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Quicktime for Powerpoint
Just finished editing a short (2min) clip for a powerpoint presentation. Has anyone embedded in Powerpoint before? If so, any idea on export settings from FCP: size, filetype, etc.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks.
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3 Replies
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I just did a similar length piece for PowerPoint playback on a PC. The sequence was 1080p29.97. Playback computer was a typical, Pentium 4, desktop PC in a corporate auditorium.
My tests found the following to be optimum: Windows Media 9, 1280×720, 29.97 fps, Peak-limited VBR, audio 44.1Khz, 16-bit, 128Kbps, 4Mbps total data rate. Flip4Mac encoded it acceptably, but I liked the results from Windows Media Encoder on the PC a little better. If your movie is standard-def, you can drop the data rate down to around 2Mbps if you like.
Quality was excellent on most subject matter, but pans and tracking shots had a rhythmic hitch or stutter in them (on about a 1/2 second interval). I could not get rid of that problem and I don’t think it was caused by frame dropping. I considered it minor enough to be unnoticed by 95% of my audience in this case. Perhaps the scaling from 1080 to 720 had something to do with it. I found that the wimpy PC could not handle 1080 at 29.97fps, so I scaled down to 720 for playback.
If you are playing back on a Mac, the optimum will be quite different. In that case, I’d definitely go with a Quicktime, H.264 file. Stay away from Windows Media for Mac playback.
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Hey, Tom, thanks for the recipe. You’ve given us a post to point at whenever the question comes up.
We see the same regularly paced frame stutter on all of our wmv clips from almost any source. We thought it was the playback machine or an artifact of the frame refresh rate of the monitor/display and the actual movie file’s frame rate (60 Hz compared to 29.97 fps). However, it appears to enter the wmv file during encoding because we can see the stutter when we step through the movie one frame at a time.One word of caution with PP embeds: There are subtle differences between a PPT and a PPS file. Links to external media files from within the PP slideshow can break easily and they can be reset without your knowing it. That is, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t because PP assumes the file is no longer needed. I hate Power Point.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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My pleasure David. I try to provide answers that are both useful and within the scope of my knowledge. Interesting that I’m not alone battling that stutter. Talking heads and static shots can be wonderful, but pans or any movement that is very predictable and steady can show that dreaded hitch.
I never trust PowerPoint or any computer for critical playback, but sometimes it’s a necessity.
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