Designing PPT for Display on TV

[Guest]

Hello all,

Thanks to Tony Belllucci for some basic guidelines on designing for TV
output (in his response to "slide show movie"). I have a few more questions:

1) If I'm given a resolution display of "852 x 480p", am I wise to design at
those pixel dimensions?

2) If so, do I still need to worry about a "safe area" to eliminate cropping?

3) What is the best type of video connection to use on the TV? My boss
purchased a plasma with a plethora of connection types. Among them, there is
a standard monitor connection and something called a DVI-D (a white rectangle
with three rows of eight pin-holes positioned to the left side of the port).
The latter was what the salesperson insisted was the best choice...never have
seen it before and know nothing about it.

Any insight anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Donna

 

[Suvodip Moitra]

Dear User,

I am not telling you to change your mind but you can try this :

Download a ppt to dvd converter from :
http://www.programurl.com/software--1-powerpoint-dvd-creator-15804.html

Then burn the file to a dvd or cd .
Burner : www.nero.com

Now using a dvd or cd player you can view the presentation very clearly on
TV.

Suvodip Moitra

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Donna,

1) If I'm given a resolution display of "852 x 480p", am I wise to design at
those pixel dimensions?
Yes.

2) If so, do I still need to worry about a "safe area" to eliminate cropping?

Yes. Give yourself plenty of margin (or safe area). As anything viewed on a TV is over projected....or in other
words.....your information gets cut off if you have not left a safe margin around the whole page/screen

3) What is the best type of video connection to use on the TV? My boss
purchased a plasma with a plethora of connection types. Among them, there is
a standard monitor connection and something called a DVI-D (a white rectangle
with three rows of eight pin-holes positioned to the left side of the port).
The latter was what the salesperson insisted was the best choice...never have
seen it before and know nothing about it.

The DVI connectors are a relatively new connection on most modern graphics cards. They send the signal from the computer
to the screen/projector/monitor as a digital signal. So it's a very good signal. (the old SVGA connectors are analog so
suffer from conversion from digital to analog and back to digital)

See
http://www.projectorpeople.com/tutorials/dvi-connections.asp
and
http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_dvi.html

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

 

[Sonia]

Please read http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00156.htm

 

[Guest]

Thank you much, Sonia! I'll be putting these tools to good use!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for taking the time to reply...and covering all of my criticals!!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion. We're going to give it a try!

 

[Sonia]

The link that I pointed to gives our review of that software. Be sure you read
that part.

 

[Adam Crowley]

1) If I'm given a resolution display of "852 x 480p", am I wise to design at
those pixel dimensions?

If your graphics card supports this resolution then definitely yes.
Otherwise the plasma will scale whatever you give it (within reason) to
852x480. If the resolution that your PC is pumping out is higher than that
display resolution then there's an argument for designing to the PC's
resolution rather than the final display resolution. Otherwise the PC will
scale your image up only for the plasma to scale it down again. Each time
the image gets scaled there's a chance that it will get softer due to pixel
interpolation.

2) If so, do I still need to worry about a "safe area" to eliminate

cropping?

Probably not, or at least very little, if you're using a plasma with an RGB
computer / DVI input as you are. Will you get a chance to run a test?

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Sonia. Yes - it does die during the process...all at different points
in several attempts.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Adam, for the insight.

Yes - I will get to run a test (woohoo!) before we go live. Just tring to
eliminate some trauma up front. I appreciate your input!

 

[Adam Crowley]

Another satisfied customer.

Thanks, Sonia. Yes - it does die during the process...all at different points
in several attempts.

 

[Sweadon]

Donna Donahue wrote:

About the software, you'd better go to their homepage for more specific
info - http://www.powerpoint-to-dvd.com

 

[Sonia]

That is not what she wrote. She said:
__________

Thanks, Sonia. Yes - it does die during the process...all at different points
in several attempts.
__________
You can see a review of the product at:

Convert presentations to VHS or DVD video
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00156.htm

 

[Guest]

Hello again, everyone. Hope y'all are still following this thread!

Many thanks to Sonia, TAJ & Adam for all the help. I'm now trying the PPT ->
Camtasia -> DVD method (hey, this works!!), and I'm running into a few snags.
Not sure what I'm not doing properly.

I did a sample PPT of about 7 slides - no more than 8 elements on a slide,
basic entrances (wipe, slide, dissolve) only, and fade through black as the
common slide transition. I have Camtasia setup as outlined in the SUPER
tutorial Sonia suggested (via http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00156.htm).
Ended up with a very nice presentation. Not perfect, but a good start.

Now I'm expanding that original test and am having difficulties getting the
element animations and slide transitions appearing as they originally do
during the PPS on the final DVD. The animation/movie that appears in the DVD
now is sticky & jumpy...no more nice fades, slides or dissolves.

I checked out the original AVIs - they are not as smooth as the original
PPT/PPS but *are* smoother than the final DVD. And I've also ended up with an
(mouse) hourglass right in the middle of the AVI...something that **is not
there** during the recording process. Egads!!

I've played with both the frame rate and graphics accelerator to no avail;
I'm back to the recommended settings from the tutorial. I understand that the
DVD version is not going to be as refined as the original. At this point,
though, if I have to stick with the DVD output option, I think I'm better off
eliminating the animations & transitions, and just doing a photo show.

What am I not doing right? What setting am I missing?

Thanks, everyone!

:: And PLEASE, no one suggest using PowerPointToDVD! ::

 

[Sonia]

What you are learning is what a lot of people don't realize - - you can't expect
to love the results. When it comes to quality, there is no substitute (at least
yet) for a PowerPoint presentation stored on your hard drive and running on a
good computer with a good video card and displayed on a monitor or projector.
The smoothness of animations and transitions is hard to capture because it's so
complex. You're right in recognizing that the simpler the presentation the
better the results.

If you're going to do a photo show, you should definitely check out Movie Maker
2.1 free from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx - -
requires Windows XP SP2 and is available when you upgrade to SP2.

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Donna,

What Sonia said....

When it comes to quality, there is no substitute (at least
yet) for a PowerPoint presentation stored on your hard drive and running on a
good computer with a good video card and displayed on a monitor or projector.
The smoothness of animations and transitions is hard to capture because it's so
complex. You're right in recognizing that the simpler the presentation the
better the results.

But also.....

There is a technique where you slow down your powerpoint presentation......let camtasia capture it.....then you tell
camtasia that the captured file is to play back at a faster rate.......

See smooth animations and powerpoint to dvd from the techsmith site that will help you achieve a really smooth capture
by utilizing the "time lapse" feature of camtasia studio

click "powerpoint to dvd" on this link.
http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/tour/advanced_powerpoint.html

The results is a lot smoother captures and playback.

To stop the capture of the pointer / cursor in camtasia recorder

View menu > make sure 'cursor toolbar' is ticked
then click the pointer icon with the red circle and line through it. to indicate...don't capture the cursor.

Or move your cursor out to the bottom right of your screen during recording


Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

 

[Guest]

WOW! What a difference. Thank you so much! You, Sonia & Adam have been so
kind & helpful!

 

[Sweadon]

You can try this software: PowerPoint2DVD -
http://www.powerpoint-to-dvd.com
It maybe more powerful and easier.

 

[Sonia]

If you read the whole thread you'll see that Donna did try your software and
came to the same conclusion that we have. Please see
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00156.htm