powerpoint 2013 won't play embedded video?

[spiff]

never worked with powerpoint before but I got my first work presentation coming up this week and I cannot get a *.mp4 video embedded in a slide to play?

downloaded a H.246 converter but that did not help - still won't play

any ideas please

thanks

 

[HAL 9000]

If you’re using Microsoft PowerPoint, you might have encountered problems with embedding video files.

They might get displayed as a thumbnail on a slide but then don’t play during the presentation or might show an error and can’t be inserted into your slides at all. This is esp. true for older versions like Powerpoint 2003 or 2007.

One of the most prevalent reasons for these problems is that your video is not encoded in a format that your version of Powerpoint is able to recognise.

Here is an overview of supported video and audio file formats for each Powerpoint version over the years:



f your video is in one of these formats, chances are it’ll work fine in PowerPoint.

However this also depends on the video and audio codec within the video file. If those are not recognised by your computer, e.g. if a particular codec is not installed, or if it is not supported by your version of PowerPoint, the video won’t play in your presentation.

If you experience such problems, one solution that works in many cases is to convert the video you want to use to a format that PowerPoint understands.

A Simple Fix – Convert Your Video

For older versions up to PowerPoint 2007, this means converting the video using a Microsoft proprietary codec such as WMV and to save it as an .ASF format. Videos converted this way will also work on older computers running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.

For PowerPoint 2010, you can either convert your video to WMV or to MP4, however in the latter case you also need to have Apple QuickTime installed on your computer.

Things get a bit easier with PowerPoint 2013 where the preferred video format is MP4 without the need to have QuickTime installed.

However, the video and audio codecs in the MP4 container have to be H.264 and AAC for the video to work reliably. Converting the video to WMV will also work.

https://clipchamp.com/blog/2014/how-to-create-a-video-that-works-in-powerpoint/

 

[HAL 9000]

Video and audio file formats get confusing quickly, because there are so many to choose from.

If PowerPoint doesn’t let you insert a video or audio file, you can fix the problem in a few steps and a modest amount of time. The simplest way to fix this situation is to take these three steps, which are described in this article:

Find and download a file converter.

Convert your video or audio file to a common format that PowerPoint understands.

Insert the converted video file in your slide.


Get a converter

A web search for "video converter" or "audio converter" will show you numerous converters that are available, many of which are free, such as the RealPlayer Converter (for Windows) or the Any Video Converter (for Mac or Windows). Choose one that looks reliable to you, and download it to your computer.

Open the converter on your computer. Tell the converter the directory location of the file you want to convert. (The converter will leave the original file untouched and create a new file in the format you prescribe. See the format options in the next section.)

Choose a common file format to avoid "codec" errors

File format is not the entire solution, but it is an important part. The other factor is a software program called a codec, which encodes a video or sound recording digitally.

It is possible to have a media file in the right format, but encoded by a codec that PowerPoint doesn't understand. If your file is already in the correct format, it is likely that the codec used to digitize the file is not supported on Windows and PowerPoint.

That's why you get a converter: to update your file to an encoding named in one of the next two paragraphs.

Video: In PowerPoint 2013 and later, and in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac, for the best video playback experience, we recommend that you use .mp4 files encoded with H.264 video (a.k.a. MPEG-4 AVC) and AAC audio. In PowerPoint 2010, we recommend that you use .wmv files.

Audio: We recommend using .m4a files encoded with AAC audio. In PowerPoint 2010, we recommend that you use .wav or .wma files.

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...593d3418fb59?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1

 

[spiff]

ok so now I'm stumped - down loaded a few video format converters and tried to convert video to what PP requires (*.wmv /*.mp4 ) but still no luck.

my work colleague run my presentation with same unchanged embedded video on his PP 2016 without any hassels.

what else have I over looked?