When I try to run a video clip in PowerPoint I get a "no driver" .

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Start by reading http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/multimedia.htm
, particularly section 3. See the end of that section and compare the MCI
settings on your system to the ones in the article. If yours don't match
exactly, it may be that some other software has modified them.
--

Sonia Coleman
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun Software, Templates and Tutorials

Ros said:
Where do I find the driver that will allow me to run video clips in
PowerPoint?
 
The problem is that nothing in the tutorial relates to anything I see when I
look at the components of Microsoft XP. Nothing matches. I go to Control
Panel - no multimedia. I go to Windows components - no multimedia. All the
MCI "bits" appear to be present, and still the powerpoint presentation asks
for a driver when I try to play the video clip.
 
To check for installed codecs on Windows XP, go into Control Panel and double
click Sounds and Audio Devices. Click on the Hardware Tab and look for "Audio
Codecs" and "Video Codecs". Double click on either of these and then the
Properties tab to see a list of the audio or video codecs installed.

In regedit, does your MCI32 list match exactly?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI32.

What is the source of your video? Is it an AVI from a video camera? If not an
AVI, what is the file
extension? What is the full and exact text of the error message?
 
It is a .avi clip loaded on to my computer along with a powerpoint
presentation. The clip ran within the powerpoint presentation on the
person's computer who put the presentation together. My computer was
attached to the projector, but when the clip came up in the presentation, the
message said "There is no driver installed on your system". The clip plays
fine alone; it just will not play within the powerpoint.

In regedit, does your MCI32 list match exactly?
 
If you go to Start > Run and type mplay32.exe and click OK, then open the file,
does it play? If not, then as a wild stab I would try changing the file
extension to .MPG and test it in mplay32.exe. If the renamed file runs, then
open the presentation and delete and then reinsert the newly renamed file in the
presentation.
 
I did as suggested and got the error message 'There is no driver installed on
your system'. However, the file does play with Windows Media Player if I
double click on the file to open it.
 
Well, it's back to the MCI settings in your Registry. If you run regedit and go
to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI Extensions
do you see a line that says "AVIVideo REG_SZ avivideo"?

Also, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI32
should have a line that says "AVIVideo REG_SZ mciavi32.dll".


In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI do you
have
"AVIVideo REG_SZ mciavi.drv"?
 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI Extensions\
"AVIVideo REG_SZ avivideo"? NO There is an "avi REG_SZ avivideo".

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI32 \
"AVIVideo REG_SZ mciavi32.dll". YES
 
Sorry. The first one was a typo/brain circuitry problem. Yours is correct.

What about the last one?
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI do you
have "AVIVideo REG_SZ mciavi.drv"?

Also, do you actually have the driver on your system? On my system I have two
copies:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\mciavi.drv
and
C:\WINDOWS\system\MCIAVI.DRV
 
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI do you
have "AVIVideo REG_SZ mciavi.drv"? YES

C:\WINDOWS\system32\mciavi.drv YES

C:\WINDOWS\system\MCIAVI.DRV YES

Both have Unknown Application listed as the Opens with.
 
As an addition, my desktop PC (OS Windows 2000) is set up basically the same
way, and the presentation does run the video clip.
 
Since we've tried everything else, let's find out what codec was used to
compress the file. You can download a little free program called G-Spot from
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/. Open the program and under File, browse to the
video file. Does G-Spot give you info about the codec? Since we don't know
where the video came from, it may have been created with a codec that isn't
installed in Windows on your system.
 
no audio channels

Video Codec: 4CC - MP42/ Name - S-Mpeg4 version 2
Stat - 2 compatible codecs installed
additional info: Microsoft MPEG-4 Video decompressor and Mpeg4 Decoder DMO
runtime: 00:00:29
bitrate: 390 kb/s
FPS: 25
Qf: 0.021 bits/pixel

Video Src Type - 4cc: MP42
Rendering: (S) - AVI Splitter - Mpeg4 Decoder DMO - (R)
Rendering Successful, Direct Show claims to be able to play the file (Which
of course does play as long as it is not being played within powerpoint.)

This is a valid AVI file, but gspot indicates the presence of "garbage" at
the end of the file that is not part of the data but is not classified as
junk either and indicates that this should not be a source of error.
 
That sounds like MPG4 which I don't believe PowerPoint plays. Did this
presentation come from a MAC? Where did the video originate? Maybe you can
convert it or find out what software it was captured in.
 
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