adding video to power point?

[X1Lightning]

Does anyone have experience with adding a high res video to powerpoint?
I have a 55 second clip i want to put at the beginning of a presentation, but it seems too look like trash when i do that... any tips?

 

[martinX]

It depends on PPT version, platform etc.

I create WMVs via Flip4Mac and insert them into PPT in the usual way (Insert -> movie -> from file etc).

I can even take 640 x 480 movies, proportionately stretch them to 1024 x 768 and they look fine projected on a 40' screen in an auditorium.

What format are you trying to insert? How does it look in its native player?

 

[X1Lightning]

I created a clip in after effects on my mac, and it kicks out a .mov which is 500 meg and it looks great, i use streamclip to compress it with h.264 then its about 7mb .mp4 file it still looks and plays great,

I then take the file over to my windows machine, with office 2007, and it doesn't like that mp4 file, so i took a video converter i found on the web to make a wmv our of the mov file, and that looked horrible.

i need to keep the video in the smaller size, less than 20 mb , but it has to look as good as the mp4 file. and it has to go into powerpoint...
what is the best format? and how do i get from mov to that format?

 

[martinX]

so i took a video converter i found on the web to make a wmv our of the mov file, and that looked horrible.

There's your problem. You're taking a compressed file from one format and using a compressor of dubious quality (CODQ) to convert that to another compressed format. A great quote I found here (and I hope I am remembering it correctly): "take a pop can and squash it down. Now pull it back into shape. See how it looks like crap? That's compression."

You need to eliminate one of those compression steps. I'd suggest taking the 500 MB MOV (and I don't know what codec this one's using) and taking that to the PC and using the CODQ to create the WMV. Incidentally, this is why I shelled out for Flip4Mac Studio.

You need to balance the following parameters: frame size, file size (same as bitrate in the end) and quality.

If you are talking full HD (1920 x 1080) then you are going to need at the very least 2 mbps (but really should be quite a bit higher) to have something that looks a bit decent. I don't know how long your movie goes for, but you can do the maths to work out how big it's going to be.

I don't know how many parameters you can control with the CODQ.

I have a freeby PC one at home but I'm not at home at the moment so I'll have to get back to you with further details.

 

[martinX]

Any Video Converter is a freeby I've got on my virtual PC. Used it once and it seems OK, IIRC. Might get you out of a jam.

Shoot, forgot the link.

 

[X1Lightning]

I downloaded the trial of flip for mac, but i don't have quicktime pro, so that is kinda lame.

I'll give that any video converter a try on my windows tomorrow.

 

[Full of Win]

I’ve done a lot of work with video in PowerPoint. What is the resolution leaving AfterEffects? Is the resolution more than you will need for your delivery format. When I work in AE, I'll generally do a dynamic link with Premiere Pro and use the Media Encoder there. What is the resolution of the screen you are giving the presentation on? All of my videos are encoded to 1000 pixels wide for full screen viewing.

These are just some lessons I've learned, usually in very bloody ways. If they are helpful, great, if not, thats OK too.

• PowerPoint on OS X = .mov, PowerPoint for Windows = .wmv; you can link a .mov file in windows, but its not as integrated. I’ll have a copy of both when I give presentations in case I need to use a Windows machine
  
• If you want the full screen look, never use an insert box on a slide, it will make it smaller. Rather, delete all short cuts on the slide and go to the menu and do an insert that way.
  
• Full screen for PowerPoint is 1000 X 750 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio).
• Do not make videos bigger by resizing them in PowerPoint. This will make them look like CRAP. If you want it bigger, encode a bigger version. Again, the max size by default settings is 1000 X 750. If the video is not 4:3 aspect ratio, then make it 1000 pixels wide and put it on top of a black slide
  
• If you need to make a video smaller (in pixel size) then you ALWAYS hold shift to lock the aspect ratio, then resize. NEVER stretch it on one axis.
  
• Always have a backup plan if it crashes on you
  
• If using a NLE (e.g. iMovie) start with a black screen (just a suggestion). The reason is that encoded video looks bad when frozen. I start with a black screen and a 1 second fade in Premiere Pro, but a similar effect is in iMovie.
  
• If streaming off of USB, make sure the bitrate of the move does not exceed the USB bus speed or the thumb drive capacity. Many cheaper drives and older computers cannot stream fast enough. When possible put on the HDD.

 

[martinX]

PowerPoint on OS X = .mov, PowerPoint for Windows = .wmv; you can link a .mov file in windows, but its not as integrated.

I work in a very locked-down PC environment - Quicktime is a special request so when someone says "video" to me, it's always WMV. Breaks my heart. A lot of PC-only places are like that.

Always have a backup plan if it crashes on you

My backup is to navigate to the file directly and play it in the native player so that's my advice to others. And always do a test run. PPT can be soooo flaky.

If using a NLE (e.g. iMovie) start with a black screen (just a suggestion). The reason is that encoded video looks bad when frozen. I start with a black screen and a 1 second fade in Premiere Pro, but a similar effect is in iMovie.

Good suggestion. I tell people to put an intro slide in beforehand, to remind them that a movie is coming up next just in case they want to have a brief Q and A session. I always put movies in as autoplay so they can't @#%$ it up.

