Troubleshoot audio not playing in a powerpoint presentation

[Guest]

I am including a wma/mp3 song from a file in my presentation. The song plays
fine outside of powerpoint, but when I go in presentation mode, I cannot hear
the music.

The same powerpoint file plays fine on another machine. On my laptop it
doesnt play in presentation mode. Other audio files play fine on the
external speakers or earphones on the laptop.

 

[Austin Myers]

I suspect you have a missing codec, or the codec is not configured for use
in the MCI Media Player (used by PowerPoint). If possible, determine what
codec is being used and install it on the machines where it fails. This of
course means that other machines may not be able to play it. (They may not
have the codec.)

The other option is to re-encode the file into a more standard format and
common codec. A good tool to do this with is Windows Media Encoder. Not
the easiest thing to use but it gives excellent results.

And finally, you could simply install our new add-in meant to resolve
exactly these sorts of problems automatically. You may download a fully
functioning trial at www.pfcmedia.com


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Echo S]

I wonder if it's just a path length issue? See
http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm for some ideas in addition to
Austin's advice. (The page says troubleshooting video, but it really should
say multimedia because most of it applies to sound files as well.)

 

[Guest]

This issue has been resolved. The problem was that the path to the audio
file, when it was embedded in the presentation, was longer than the 128
character limit imposed by MS. I still don’t know why the presentation DID
work on one machine.

My recommendations for Microsoft:
1) If there are path length restrictions, a simple error message would be
helpful, and simple to check, at file inclusion.
2) Document these restrictions in a help file or something.

I wonder if it's just a path length issue? See
http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm for some ideas in addition to
Austin's advice. (The page says troubleshooting video, but it really should
say multimedia because most of it applies to sound files as well.)

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

I am including a wma/mp3 song from a file in my presentation. The song plays
fine outside of powerpoint, but when I go in presentation mode, I cannot hear
the music.

The same powerpoint file plays fine on another machine. On my laptop it
doesnt play in presentation mode. Other audio files play fine on the
external speakers or earphones on the laptop.

 

[Echo S]

It may be that when you pulled it to the other machine, the path was just
enough shorter to allow the file to play. For example, C:\Documents and
Settings\Echo\Desktop is shorter than C:\Documents and
Settings\BroIceCream\Desktop...

At any rate, I'm glad you got it resolved, and I would agree that a simple
error message when inserting the file (or even when it doesn't play!) would
be very helpful.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

This issue has been resolved. The problem was that the path to the audio
file, when it was embedded in the presentation, was longer than the 128
character limit imposed by MS. I still don't know why the presentation DID
work on one machine.

My recommendations for Microsoft:
1) If there are path length restrictions, a simple error message would be
helpful, and simple to check, at file inclusion.
2) Document these restrictions in a help file or something.

I wonder if it's just a path length issue? See
http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm for some ideas in addition to
Austin's advice. (The page says troubleshooting video, but it really should
say multimedia because most of it applies to sound files as well.)

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

I am including a wma/mp3 song from a file in my presentation. The

song
plays

fine outside of powerpoint, but when I go in presentation mode, I

cannot
hear

the music.

The same powerpoint file plays fine on another machine. On my laptop it
doesnt play in presentation mode. Other audio files play fine on the
external speakers or earphones on the laptop.