MPEG Video does not play -- advanced

[Jon]

Hi.

I have read many posts and FAQs on the subject but have
not been able to solve this issue.

I cannot get PPT to play my inserted MPEG. It plays
fine separately with windows media player or real
player. It does NOT play with mplay32.exe, however, and
I think this is an important fact because other videos
which do play well in mplay32.exe play fine in PPT.

Interestingly, if you are in the slide show of PPT and
you get to the slide with the movie on it, it does not
play, but if at that point you go backwards a slide and
then return to the movie, it will usually play. This
makes no sense to me.

Any obvious solutions? Changing video resolution and
acceleration has not helped.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Sonia]

Have you read through
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/Multimedia.htm and checked
your MCI settings? You are correct that PowerPoint doesn't use Windows
Media Player if you are not using PowerPoint 2003. If you are using
PowerPoint 2003 it will try to use WMP if it can't play in the MCI player.
In PowerPoint 2002, 2000, and 97 it always plays in the MCI player, so it is
important to ensure that your settings are correct and that you have the
needed codec installed.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for replying

I understand everything you said, and, yes, I have read
the page you noted. I have PPT 2002 (sounds like I
should get 2003). What codec would make it work for some
videos and not others when they are all mpg's??

My codecs now installed are:
cinepak codec
indeo video 5.10
indeo video r4.4
indeo video r3.2
iyuv_32.dll
microsoft mpeg-4 video codec v3
msh261.drv
msh263.drv
msrle32.dll
msvidc32.dll
msyuv.dll
pinnacle pim 32-bit avi codec
tsbyuv.dll


also, there is nothing listed under [mci] in my
system.ini file, but the web posting states to type in
mpegvideo=mciqtz.drv, but this is not a file on my hard
drive (I searched).

I have been able to get the video to play if I force ppt
to use WMP by inserting the file using the "control
toolbox" as described on the microsoft support site, but
it plays with the annoying bar at the bottom of the
screen and does not fill the whole screen.

Other then getting ppt 2003, how can I get mplay32 to
play my mpgs so that they work in ppt? Does not make
sense to me.

Thanks again!

Jon

 

[Guest]

Well I got pp 2003 , 2002, XP still have that same problem
There has to be a solution to this
Thanks wish I had the answe
Robert

 

[Adam Crowley]

also, there is nothing listed under [mci] in my

system.ini file, but the web posting states to type in
mpegvideo=mciqtz.drv, but this is not a file on my hard
drive (I searched).

If you're running Windows 2000 or XP you won't get any of those settings in
system.ini etc.
The way to change them is to go into the registry (and only then if you are
comfortable with that kind of operation and are sure to back up the current
registry state).
Also in Windows 2000 and XP the file is called mciqtz32.dll.

Back to the original question...
Is this a standard MPEG1 file? In other words does it comply with the
fairly strict guidelines of the format? A typical MPEG1 will be 352x288 or
352x240 (the dimensions should be multiples of 16) with a bit rate of less
than 2000kbits/s. This will result in a file that is approximately 10MB per
minute.
I've known files created outside these limits to cause playback problems in
PowerPoint.
Or is your file an MPEG2? If so the problem could be related to MPEG2
playback, which is a whole different kettle of ball games.

 

[Guest]

Well, I dont know about the exact MPEG number (MPEG1, 2,
etc) but it is rendered by Studio (a video editing
program) at the "DVD" quality level, if that makes a
difference.

-----Original Message-----

also, there is nothing listed under [mci] in my
system.ini file, but the web posting states to type in
mpegvideo=mciqtz.drv, but this is not a file on my hard
drive (I searched).

If you're running Windows 2000 or XP you won't get any of those settings in
system.ini etc.
The way to change them is to go into the registry (and only then if you are
comfortable with that kind of operation and are sure to back up the current
registry state).
Also in Windows 2000 and XP the file is called mciqtz32.dll.

Back to the original question...
Is this a standard MPEG1 file? In other words does it comply with the
fairly strict guidelines of the format? A typical MPEG1 will be 352x288 or
352x240 (the dimensions should be multiples of 16) with a bit rate of less
than 2000kbits/s. This will result in a file that is approximately 10MB per
minute.
I've known files created outside these limits to cause playback problems in
PowerPoint.
Or is your file an MPEG2? If so the problem could be related to MPEG2
playback, which is a whole different kettle of ball games.


.

 

[Bob]

This may or may not be your problem.. but it's worth knowing and/or
checking.

If you have an MPEG1 file that is crashing or otherwise acting funny,
particularly in mplay32, it could be the Main Concept MPEG splitter/decoder
causing the problem. There are various versions of these decoers floating
around, with various bugs.. and the unfortunate part is that tons of 3rd
party companies ship these with their own products (Sonic Foundry, Adobe,
Sorenson, Discreet....) to do MPEG decoding/encoding.

Unfortunately my experience with the Main Concept decoders is that they are
crap and cause all sorts of interesting problems that manifest themselves in
unusual ways, depending on the system. Streaming an MPEG-1 off the web for
instance can cause Media Player to crash (which was my problem) while
playing them off disk works OK. Tonight at work one of our machines was
able to play MPEG-1 files but when you tried to seek to a new position in
Media Player, it would crash.. this after installing the Sorenson 'Squeeze'
demo which came with a particular broken version of the Main Concept codecs.
Another problem on another machine was that mplay32 would crash upon opening
an MPEG-1; PowerPoint would also die... All caused by the Main Concept
decoders, this time from an Cleaner XL install.

If this sounds like you, try the following:

Do a search on your C: drive or anywhere else you have installed
applications for a few files:

mcmpgdec.dll
mcspmpeg.ax
mcdsmpeg.ax

You might find one or more copies of them depending on what applications you
have installed; As I mentioned, lots of 3rd party products come with them
(Sonic Foundry's Vegas, Discreet's Cleaner XL....) so you'll likely not just
find them in your Windows system directory, if you find them there at all.
Sometimes they are used directly by the app, but sometimes they are
registered (somewhere/somehow) into the system and will get used even just
by Media Player while playing an MPEG 1 or 2 file.

Anyway, quit all your apps, and try renaming the files (shove a - or _
before them) and then try your MPEG again and see if it works any better.
Another way to tell if your system is using these stupid decoders is to run
"mplayer2", open your MPEG-1, select File->Properties, and flip to the
Advanced tab and see if any of the Main Concept decoders or "splitter"s
appear in the list. (By the way, what genius at Microsoft decided to take
out all of this and other useful functionality/information in WMP9?)

The only caveat is that in the case of MPEG-2 files, if that is the only
decoder you have installed, then you will no longer be able to play MPEG-2
files at all since Windows doesn't come with any MPEG-2 decoder of it's
own... but it should be able to play MPEG-1 files without any 3rd-party
decoders.

Good luck.


--

| Bob Maple | bobm[_at_]burner[_dot_]com | [http] burner.com
|
| When love is gone, there's always justice. And when justice is gone,
| there's always force. And when force is gone, there's always Mom.
| Hi, Mom! -Laurie Anderson

 

[TAJ Simmons]

"DVD" quality level is not MPEG1

TAJ