If streaming off of USB, make sure the bitrate of the move does not exceed the USB bus speed or the thumb drive capacity. Many cheaper drives and older computers cannot stream fast enough. When possible put on the HDD.

I never let people even run a PPT from a USB drive, let alone one with video. I had a bad experience running a PPT off a floppy Back In The Day and now everything is on the HDD.

 

[chrismacguy]

An alternative is to go the other way, and make the powerpoint presentation a movie file using Microsoft Producer. (This is the way I cheat to make sure my movie enhanced presentations look good - although I am using PowerPoint 2003 and QuickTime Pro/ Flip4Mac somethingorother (paid) to do so) - which can then be edited in a package of your choice.

 

[martinX]

MS Producer sounds interesting, but I swear MS sucks. No, not your typical rant but I've just been moving around the MS site just to find some concise info about what MS Producer actually does and I hit a dozen pages only to find basically the same non-info several times, some great stuff about how long it will take to download over a 56 kbps connection, a broken link or two ...

I finally found the tutorial doc (in Word...) and it looks handy. But Ballmer should tear that website down and rebuild.

 

[X1Lightning]

I’ve done a lot of work with video in PowerPoint. What is the resolution leaving AfterEffects? Is the resolution more than you will need for your delivery format. When I work in AE, I'll generally do a dynamic link with Premiere Pro and use the Media Encoder there. What is the resolution of the screen you are giving the presentation on? All of my videos are encoded to 1000 pixels wide for full screen viewing.

These are just some lessons I've learned, usually in very bloody ways. If they are helpful, great, if not, thats OK too.

• PowerPoint on OS X = .mov, PowerPoint for Windows = .wmv; you can link a .mov file in windows, but its not as integrated. I’ll have a copy of both when I give presentations in case I need to use a Windows machine
  
• If you want the full screen look, never use an insert box on a slide, it will make it smaller. Rather, delete all short cuts on the slide and go to the menu and do an insert that way.
  
• Full screen for PowerPoint is 1000 X 750 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio).
• Do not make videos bigger by resizing them in PowerPoint. This will make them look like CRAP. If you want it bigger, encode a bigger version. Again, the max size by default settings is 1000 X 750. If the video is not 4:3 aspect ratio, then make it 1000 pixels wide and put it on top of a black slide
  
• If you need to make a video smaller (in pixel size) then you ALWAYS hold shift to lock the aspect ratio, then resize. NEVER stretch it on one axis.
  
• Always have a backup plan if it crashes on you
  
• If using a NLE (e.g. iMovie) start with a black screen (just a suggestion). The reason is that encoded video looks bad when frozen. I start with a black screen and a 1 second fade in Premiere Pro, but a similar effect is in iMovie.
  
• If streaming off of USB, make sure the bitrate of the move does not exceed the USB bus speed or the thumb drive capacity. Many cheaper drives and older computers cannot stream fast enough. When possible put on the HDD.

after effects is putting out the video at 1024 x 768

the clip will be played on laptops and projectors, i don't really have control over where it will be viewed, so needed to make it big so it will look good either way

I have the adobe media converter, but i didnt see an option for WMV. i downloaded flip for mac, and that opened up an option for streamclip to do wmv, but its stuck at 50% quality, and that is not going to work i need high quality

if i could get stream clip to do it i would be happy as it keeps it the same resolution, a few of the other converters i have tried, make the clip bigger resolution than its supposed to be

 

[Full of Win]

after effects is putting out the video at 1024 x 768

the clip will be played on laptops and projectors, i don't really have control over where it will be viewed, so needed to make it big so it will look good either way

I have the adobe media converter, but i didnt see an option for WMV. i downloaded flip for mac, and that opened up an option for streamclip to do wmv, but its stuck at 50% quality, and that is not going to work i need high quality

if i could get stream clip to do it i would be happy as it keeps it the same resolution, a few of the other converters i have tried, make the clip bigger resolution than its supposed to be

I use VisualHub to do my WMV conversions after they come off of Adobe Media encoder. I usually present from my laptop, so I don't use it. I make it just in case though. Have you tried the Windows based converter that was posted earlier?

 

[X1Lightning]

I use VisualHub to do my WMV conversions after they come off of Adobe Media encoder. I usually present from my laptop, so I don't use it. I make it just in case though. Have you tried the Windows based converter that was posted earlier?

I did try that windows based converter, and it doesnt work for me, i give it the file i want to convert, select the output type and configure it, then it convert, then it starts, and just says failed, with no reason why

 

[X1Lightning]

i got the flip for mac demo to work at full quality last night, and the wmv it produced looked great, but the sound seemed abit off, is that normal for flip for mac to do that?

 

[martinX]

I've not had sound sync issues with Flip4Mac before.

I assume you have the full HD version of Flip4Mac.

Here's a trap, though, I've seen it twice on Dell Laptops running XP (it's what we have at work).

- PPT with embedded WMV. Works fine.
- plug laptop into projector
- WMV in PPT goes all pink and green and blocky but plays fine in WMP
- never plays properly again...

Cure: turn graphics hardware acceleration down to "off", "one notch" or "two notches" (out of five) and no higher.

I shouldn't have to know this weird stuff...