Play .avi movies in Powerpoint without opening up Windows Media P

[Cynthia]

I'm inserting .avi files in a Powerpoint presentation. I want them to play in
Powerpoint, but instead a Windows Media Player window opens and the movie
plays in that window. How do I get them to play in Powerpoint? Note that
these are large .avi files (40MBytes and up).

 

[Austin Myers]

Some basics;

Version of Windows
Version of PowerPoint
How are you inserting the media?

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Cynthia]

Windows XP Professional Version 2002, SP1
Powerpoint 2003

I inserted it several ways
(1) as a hyperlink ... this plays the movie, but only in a Windows Media
Player window
(2) by going to Insert -> Movies and Sounds -> Movie From File

Note, that the .avi files were created a couple of years ago using
VideoWave. They play ok in Windows Media Player.

 

[Austin Myers]

Windows XP Professional Version 2002, SP1
Powerpoint 2003

I inserted it several ways
(1) as a hyperlink ... this plays the movie, but only in a Windows Media
Player window
(2) by going to Insert -> Movies and Sounds -> Movie From File

Are you getting an error message when you do this? Do the files simply not
play? My best guess is these files are using a codec that is not available
to, or is not working with, the PowerPoint media player. (MCI player)

A couple of options.

First, try reinstalling Windows Media Player from the MS web site. This
will provide additional codecs and reset the associations in the MCI player.
(Possibly fixing the problem.)

Second, you can use a utility like GSpot (Do a google search) to determine
the required codec and then download and install it seperately.

Or, you can use the PFCMedia add-in avaialble from www.pfcmedia.com to fuly
automate the process of converting it to a format PowerPoint can handle
natively. (As a side benefit you should see a significant reduction in the
file size.)

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Cynthia]

Thank you. Ir does seem to be a codec problem since newer created .avi files
are inserted just fine. I will try your suggestions!