Knowledge Base

PPT: Movies Do Not Play When Moved Cross-Platform

PSS ID Number: 138027

Article Last Modified on 11/25/2003

The information in this article applies to:

This article was previously published under Q138027

SYMPTOMS

When you double-click a movie in slide view, you may receive one of the following messages:

In PowerPoint for Windows 95, version 7.0

Sorry, this picture contains only a bitmap.
In PowerPoint 4.0 for Windows
Sorry, this QuickTime movie can only be played on a Macintosh.
In PowerPoint 4.0 for the Macintosh
The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. Make sure the application is properly installed, and that it has not been deleted, moved, or rentosh.

CAUSE

When you insert a movie into a slide, PowerPoint actually creates a link to the original movie file. The type of link depends on the type of movie file and the computer's operating system. For example, if you insert a QuickTime movie into a PowerPoint 4.0 for the Macintosh presentation, PowerPoint uses the QuickTime Extension to play the movie. If you insert a Video for Windows (.avi) movie into PowerPoint 4.0 for Windows, PowerPoint uses OLE and the Windows Media Player to play the movie.

The error messages occur for one or both of the following reasons:
  • You copied the presentation to another computer but you did not copy the movie files. Or, you copied all the files, but PowerPoint cannot find the movie files.
  • The type of link required to play the movie isn't supported by PowerPoint or the operating system. For example, PowerPoint for the Macintosh cannot activate Windows Media Player objects.

RESOLUTION

  1. When you copy your presentation between a Macintosh-based and a Windows-based computer, be sure to copy all the movie files as well.
  2. Make sure that your movie files can be played on the destination computer.
  3. Open the file on the destination computer.
  4. For each movie object, do the following:
    1. Delete the movie.
    2. Reinsert the movie.
  5. Save the presentation.
PowerPoint for the Macintosh, versions 3.0 and later, can insert and play QuickTime movies. PowerPoint for Windows, versions 3.0 through 7.0 cannot insert or play QuickTime movies unless you install QuickTime for Windows, a third- party add-on to Windows.*

PowerPoint for Windows, versions 3.0 and later can insert and play Microsoft Video for Windows Audio-Visual Interleave (.avi) files.** PowerPoint for the Macintosh, versions 3.0 and 4.0 cannot insert or play .avi files.

*NOTE: Windows-based programs can only play QuickTime movies that are saved without dependencies (also called "flattened" QuickTime movies.)

**NOTE: If you are running Windows 3.x, you must have the Video for Windows Runtime files installed. These files are installed by many multimedia programs and also by PowerPoint 4.0 for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

It is possible to convert .avi movies to QuickTime movies (and to convert QuickTime movies to .avi movies.) There are several utilities available, some of them shareware, that can do this.

The following solution assumes you have Microsoft Video for Windows, version 1.1, installed on your Windows computer, or the Video for Windows 1.1 Utilities on your Macintosh:

AVI (Windows) to QuickTime (Macintosh)

  1. Transfer the AVI file from Windows to the Macintosh.
  2. Start the AVI To QT utility.
  3. Locate the AVI file you want to convert.
  4. Select the AVI file, then click Add.
  5. Click Convert. You have two options to save the file:

    Save Normally (dependency to AVI file)

    Save Self-Contained Movie

  6. Make sure the Windows Compressors reside in the extensions folder. The extension currently supports the following compression schemes:

    Microsoft Video 1
    Microsoft RLE
    Microsoft Full Frame
    Apple Cinepak

  7. Delete the placeholder from your presentation.
  8. Insert the converted movie.

QuickTime (Macintosh) to AVI (Windows 3.1)

  1. Start the VFW Converter.
  2. Click Open Source.
  3. Locate the QuickTime movie you want to convert.
  4. Click the movie, and then click Open.
  5. Click Convert.
  6. Click Uncompressed, click the desired color depth, and click the frame rate.

    NOTE: Depending on the size of the original movie, the resulting file may be extremely large.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Move the file to the Windows platform.
You can now import this movie into PowerPoint.

NOTE: The movie is not compressed. To save hard drive space, compress the AVI movie, by following thse steps:
  1. Open VidEdit for Windows 1.1.
  2. On the File Menu, click Open.
  3. Locate the uncompressed AVI file.
  4. On the File menu, click Save As.
  5. Click Compression Options.
  6. Click the desired compression scheme (Microsoft RLE[32] is a good choice).
  7. Save the AVI file; this compresses the movie.
For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

108804 Video for Windows 1.1: Contents of Macintosh Utilities

112422 PPT: Not All .AVI Files Play Under Windows NT


Additional query words: 3.00 3.00b 4.00a 4.00c ppt95 m_powerpt w_powerpt quicktime quick time avi mov movie cross platform

Keywords: kbinterop kbprb KB138027
Technology: kbHWMAC kbOSMAC kbPowerPt400 kbPowerPt400a kbPowerPt400c kbPowerPt400Mac kbPowerPt95 kbPowerPt95Search kbPowerptMacSearch kbPowerPtSearch kbZNotKeyword2


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