The 3 causes of the white square during video playback in powerpoint

Probably the most common problem I am faced with week in week out is video failing to play in a PowerPoint presentation. Here are a few of the checks to perform to get things working.

Firstly, PowerPoint does not physically bring the video file into your presentation as it does an image. Hit save after embedding and notice the PowerPoint file does not grow in memory size. Therefore the presentation always needs to know where the video is relative to the document. Always keep the video file in the same place as the PowerPoint file and get into the habit of moving the parent folder around as you move the presentation from computer to computer.

Secondly, there is a bug in PowerPoint, if you see the white square when you play the video there is a good chance this is caused by there being too many characters in the video file name, I did read somewhere that over 128 characters but I find this differs from machine to machine. If you ate one of those people who put your videos in a folder named movies or something then include this parent folder in this rule.

Lastly, I sometimes get problems when a presentation is built on a company network and again this differs from machine to machine. If the above doesn’t work try moving the presentation to your desktop or local folder and re embedding the video.

That should do it!

Also see Creating Video for Powerpoint and inserting video into Microsoft Powerpoint

March 31, 2010 | | Posted in: Filming, Filming Editing and Production, Production, Software, video editing, Web and Software | No Comments »

Installed Quicktime Plug ins and Components for video production

After recently having my first issues playing certain video codecs in Quicktime since the installation of Mac OSX Snow Leopard I thought I’d look at my installed Quicktime Components that in the past have allowed me to play most files. Obviously, Quicktime Pro facilitates many options that are grayed out in the regular Quicktime Player. I also have Premiere Pro which now facilitates many HDD camera files, Final Cut which also supports many mpeg formats and VLC Player which seems to open most files.

Flip4Mac Pro WMV
I have the Flip4Mac Studio Pro for WMV playback and export. There is Flip4Mac Player for WMV Playback,  Flip4MacPlayer Pro allows you to import WMV’s for conversion to Quicktime formats although this version is not free, Flip4Mac Studio allows you to export WMV’s in the Quicktime environment but using the presets and Flip4Mac Studio Pro which allows you to create you own custom export settings. I would advise purchasing Studio Pro if you support a company that uses Video in Powerpoint as it provides the most versatility.

Visit The Flip4Mac download page here

Perian
Perian, they say is the Swiss army knife for Quicktime Codecs. I’ll be honest, I installed it and as I can play most formats I guess it helps but couldn’t evaluate it completely. Here is the list of codecs Perian supports.

  • File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
  • Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
  • Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
  • AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
  • Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SR

Download the Perian Plugin here

REDcode
I have REDcode installed but to be honest I have know hardware that would require using this as yet.

Visit the REDcode website here

DIVX 7 Codec
I have the DIVX 7 Component installed which adds playback of .divx videos and .avi files, there is also a DIVX 7 Pro version which allows you to create your own DIVX files but I have not yet had the need to do so so I don’t have this installed

Visit DIVX here

TechSmith EnSharpen
Since I have installed Camtasia on the Edit suites at work I have installed the TechSmith Ensharpen Codec to reduce the problems I might come across saving out screen capture video created in Camtasia and saving them to Quicktime to then import for edit into Adobe Premiere Pro.

Visit the TechSmith EnSharpen Codec page here

I’m pretty sure I have the XVID Component installed too but again am not sure whether this ever needs pulling out of the bag and if it does it probably runs nicely in the background.

For more Qucktime Components visit Apple

December 23, 2009 | | Posted in: Filming Editing and Production, Software, video editing, Web and Software | 1 Comment »

Apple Quicktime removes the Mpeg2 playback component

Quicktime_MPEG2_Playback_ComponentApple, what are you doin to me? QuickTime.. the one program I thought I could trust in the world of video. The program that I thought I could make play most videos has slowly been getting worse as apple moves their programs more towards the consumer market than the professional but this takes the buiscuit.

Why have you removed the MPEG2 playback component? I have hundreds of videos produced by the company and external agencies which now apparently are not movie files and it really messes up the playback of .tod files which up until a couple of weeks ago I played fine with the JVC Everio plugin.

Their is a solution! Apple will sell the MPeg2 playback component back to you for a bargain $19.99 but why? Who made this ridiculous decision to reduce the power of Apple programs! Come on let’s not turn into windows media player! Come to think of it, Powerpoint supports mpeg2 and no other mpeg codec.

Please ReTweet until someone at apple reads this.

December 10, 2009 | | Posted in: Apple Mac, Filming Editing and Production, Production, Software, Tech, video editing, Web and Software | 3 Comments »

XBox 360 – Playing Video Files from an Extenal Device

Xbox_360_Video_LibrarySimilarly to the Playstation 3 you can play regular video files on your XBox 360, here’s how.

Plug in you Hard Drive to a USB port,

Go to My Xbox and scroll right to your Video Library square / button/ tab what ever you call it,

Choose Portable Device with the USB symbol by it,

You should be able to see the folder structure on the hard drive, browse to the video you want to play,

The next screen will show the title of the file, hit Play, you will get a message telling you a media update is required (about 4 meg) you will need to sign into Xbox live, if you haven’t already, do so and hit Play again.

Choose Download Update and the Optional Media Update the Confirm Download,

You’re done, go back and play the file.

If you want to know how to do the same with your Playstation 3 See Here

December 7, 2009 | | Posted in: Gaming, Tech | 1 Comment »

Playstation 3 – Playing Video Files and Movies on your PS3

ps3_slim_videoIn the past I have exported my DVD’s to play on my iPod or laptop while I am out of the country or out and about to save carrying them all around with me. I wanted explore ways to play these on the television.

Using the PS3 plug the hard drive into the USB port. On the Playstation scroll over to the Movie symbol then scroll down and locate your USB Device next press Triangle NOT the Cross and choose Display All you should now be able to see all the files on your device. Navigate to your video and hit X.

If you want to know how to the same on your Xbox 360 the See Here
and if you want to learn how to stream your media from your Macbook Pro to your PS3 See Here

December 1, 2009 | | Posted in: Gaming, Tech | 1 Comment »

Using iDVD to quickly output your videos with professional Chaptering and Menus

Often you will not have time to create DVD menus, chaptering, fancy graphics etc but you do need some that looks good, plays like a DVD and serves a purpose.

I personally wouldn’t use iDVD for professional output to client although it can often provide a quick solution.

Open iDVD, choose New Project and you will be faced with the default template of your current version. On the right hand side you will see a panel where you will be able to scroll through all the templates, be sure to switch through the dropdown at the top as this will show more templates from pat versions of iDVD. More templates are available on the Internet.

iDVD_Interface

Switch_iDVD_16_9Choose your template and be sure the aspect ratio still matches that of your original movies. You should of by now exported all the movies you require for each chapters as separate movies (usually full quality DV or HD) and iDVD will encode them as it creates the DVD. iDVD does support chapter markers but more on that in another post.

Once you have all your movies neatly in a folder you are ready to bring them into your project. You can simply drag and drop each movie to the menu frame and a chapter menu button will be automatically created. This button is customisable.

iDVD_PreferencesYou are almost ready for authoring. Just turn off the Apple branding in the bottom right hand corner of the screen by clicking iDVD > Preferences > Show Apple logo watermark

Hit the burn button. It will become ready and prompt you to put in a blank DVD. Do so and press burn. Your DVD will now be created. For multiple copies keep adding DVDs after each burn, this will reduce the disc creation time as the multiplexing and encoding only needs to be done once at this stage.

September 14, 2009 | | Posted in: Filming Editing and Production, Learn at lunch, Production, Software, Tech, video editing, Web and Software | No Comments »