Backward compatibility

[rich]

I built a 2003 presentation with embeded Windows Media objects. The
movies are WMV 9. This works great on a pc with Office 2003 installed.
Does anyone know if powerpoint 2002 or 2000 will be able to play a
presentation built in ppt 2003 with a windows media object embeded?
Thanks,

Rich
Rubasch
Tilt Media

 

[Bill Dilworth]

Let's start with "I don't know" and don't have the set up to test this here
at home, but ...

This sounds like it will be more dependent on the end user's machine than on
the creation machine. PowerPoint (in any version) does not play the media
file. It hands that job off to the operating system. If the end-user has a
player that can play the file, then the file will play (usually).

Just to double check, did you really embed the media object or did you link
to it? If you linked to it, did you place it in the same folder as the PPT
file prior to creating the link?


--
Bill Dilworth
Microsoft PPT MVP Team
===============
Please spend a few minutes checking vestprog2@
out www.pptfaq.com This link will yahoo.
answer most of our questions, before com
you think to ask them.

Change org to com to defuse anti-spam,
ant-virus, anti-nuisance misdirection.
..
..

 

[rich]

This sounds like it will be more dependent on the end user's machine than on
the creation machine. PowerPoint (in any version) does not play the media
file. It hands that job off to the operating system. If the end-user has a
player that can play the file, then the file will play (usually).

Just to double check, did you really embed the media object or did you link
to it? If you linked to it, did you place it in the same folder as the PPT
file prior to creating the link?

Yes, ppt 2003 has a new feature that allows you to embed a Windows
media object, which provides play,pause, volume etc control while
playing a WMV in a slide. In the Properties of the embedded player
object there is a URL field where you point to the file you want the
embedded object to play. And finally, yes the movie is in the same
directory as the PPS file.

Thanks for any additional imfo!

Rich

 

[Echo S]

Yes, ppt 2003 has a new feature that allows you to embed a Windows
media object, which provides play,pause, volume etc control while
playing a WMV in a slide. In the Properties of the embedded player
object there is a URL field where you point to the file you want the
embedded object to play. And finally, yes the movie is in the same
directory as the PPS file.

Assuming that you mean Insert/Object/Windows Media Player, I did a quick
test by creating a presentation using this in PPT 2003, saved it, and opened
it in PPT 2000. It worked fine there. Interestingly, I wasn't able to use
Insert/Object/Windows Media Player to *create* this in PPT 2000, though. I
didn't realize this was a new thing in PPT 2003, to be honest. (I guess it's
similar to the situation where PPT 97 will play files with inserted MP3
clips, but you cannot actually insert MP3s into PPT 97 itself.)

Remember that the WMV file itself is linked, even if the Windows Media
Player object thing is embedded. So you'll need to send the WMV along with
the presentation.

But the catch here is that because you're using this embedded media player
object thing -- which asks for a "url" of the movie to play -- you're
relying on an absolute link to the WMV. That's not good if you're moving the
folder around.

I tested this here by making a folder, test2, on my C drive. I placed the
presentation and sample.WMV into the folder. Then I used
Insert/Object/Windows Media Player and specified c:\test2\sample.wmv in the
properties of the media player object. Saved the presentation and tested it.
The WMV played just fine in the media player control.

So then I cut that folder from my C drive and pasted it onto my desktop. The
WMV no longer plays. Why? Because it's not looking for the WMV in the same
folder with the presentation as PPT normally would -- rather, it's still
looking for c:\test2\sample.wmv.

Your original question was this:

I build a 2003 presentation with embeded Windows Media objects. The
movies are WMV 9. This works great on a pc with Office 2003 installed.
Does anyone know if powerpoint 2002 or 2000 will be able to play a
presentation built in 2003 with a windows media object embeded?

So I can say yes, the file should play on a PPT 2000 machine. I'd assume,
then, that it would also play on PPT 2002. (I don't have that installed on
this system to check, though.)

But you will have to have the exact same path on all machines in order for
this to work. That means that you'll probably want to create a folder on
your C drive and then instruct the people putting these on the other
machines to copy the folder to their C drives. I can't really think of any
other place that would work reliably. With all the "documents and settings"
and "this user/that user" stuff, paths just can't be relied upon to be the
same on different systems.

Thanks for any additional imfo!

I'm not positive about this, but I think there may be an issue with Windows
XP SP-2 not wanting to play these media player objects. Anyone else remember
if that's the case or not?

Also you should be aware that the WMV inserted via the media player object
won't play if you run the presentation in the PPT Viewer.

 

[rich]

Thanks for all the info! Yes, it will play in prior versions of
powerpoint, and you're right, it won't play with the player app...a
real bummer and another example of Microsoft's shortsightedness.
C'mon, you write both apps!!

as for file links, you are correct that the movie and ppt have to move
together, but that wasn't a problem for me because I was burning them
to CD so the directory was sor tof fixed.

The major caveat was that some of the users notebooks weren't updated
to WM9 and since I encoded with WM9 it won't play on a PC without it.
So in the end the compatibility was not with PPT but rather with the
movie element itself.

But the client is upgrading the notebooks to accommodate the
job...excellent!

Rich