Stumped by MPEG2 Playback

[Tom Bunzel]

Hi All,
I've read most of the threads and am completely stumped by my latest
problem.
I reformatted a drive and installed XP Pro and Office 2003. I did what I
normally do in ripping an MPEG2 file from a DVD and I also used a video
editor to create an MPEG2 file. (All Ulead tools).
When I just try to insert the movie into a PowerPoint slide or sometimes
it will insert, but on playback the program freezes and that's it. Need to
use Task Mgr to close PowerPoint.
The same movie plays in Media Player and in PowerPoint on my other machine.
To confirm, I have reinstalled Media Player on the offending machine,
installed all kinds of DVD/MPG decoders, used the Microsoft utility to check
and change my default MPG decoder, updated video, Direct X drivers,
uninstalled and reinstalled Office, and this persists.
Oh I also changed the location of the files to be directly on the C drive
and reinserted the file to accommodate a short file path.
(I have also installed and uninstalled at least three video codec packages).
Any viable fixes would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Austin Myers]

Hi Tom,

Have you tried inserting the video with PFCPro? (I assume you still have it
on your machine, if not drop me an email.)


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

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

 

[Tom Bunzel]

That will work if I let it re encode it as WMV (I did try that using the
trial version quickly) - I am used to just being able to use ripped MPG files
directly in PPT and they play - as they do on my other machines. For some
reason this installation of XP/Office 2003 won't play MPG movies or even load
them into slides w/o freezing. Damndest thing.

 

[Austin Myers]

Tom,

I hear what you are saying but look at the difference in the file size after
PFCPro has finished. As to what is wrong with MPEG-2, have you examined the
file with a utility like GSpot (google it). My bet is there is some "junk"
in the file that the MCI Player can't deal with.

Austin