playing AVI movie clips (2002 with Win 2000)

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I have some short AVI movie clips that I have used for training classes both with PP 97 and PP 2000. They have always opened and played with no problem.

I have tried in 2002 but when I try to insert them I get the error message “cannot display this type of sound or movie”. What do I need to do to get them to insert in the first place please?

I find they wont play in the Windows Media Player eitehr so I change the target to quick time – where the do play, however this still makes no difference in powerpoint.

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AVI files can be encoded with a wide variety of different schemes, not all of which are compatible with Microsoft players. I’m not sure how you can best get them launched from PPT, but you could try converting one of them to a different CODEC to see if that helps. You could try either or both of the following:

RAD Video Tools
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm%5B/url%5D
When saving the output file, you can choose a new CODEC. I found Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V2 (third up from bottom) to work well with Media Player (version 8) and RealOne Player.

VirtualDub
http://www.virtualdub.org/ [/url]
In this one, after opening the original movie, you choose Compression… on the Video menu, and pick Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V2 there. Then you go to File > Save As AVI.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks for your help. I am trying out your suggestions.

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Hi, Roberta ~

As far as Windows Media Player is concerned, all you need to do is download DivX 5.0.3. This will give you the codecs for nearly all .avis you will ever view. Windows Media Player will recognize the codecs automatically and you will not need to install or use the player that comes with the DivX package.

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Edited by HansV to update link that no longer worked

PPT doesn’t use the Windows Media Player to play multimedia, so that’s not a good test. What PPT does use is the antiquated Windows MCI controls. There’s a good tutorial on how PPT handles multimedia at Microsoft PowerPoint and Multimedia, and I highly recommend reading it thoroughly.

As the tutorial explains in the “how PPT handles multimedia” section, a good way to test your multimedia file for “compatibility” with PPT is to play it in the old MCI Media Player. To do so click Start – Run, and in the command line type “mplayer.exe” (or “mplay32.exe” for WinNT/2000/XP) and click OK. This starts the MCI Media Player. Then use File – Open, navigate to the file you want to test, and see if it plays properly. If it does, it should work in PowerPoint just fine; if it doesn’t play correctly it will NOT work in PowerPoint.

If your multimedia file doesn’t play in that test, then your MCI settings have probably been overwritten by a third-party program such as QuickTime, Real, or any of a variety of other media programs. If you’re using Windows 9X or ME, you can reset the MCI extensions by modifying your Win.INI and System.INI settings as the tutorial describes. If you’re using Windows NT, 2000, or XP, you’ll need to modify these settings in your Registry. The tutorial gives instructions on this as well. Just be sure to back up your registry and/or INI files before you start messing with them!

Another reason that multimedia files won’t play in PPT is because they’ve been compressed with a nonstandard codec. The PPT Multimedia tutorial also lists common codecs that will be found on most machines. If you need your multimedia file to play on a number of computers (not just on your own), it’s best to ensure that one of these have been used to create the file in the first place. Cinepak is a good codec to use in this case.

Codecs can be hard to find on the ‘net, but the NIMO pack is one that includes many that you might need. It’s available at http://www.divx-digest.com/software/nimo_pack.html%5B/url%5D Programs that you can use to recompress your multimedia files include AVIEdit http://www.am-soft.ru/aviedit.html%5B/url%5D (You’ll want to use the export command as opposed to “save as.”), VideoMach from http://www.gromada.com[/url%5D , and a nice little utility at http://www.tmpgenc.net/%5B/url%5D to convert AVI to MPEG 1 (which also plays nicely with PPT). I also hear that good sources for similar apps are http://www.digital-digest.com[/url%5D and http://www.vcdhelp.com[/url%5D , but you’ll want to know what you need when you go poking around in there! There’s also stuff like Adobe Premiere and Vegas Video, but they’re fairly pricey.

Finally, PPT and QuickTime don’t get along very well, although PPT (well, actually, the MCI as described above) will play QT versions 1 and 2. http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/ppquicktime.html%5B/url%5D has a wealth of information on how to get your QT files to play in PPT. And there’s a pretty comprehensive Movie Troubleshooter at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?…dia/Default.asp%5B/url%5D which will walk you through troubleshooting and link to the MSKB articles that are related. It’s specified for PPT 2000, but most (if not all) of the steps should be valid for PPT 2002 as well.

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Thanks for this I have downloaded the tutorial and will read this eve.

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