Problem with movie in presentation mode

[LisaM]

I do a lot of speaking and have just started adding movie clips to my
presentations. I have been editing the video clips with windows movie maker.
Now I've had this problem both with XP/Office 2003 and Vista/Office 2007.
The clip plays just fine on my computer during the presentation, but on the
projected screen there is just a black box. The rest of the presentation is
fine. This has happened at different conferences with different projectors.
I've wondered if it had anything to do with how I saved the video clip (there
are so many choices and I don't really know what I'm doing). Tech support at
the conferences have been stymied, and my colleagues have not had this
problem. One colleague says there may be a setting "buried deep the
computer" that allows the movie to project in both places at once. ??? I need
help-- I'm leaving tomorrow for another conference and need to solve this
quickly!

 

[Brian Lynn]

Depending on your video card manufacturer there will be different ways to
access the display controls, if you have nVidia card for example, the process
is different than if you have ATI or Intel Extreme graphics card...

but- the basic answer is:
you need to change the Primary display for the laptop. Currently the Primary
display is your local LCD screen, the Secondary is your external connetion.
Switch that and you will get video on the outboard, and the black box on the
local screen.

Another way to fix this is to try a different compression codec. I wish I
could give you one that guaratees 100% operation, but you will just have to
expirament. Many laptop graphics cards are not powerful enough to display
video on both screens at once, and sometimes an easier codec to process will
fix it.

Hope this helps! If you let me know what kind of graphics card you have, I
can possibly give more specific instructions on how to fix!!

 

[TDunn]

This should solve the problem:

http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm

..................TD

 

[Brian Lynn]

This should solve the problem:

http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm

I've tried this, doesn't always help...

Sony told me that because of copywrite issues they cripple the way their
cards handle video and will only ever display on one screen or the other... I
didn't believe them, but I was also never able to get video on both screen on
the laptops I used to be forced to use. My only option was to change the
Primary display from within the properties, and just deal with not seeing
video on my local LCD. It got so bad I finally just started using an Extron
202 with a local loop cable and bringing an extra LCD, turn off the laptop
LCD and work with just the external port.

I'm not saying TDunn's fix won't work for you... there are so many factors
in what could be causing this that more options for fixing are always better!

 

[Austin Myers]

Lets see if I can help.

First off, if you move the presentation and videos to another machine, move
them to a folder with a short path. (Example: C:\Mystuff) Do NOT place
them on the desk top as this may have a very long path!

PowerPoint plays all videos as an "overlay". What that means in friendly
terms is that the video card displays PowerPoint on the screen as expected,
and then plays the video on top of that by using memory set aside for it on
the video card. (Hence the term overlay)

The vast majority of video cards support overlays on one screen or the
other, but not both at the same time. (There are a few that aren't limited
like this but they tend to be high end cards.)

You can usually get around this limitation by swapping out the primary and
secondary monitor and then telling PPT to play one the one desired.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCPro, PFCMedia and PFCExpress
www.playsforcertain.com

 

[LisaM]

This is Chris -- I am trying to help Lisa.

She has an ATI Mobility 9700/9600 run by driver version 7.14.10.830. It has
a pool of 287MB total video memory with 32MB dedicated.

She is on Windows Vista Ultimate OS. There isn't an ATI Control Panel to
change displays and Windows Vista 'Display Settings' only recognizes a
primary monitor while a second display is plugged-in (The 2 is grayed out)
and only gives the option to allow the mirroring monitor to be an Extended
Desktop (not a primary display even while extending is checked).

ATI does not offer any updated drivers on RADEON Mobility cards & the laptop
Manufacturer (HP) does not offer a driver solution for Windows Vista,
although the driver included with Vista was more recent (8/21/2006) than the
driver version update for XP on HP's site (2005).

This driver does not offer the option to change Graphics Hardware
Acceleration and I made sure that the 'Use hardware graphics acceleration'
box in PowerPoint was unchecked.

To simulate the presentation environment, I used a 17" HP LCD External
Monitor as a secondary mirroring display. I made sure the file was in the
same location as when Lisa was presenting and strangely enough the video
played back on both the Laptop Display and the External Monitor.

I'm not sure if the model environment correctly represented the actual
environment -- i.e. if the video out from an LCD Monitor is different than
the video out on an LCD Projector.

You have all been very helpful to me coming up with ideas to try and I thank
you for the support. Hopefully Lisa's embedded video will work tomorrow as it
did in the simulation! If you have any more suggestions please let Lisa & me
know.

 

[LisaM]

This is Chris trying to help Lisa.

First of all, thank you Austin for your information.

The trouble I'm having is switching the primary and secondary display.
Please read the response to Brian Lynn for the graphics system information.
Since her presentation is tomorrow, I am going to add in a hyperlink as a
temporary solution if the video will not work.

Please let me know if you have anymore input.

 

[TDunn]

Chris et al.........

I have experimented with this on the three prominent mobile chipsets. The
Intel was actually the easiest one to work with.....go figure. Anyway.....I
have been able to get video on both screens on each chipset by turning down
the hardware acceleration. I know it's counter-intuitive but it works.
Please try it. I used to do the primary swap but don't need to any longer
unless I'm running one of my addins that needs it. Instructions are in the
link in my first post.

..........................TD

 

[LisaM]

This is Lisa (Chris is back at school)- I have an HP compaq nc6000 with
Intel Centrino. Yesterday we tried to turn down the graphics acceleration
following the instructions. The problem is that we were not given that option
by my system. Vista is a little different and I don't know if that has
anything to do with it, but when we got to the right place, the option to
adjust the acceleration was grayed out. We in essence came to a blank wall
and didn't know what to do next. ???

 

[TDunn]

Ah yes....the lacking Vista drivers strike again. It works in WinXP. I have
an ATI laptop I can try when I get home this weekend. There are updated
mobile drivers available at www.laptopvideo2go.com. These folks modify the
factory dirvers to work on mobile systems. Problems like this are why I have
not moved to Vista on my main show systems. Too many options have been left
out so far. At this point you will probably have to do the primary display
swap.........TD

 

[TDunn]

Correction.....the website I mentioned only has nvidia drivers. There is
another site that has ATI drivers but I don't see any for Vista. I'll be
looking..........TD

 

[LisaM]

Just back from my conference. I'm not sure what little adjustments we did
finally make. All I know is that when my laptop was connected to the
projector, a screen popped up on my side saying it detected a new display and
what did I want to do.... below the main choices was a box with "presentation
mode" so I decided to choose that and not mess with the others that would
have put the picture on one display or the other only. When I tested the
video clip, it played on both sides. So I don't know for sure what we did
right/different, but it worked this time. Whew! Hope I don't inadvertently
mess it up the next conference I have.

~Lisa

 

[TDunn]

That's great news Lisa. What brand and model is the computer?

............TD

 

[LisaM]

I have an HP compaq nc6000 with Intel Centrino.

That's great news Lisa. What brand and model is the computer?

...........TD