Powerpoint to DVD with Remote Control?

[Edward Phillips]

After researching on the forums about putting Powerpoint presentations on DVD I have a specific question that didn’t seem to be covered in past threads.

A client wants their Powerpoint on DVD so they can just carry a disc with them and not worry about laptops and projectors when they do presentations. Pretty simple to ask for but not answer as there is a catch that I have been trying to figure out.

They want full control of the presentation meaning they would like to use the DVD remote and hit NEXT or some other button to proceed to the next slide. They also want to keep Powerpoint’s awesome slide transition effects, animations, sound effects and embedded movies in the presentation.

I’ve seen lots of stuff about just straight recording of the presentation to video and then importing into a NLE. This maintains transitions and everything else but it does not let the presenter control the pace of the presentation.

I pondered that each slide could be imported into something like Adobe Encore and be used as a menu that would advance to the next or previous menu/slide. However, a large presentation of 500 slides or more would be nightmareish to link. This wouldn’t keep transitions but could allow embedded video if they have Quicktime or AVI versions and not little MPEG2 or WMV versions. Right?

The thought of batch resizing to correct any safe zone issues makes me cringe as well. Any simple miracles out there?

[John Miller]

Why not go the PPT-video-to-NLE route and create new scenes at the start of each slide? The presenters could simply start playing the DVD and pause it at each scene (maybe the DVD spec supports automatic pausing at scene changes - I'm not sure). They just need to use pause to start/stop the presentation and, assuming the sequence of transistions etc is the same, they'd let those scenes play through. The previous/next buttons would let them navigate to different slides (scenes) and the DVD authoring software may have the ability to create a main menu with thumbnails of each scene (i.e., slide) permitting quick navigation to any part of the presentation.

(500 slides, though!)

BTW, is this SD or HD? Powerpoint slides at SD resolution are pretty lousy (especially on an interlaced display) unless written with that in mind.

[Edward Phillips]

Well this could be done but it allows for more "user error" with having to remember to hit pause each time after hitting next (sounds simple but it's bound to happen). I can forsee what the client as in mind is the same as if they had their laptop connected to a projector and with their laptop remote thingy they hit next slide. However, with this set up, once they get too far away or miss the first pause hit and then the next slide appears and they want to backtrack they are going to get screwed up and of course blame technical error not user error. I suppose the main menu option would also need to be disabled to keep the presenter from accidently taking themselves back to the beginning.

Also, if a slide were to be anything other than a menu on the DVD that would mean it would then be a video file, correct? Meaning it would take up much more space. Even if you had a 5 second video of a slide repeat itself until a command button was pushed you would fill the disc up pretty quick. Or does a still image burn to DVD as a still image with a set duration on a timeline?

This would be SD and I'm aware of the visual limitations it would have on TV but I think to some people out there if it looks good on a computer monitor it must look good on a TV. How fun! My head hurts.

[Shaun Roemich]

In DVD Studio Pro on the Mac, you could program end jumps at the end of markers to jump back to the marker, requiring a Next Chapter input to move forward. Then you would just need to build a chapter marker before the "spectacular" transition (let's call this Chapter marker 4) and one immediately after the content to be "looped" (call this Chapter marker 5), and then have the Chapter 5 marker End Jump to Track =>Chapter 5 which will cause chapter 5 to repeat until the Next Chapter button is pressed.

Not sure if Encore supports this so I can't help you there.

PS. From personal experience, you're going to have problems displaying PP on a tv or projector due to small font sizes and title safe area. The PP will only be "acceptable" to critical eyes if the fonts are large, bold fonts and all content well placed on the slide.

[John Miller]

Originally Posted by Edward Phillips

Well this could be done but it allows for more "user error" with having to remember to hit pause each time after hitting next (sounds simple but it's bound to happen).

I haven't used it myself but I'm pretty sure that the DVD spec allows for automatic pausing at the end of a scene/chapter (as Shaun describes, too).

I can forsee what the client as in mind is the same as if they had their laptop connected to a projector and with their laptop remote thingy they hit next slide. However, with this set up, once they get too far away or miss the first pause hit and then the next slide appears and they want to backtrack they are going to get screwed up and of course blame technical error not user error.

The client can also use previous/next to navigate from scene to scene just as if it were slide to slide.

I suppose the main menu option would also need to be disabled to keep the presenter from accidently taking themselves back to the beginning.

Movie DVDs typically permit resuming playback after going to the main menu.

Also, if a slide were to be anything other than a menu on the DVD that would mean it would then be a video file, correct? Meaning it would take up much more space. Even if you had a 5 second video of a slide repeat itself until a command button was pushed you would fill the disc up pretty quick. Or does a still image burn to DVD as a still image with a set duration on a timeline?

A 5-second clip that loops until a button is pushed will occupy 5-seconds. I think still images can be programmed to last a given duration and/or wait for a button. The main difference is that a still image can be of higher quality. Not sure if you can mix-and-match movie clips and stills (don't see why not).

This would be SD and I'm aware of the visual limitations it would have on TV but I think to some people out there if it looks good on a computer monitor it must look good on a TV. How fun! My head hurts.

I know!