ppt to vcd conversion

[Mitch Gallant]

I have looked at the several google finds (mainly from this newsgroup) on
converting ppt/pps to vhs, dvd etc..
I have also seen this article but have not read all the associated links
yet:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00156.htm

I would like to make a particular educational ppt presentation available to
a very broad Win audience, and dvd player audience (without computer).
I was thinking about converting the ppt to VCD format, which even the most
basic windows CD can play and which is playable on any current DVD player. I
have captured VHS to VCD recently and was very pleased with the results
(more than adequate visual quality and sound).

Question 1: Simplest and/or cheapest way to ppt --> VCD ?
Question 2: Do any of the standard video capture cards (e.g. WinTV PVR etc)
have this capability?
Question 3: What is typical size ppt presentation that can be
converted/burnt to VCD ?

- Mitch Gallant
MVP Security

 

[Mitch Gallant]

Related to this, has anyone used the WindowsMediaEncoder 9 to record a ppt
presentation to wmv and then (since many DVD burners support conversion from
wmv to mpeg) use DVD authoring tools, like Ulead DVD Movie Factory, to
convert/write to DVD ?
- Mitch

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Mitch,

Along long time ago I wrote a tutorial on how to capture a live powerpoint
presentation as a video file, and then convert it to DVD. The tutorial can
be viewed here...

http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/powerpoint-to-dvd.htm

The principle is the same with windows media encoder.
The principle is also the same to make VCD's or SVCD's (better quality)

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints, tips and more...

 

[Mitch Gallant]

Thanks TAJ .. I was reading the various links and say your info there. I'll
read it more carefully now.
Thanks for the pointer.
- Mitch

 

[Mitch Gallant]

I remember now ... you used a product called Camtasia in your tutorial. I
was looking for a zero-cost way to grab the windows video (from ppt) into an
AVI or WMV format, and it looks like Windows Media Encoder 9 is the only
Microsoft tool designed for that.
Then I needed to convert WMV to other formats (Ulead DVD MovieFactory is a
bit slow in conversion on DVD burn), so I ended up by buying WinAVI which
looks pretty good for exactly this purpose (WMV --> VCD, SVCD, DVD .. etc..)
Cheers,
- Mitch

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Mitch

Do you have any info on the WinAVI software in question?

TAJ

 

[Mitch Gallant]

http://www.winavi.com/en/video-converter/video-converter.htm
I'll report back here after I've used it a bit more.
- Mitch

 

[Mitch Gallant]

I read your excellent and thoughtfully written article below. Well done.
Does Camtasia automatically capture audio content (either embedded or linked
in) associated with ppt slides?

Windows MediaEncoder 9 is rather slow! I haven't yet tried to reduce
background activities, but this is also probably because it is encoding on
the fly to WMV which is slower than saving (as Camtasia does by default?) to
AVI.
MediaEncoder 9 saves associated audio, (need to select a checkbox), but it
didn't work for my first attempt .. no audio from slides was audible in the
WMV file.

How smooth were the captured transitions in your Camtasia/captured
presentation?

I gather that Nero Vision Express is similar to Ulead DVD MovieFactory?

- Mitch

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Does Camtasia automatically capture audio content (either embedded or

linked in) associated with ppt slides?

Yes - but.... see

http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-b...Xh0PXJlY29yZGluZyBhdWRpbw**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Wow that's a long url... watch the wrap

Windows MediaEncoder 9 is rather slow! I haven't yet tried to reduce
background activities, but this is also probably because it is encoding on
the fly to WMV which is slower than saving (as Camtasia does by default?)
to AVI.

I've not compared the two for speed. Both bits of software do the capturing
'on the fly'

How smooth were the captured transitions in your Camtasia/captured
presentation?

A lot rests on how much bandwidth the PC in question has (in terms of
graphics cards/processor/hd/memory etc)

see
http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-b...nBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9c21vb3Ro&p_li=&p_topview=1

and
http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-b...nBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9c21vb3Ro&p_li=&p_topview=1

I gather that Nero Vision Express is similar to Ulead DVD MovieFactory?

Probably very similar.

Cheers
TAJ

 

[Mitch Gallant]

To flesh this discussion out a bit, here is a recent article by Michael
Patten at MS on using Windows Media Encoder 9 to screen (and audio) capture.
Good advice on performance issues, for anyone pursuing this approach to
capture PPT slideshows. I'll post more info here with my experiences on this
as I find useful results.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/screencap.aspx

- Mitch Gallant
MVP Security

 

[Mitch Gallant]

Excuse me for suggesting this (in case it has already been floated), but I
think that Microsoft would strike PURE GOLD if they integrated into PPT (as
a plugin) the capability to do fast ppt conversion to WMA! WOW ..
Considering Patten's article below, surely this can't be too difficult to
implement.
Maybe all the highly respected PPT MVPs could collectively make a case for
this
Think about how ubiquitous the DVD burner is today!
.... and the consumer DVD player is pennies-a-drive at your local nickle and
dime!

- Mitch Gallant