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Introduction
Sourcing Video
Formats and Codecs
Video Formats
Which Codecs Are Installed?
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Introduction
The terms video and movie are used interchangeably in
this article.
Inserting video clips into PowerPoint is usually easy -
and PowerPoint allows ample control over how you want the
video to play while in slide show mode. However, video in
itself comes from disparate sources - from camcorders to
stock footage libraries and in-house rendered content to
downloads from the Internet. An amazing number of video formats
actually are bestowed with an even more amazing numbers of
codecs. And if you don't know what this format and codec
thing means, you have come to the right place! Read on…
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Sourcing Video
Digital Camcorders and Cameras: These camcorders
record straight to a digital video format that can be transferred
to your computer through an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) interface
port - this can be saved to a video format like AVI, MPG
or WMV that PowerPoint can understand. Many digital cameras
also allow you to shoot video clips. Digital camcorders start
from US$500 and a good digital camera that can also record
video costs less than that.
Webcams: Webcams attached to your computer allow
recording live video while you sit in front of your PC. Most
webcams include a built-in microphone. Webcams cost between
US$ 100 and 200.
Video Stock Libraries: Many a time, you want to
add video in the beginning of a presentation to create a
splash. For instance you might want to show a collage of
medical video clips before you are speaking to an audience
about medicine. Luckily, it is easy nowadays to locate stock
video footage for most subjects - they are indeed more expensive
than stock images but prices are coming down and I know of
at least one vendor who sells stock videos intended for PowerPoint
presentations for just one dollar per clip! Most clips are
usually available in both WMV and MOV formats for use in
PowerPoint for Windows and Mac respectively.
Video Capture Devices: Various video capture devices
allow you to digitize existing VHS or analog camcorder content
to a format that PowerPoint can understand. Costs vary between
US$200 and 1000, depending upon the video capture quality
and features.
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Formats and Codecs
It is easy to recognize the format of a video file - the
extensions themselves identify the format. For instance,
a video file which ends with the extension name AVI is what
is usually called the AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) format.
Apple QuickTime videos more often than not use the MOV and
QT extensions. MPEG movies of all types use the MPG and MPEG
extensions and WindowsMedia videos are recognizable with
the extension WMV or ASF. You get the pattern now and we'll
discuss this in more detail in a while.
Codecs are different beasts altogether - at last count there
were more than a hundred unique codecs for the AVI format
alone! So what is a codec?
We all know that audio and video files can be huge in terms
of size - if I record one Mini DV worth of video footage
to my hard disk, it occupies nearly 13 GB of space! There
has always been a need for some technology that could squeeze
the size of such files without deteriorating the quality.
This entails both coding and decoding - let's look at this
example:
I just recorded a two minute sound using my microphone -
it's size leaves a lot to be desired - so I use a coding
algorithm to reduce its size. Later, when I want to play
it back, I used a similar decoding algorithm. Now, what I
am essentially doing is coding and decoding - in other words
I am using a 'codec' - this is actually an abbreviation for
coder/decoder.
Well known codecs for the AVI format include Cinepak and
Intel Indeo. Apple QuickTime codecs include Cinepak and Sorenson.
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Video Formats
Video formats are not too much of a problem - most videos
fall under these categories:
AVI: AVI has been around for the longest time and
PowerPoint is usually happy with this format unless it has
been rendered using a non-standard codec. PowerPoint can
play and control these files natively.
MOV: Apple QuickTime files can be played easily on
Windows based machines using the free QuickTime Player application
- however PowerPoint can only play QuickTime content rendered
using the Cinepak codec. This includes almost all QuickTime
videos that conform to the standards of QuickTime 1, 2 and
2.5. Since version 3, QuickTime uses the more efficient Sorenson
codec by default and PowerPoint cannot use any videos rendered
using this format. For more info look here:
PowerPoint And QuickTime
MPG, MPEG: All flavors of MPEG files use this extension.
Typically MPEG 1 movies play well in PowerPoint - and they
are the best option if you need to create a presentation
that needs to be played on both the Windows and Mac versions
of PowerPoint. MPEG 2 movies usually are not that easy to
play in PowerPoint - they are more reliant on both hardware
and software and usually may not work in PowerPoint even
if they do play well in Windows Media Player.
WMV, ASF: When Microsoft first introduced the WindowsMedia
format, both audio and video files used the ASF extension.
Later, Microsoft started using the WMV and WMA extensions
for video and audio respectively. For all practical purposes,
WMV and ASF are identical although the Windows Media 9 Series
uses only the WMV extension.
Flash: PowerPoint, or for that matter Windows itself
does not consider Flash as a native video format. However,
Flash movies can be successfully played within PowerPoint
using the Shockwave Flash ActiveX control. You'll find more
info at:
PowerPoint And Flash
FLI, FLC: This is Autodesk's animation format, used
more for animation than video. The best option is to convert
your FLI or FLC file to a format like AVI.
RM (RealVideo): PowerPoint and RealVideo don't work
together at all. The only way to make them work is to link
a RealVideo file to a hyperlink or Action button in PowerPoint.
It is not elegant but it works and you do get PowerPoint's
infamous virus warning box!
DivX: As long as your DivX videos end with an AVI
file extension and you do have the DivX codec installed,
PowerPoint has no problem with DivX.
VCD: VCD video files usually have the DAT extension
- for all practical purposes they are MPEG-1 videos and several
tools including freeware applications can convert VCD DAT
movies to MPEG files without any problem.
DVD: DVD is more of a problem area since it is not
too easy to convert (or decrypt) DVD VOB files to MPEG-2.
Even if it were easy, there are several copyright issues
involved. However, there are third party tools that allow
you to play DVD movies right inside PowerPoint.
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Which Codecs Are Installed?
You can only convert between the codecs that are installed
on your system. In Windows 9x and ME, you could view the
codecs installed on your system through the Multimedia applet
in the Control Panel. Windows XP no longer contains that
applet - to view the codecs installed on your system in Windows
XP, you need to:
- Open the Control Panel.
If your Control Panel is in Category View, choose Sounds, Speech and
Audio Devices | Sounds and Audio Devices.
If your Control Panel is in Classic View, choose Sounds and Audio Devices.
- Click the Hardware tab of the resultant tabbed dialog
box.
- Scroll down the Devices listing to 'Video Codecs', select
it and click the Properties button.
- The Properties tab of the resultant dialog box will provide
you with a list of installed video codecs.
It's probably easier to use a third party tool like AVICodec or GSpot -
both are freeware.
In AVICodec, you'll find a tab that lists all installed
codecs with their version numbers - you can view a listing
of audio and video codecs separately. You can also export
the entire list.
In GSpot, choose View | Installed Codecs | Video.
This will show you a listing of all installed video codecs.
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