Why does PowerPoint 2003 play my video but not display it?...

[DevotedDave]

I have a presentation with video that works fine under PowerPoint 2000 but
when I present it under 2003 I can hear the audio but the video does not
display. This happens when I add the video using Insert, Video, From File.
However, when I add the video using Insert, Object, Video Clip - it works!
However, I don't want the video controls to display on my videa (as they
appear using the second approach)?
I have tried several video formats including several AVI codecs, MPG, and
WMV - all with the same result. I have even downloaded PowerPoint 2003SP1
with no change - except now I get an MCI Error that locks up PowerPoint when
running the WMVs (all other formats act like they are playing - just no
display).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sonia]

See http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm
--

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

 

[DevotedDave]

Sonia -

Thank you - kicking the video accelleration down got the videos to
play,but now when the video plays it redisplays the first frame of the video
at the end of playing it before moving on to the next slide. I tried
selecting the "hide while not playing" option but saw no difference. It
plays OK if I use the old PP 2000 viewer executable but not with the 2003
version.

Any ideas on this?

David

 

[Sonia]

When you insert a video, PowerPoint inserts an image of the first frame which
shows on the slide when the video is not playing. Since videos always play on
top, you can cover it up with a rectangle the same size as the frame. This
works if you have a plain single color background. Just make the rectangle the
same color and give it "no line".

Or you can assign an Exit animation effect for the video object and set it to
play After Previous. Then right click the new animation object and go to Timing
and set it to Animate as part of the click sequence. You'll also need to remove
the Trigger action that PowerPoint automatically sets up for the video.

Remember, the old Viewer doesn't support animations new in PowerPoint 2002 and
2003. You'll want to use the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...27-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&DisplayLang=en
--

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

 

[Sonia]

It seems like there was some way to do that and the rectangle would blend right
in with the image background (or gradient) but I can't find it in my brain. Is
your filing system better than mine?

 

[Sonia]

Whew! It's been driving me crazy. Must have been another case of self-imposed
blindness for the obvious because I visited that menu several times. Thanks for
keeping me sane for at least another hour. <VBG>

 

[DevotedDave]

Thanks for your help so far!
Under normal circumstances this might work but I actually have a series of
AVI files where the last frame of the first AVI is the same as the first
frame of the second AVI file and so on. The situation is that the AVI files
are a series of morphs between about 5 images. Putting a blank/black
background over top of the video (to cover up the first frame) will result in
a black "flash-frame."

I have understood that PP makes a still of the first frame of the video and
retains it, however, it also ought to either also retain a copy of the last
frame as well, or provide an option to hold the last frame upon completion of
playing the video (I thought PP 2000 had that option).

I suppose I am down to one of 3 choices now, (1) Use PP 2003 to create the
PP and utilize the old 2000 viewer to play it back (that's what I've had to
do on 2 crash projects these last 2 weeks), (2) revert back to Office 2000,
or (3) buy a really good piece of video editing software that will allow me
to edit the AVI's together (MovieMaker, which I have, won't do it because
these AVIs are not a standard resolution). Morph AVIs are often much higher
res than standard video AVIs.

Again - Thanks for your help so far! Please let me know if this problem
(and from a user's standpoint this is a BUG, i.e. it used to work now it
doesn't) ever gets fixed.

DevotedDave