PPT2000: Inserted Movies Appear Grainy When Played

ID: Q198333

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a movie clip on a slide in Microsoft PowerPoint, it may appear to be distorted, grainy, or pixilated when you play it inside of PowerPoint. When you play the movie outside of PowerPoint, it appears fine.


CAUSE

In order for movies to play without distortion, they need to be scaled such that each pixel in the movie corresponds to one screen pixel. For example, if the movie was saved at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, then it would have to be scaled in PowerPoint so that it is exactly 320 x 240 display pixels in size when played in order to eliminate any distortion.

In PowerPoint your slide contents are always being scaled for editing or for slide show and the scaling when editing is rarely the same as when in slide show. This is why a movie might look just fine when played in Slide view but appear distorted when played in slide show.


STATUS

PowerPoint places the movie clip in Slide View so that it will appear at the correct size in Slide Show view.


MORE INFORMATION

PowerPoint can help you resize a movie so that it will look best in slide show. If you know at what display resolution you will be showing your presentation you can do the following:

  1. Select the movie.


  2. On the Format menu, click Picture.


  3. Click the Size tab.


  4. Click Best scale for slide show.


  5. Choose your target Resolution from the drop-down list.


  6. Click OK.


You may have to reposition the movie object after resizing it.

NOTE: This only works if you know your target display resolution and you are delivering a full screen slide show using PowerPoint 2000. For other slide show methods you will have to resize the movie differently to get the best quality because the slides will be scaled differently when shown. Other methods of showing slides which would require you to resize the movie differently include:

Additional query words: ppt powerpnt pp9 ppt9 ppt9.0 9.0 power point messed up ugly grain stretched shrunken small large than larger smaller blocky choppy 


Keywords          : kbgraphic kbdta 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: June 28, 1999