Using PowerPoint 2003 - I have often inserted media clips into ppt sldies.
Lately, I have one particular mpg file (about 40 MB sized to 720x480 for
playback) that does not display the initial frame on the slide - rather the
insert area on the sldie is completely black. When clicked to play, the
video plays perfectly and teh sound is great.

Does anyone know if this is a problem with the mpg formatting properties
(like mpeg2/3/4 etc?) or whether there are some ppt settings that I can
adjust to ensure that this initial frame displays? Should I use a different
video format (wmv?)?

Thanks.

- Ron -

> Using PowerPoint 2003 - I have often inserted media clips into ppt sldies.
> Lately, I have one particular mpg file (about 40 MB sized to 720x480 for
> playback) that does not display the initial frame on the slide - rather
> the
> insert area on the sldie is completely black. When clicked to play, the
> video plays perfectly and teh sound is great.
>
> Does anyone know if this is a problem with the mpg formatting properties
> (like mpeg2/3/4 etc?) or whether there are some ppt settings that I can
> adjust to ensure that this initial frame displays? Should I use a
> different
> video format (wmv?)?

Hi Ron,

are you sure the first frame of your video is a picture? Many videos start
with 10 black frames, so that a short jerking that may occur at the start of
the video, is not visible. You should have a look at the video in a video
editing program. There you can either remove the black frames. Or you can
cover the video on the slide with a screenshot of the film and use that as a
trigger to start the video.

Best regards,
Ute

--
Ute Simon
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team und PowerPoint-User-Team
Tipps, Tricks und Kostenloser Newsletter: www.ppt-user.de

Hi Ute:

Good question. Yes it's a good video. However, on further investigation, I
have discovered that on a laptop I can insert the video and the first frame
shows fine on the slide and runs fine when clicked. On the PC on which I am
building the show, I am using two monitors (on an NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT)
with the main PowerPoint window running on the primary monitor and the show
displays on the secondary one. It's only when I insert on that PC that the
insert area displays black. It doesn't matter which monitor I do the
creation or the displaying on. If I copy the prepared ppt file to the
laptop, it still shows a black square - until I re-insert the video. Then
all is well. I even turned hardware acceleration off on the dual-monitor PC
and that has no effect.

Interesting.

Thanks for your help. I have a workaround - don;t add the video till I move
to the laptop.

Cheers!

- Ron -

"Ron Murch" wrote:

> Using PowerPoint 2003 - I have often inserted media clips into ppt sldies.
> Lately, I have one particular mpg file (about 40 MB sized to 720x480 for
> playback) that does not display the initial frame on the slide - rather the
> insert area on the sldie is completely black. When clicked to play, the
> video plays perfectly and teh sound is great.
>
> Does anyone know if this is a problem with the mpg formatting properties
> (like mpeg2/3/4 etc?) or whether there are some ppt settings that I can
> adjust to ensure that this initial frame displays? Should I use a different
> video format (wmv?)?
>
> Thanks.
>
> - Ron -