a number of machines that had earlier versions of PPT (2000, XP)
but won't work on this brand new machine with PPT 2003. I believe our IT
person has installed all service packs. I am unfamiliar with DirectX. As
this is a new machine I presume that the video driver is new (up to date) and
that the version of Media player is new - although I am not sure how media
player is involved with this issue.

 

[Sonia]

Don't assume that the video driver is up to date. In fact, you can probably
assume that it is not up to date. Go to the manufacturer's website and look for
driver updates for your version of Windows.
--

Sonia Coleman
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun Software, Templates and Tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com

 

[Austin Myers]

New machines are rarely up todate with drivers and such. The OEM's builds
an install package for their machines and only update it every so often
(usually after learning of a problem.) due to the cost and testing required.
You can almost bet any new machine is behind the curve on drivers when it's
delivered. So again, I suggest checking the video card manufactures web
site for an updated video driver.

Why update Windows Media Player? While it is true that WMP has little to do
with PowerPoint, it does install all the newer codecs for Windows. The
codecs themselves then become available for system wide use, including of
course PPT via the MCI Player.

DirectX also plays an important role as that is what is used to actually
display the video (DirectShow). We could discuss DirectX all day and still
not get to all of it so I'll simply tell you the best course of action is to
go to the MS Download site and update it.

One last thought, you don't say what sort of video this is. If it is an
Mpeg-2 file you must have an Mpeg-2 codec installed on the machine and it
does NOT come with Windows and must be installed by the user from a third
party vendor.

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team