PPT cross platform video links problem - it doesn't work!!

[ANDY]

Hi

I am sure this topic has been pushed and pulled around forever, but it
is a major problem for me that I need to resolve it as soon as
possible.
I produce many, many PPT presentations for Academic Staff for teaching
purposes using Apple Mac, OS X and Office v X Powerpoint, and the vast
majority of my presentations include video and audio.
Most of the presentations are used in a lecture room environment using
desktop or laptop PC's running XP and the latest Office.
Academic staff do not, and cannot get involved in copying, deleting
and re-inserting movie files in front of a full class of students, and
at present, the only guaranteed method of achieving this is for myself
to preload the presentations and relink the video clips on a laptop
prior to the lectures.
Ideally, the presentation needs to be run direct from a CD.
I have used different video formats, avi, mpg, wmv etc, I have made
sure all video clips are in the same directory as presentation file
before importing, I have saved the presentation as a Package file, I
have tried burning the video clips to a CD then importing these clips
to the presentation then buning the presentation file to same CD as a
session, I give up!!!! (If everyone used a Mac - no probs.)

Any help in resolving this issue will be much appreciated

Thanks
ANDY

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Andy,

I take it from your posting that something isn't working. What is happening
when the presentations are being used on Windows boxes? What version of
Windows? What version of PowerPoint?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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[ANDY]

Hi Jim

Thanks for your response.

Simple question first please Jim, should I be able to produce a PPT
presentation using Mac OS X and Office v X containing embeded video,
(normally Mpeg or Avi) save the finished presentation using the PPT
Package format and then burn the folder/files to CD, and then play the
Presentation direct from the CD, with all video clips intact on a PC
running XP and Powerpoint versions ranging from 97 to latest?
(I know this is possible from Mac to Mac)

If this is not possible, should it work if the files were copied from
the CD to the HD on the PC without having to re-import the video
files?

I have tried this over and over -making sure all the video clips were
in the same directory as the PPT file prior to importing them and also
making sure the video clips played in Windows Media Player on the PC
prior to importing them.

The presentation runs fine - although I have noticed that whenever I
save as a PPS file the PC can never find the Powerpnt.exe file to run
it!

A message always replaces the video clip - e.g. Quicktime and a YUV420
decompressor are needed to see this picture, however, if I delete the
message and re-insert the movie file - no problem, works fine!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi again,

It kinda sounds like the file associations on the PC are messed up.

If the PowerPoint show file's name has the .pps extension and it is not too
long for Windows to understand then Windows should open it in PowerPoint
when it is double-clicked.

If that's the case, maybe Windows doesn't know what to do with the media
files either. Fix the file associations on the PC is what I would do next.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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Thanks.

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