Playing a DVD during a slide show

W

Wag

Hi folks - came up against a tricky problem recently.

I want to play a DVD clip in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation.
I want to play it from the DVD drive of my laptop as I don't want to
fly with a DVD player. This will be in front of a fairly high profile
audience, so it has to be slick.

Now... Powerpoint won't go near DVD's - it has enough trouble with
anything other than MPEG-1's - however there should be nothing
stopping me having a DVD clip cued up at the right point and just
Alt-Tabbing over to it at the right moment and then Alt-Tabbing back
to my slide show afterwards. Granted you will see the Alt-Tab window
for a fraction of a second, but I think I can live with that.

However...

PowerDVD insists on being the top window when in full-screen mode, so
it buries Powerpoint behind it and you can't Alt-Tab away from it.

WinDVD does the same.

Media Player will play DVD's so long as the right codecs are
installed, but drops out of full-screen mode as soon as you Alt-Tab
over to it. This leaves the Media Player window open which looks
cheap.

Interactual's player actually does what I want - EXCEPT it doesn't
have any keyboard shortcuts for play/pause, so you can't run the clip
without pulling up the controls on screen. On an eight foot screen
that looks nearly as bad as Media Player.

Surely there's a way of doing this? Does anyone have any suggestions?
I don't think it's asking that much is it?

Please help,

Wag
 
M

Mike M.

What about Adding a Windows Media Player object on a slide. You could size
it to fit the whole slide and have the minimal controls available. I don't
know how you would position it to the correct point on the DVD though.
 
J

John Langhans [MSFT]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PowerPoint
that you just created (you can save, but not open)? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

If none of the suggestions provided give you the functionality that you
were looking for or, if you (or anyone else reading this message) have
suggestions for how and why you think PowerPoint should provide this
functionality (or make it easier), don't forget to send your feedback (in
YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
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