Prores to Powerpoint
 

I've got a 7 minute project in Prores 422. The client wants to put it into a powerpoint. Never having done this before I'd like some assistance. So far the only solid information I've found is to output as an .avi with cinepak compression. What I'd like to know is optimal data rate and best workflow. Is there a maximum file size I should stick to?

Thanks.

Try making a full resolution h.264 QuickTime file in Compressor first. It should work in any recent version of Powerpoint.

QuickTime from Powerpoint has been problematic throughout time. If your Client is using Powerpoint for the Mac, you have chance. If it's windows, all bets are off. Find out what platform and version is going to be used when the video is played. For the best results on a windows platform, you are probably better off creating wmv with a windows codec.

QuickTime in PowerPoint on a PC is a recipe in disaster ESPECIALLY if the PC is not Administrated by the individual (which happens A LOT in a corporate environment) OR if the client is not particularly tech saavy.

Tech saavy clients will have little to no difficulties with QT. Now, if all clients were tech saavy...

I provide video clips to clients for use with powerpoint as Mp4 files. Later versions of Windows media player can play Mp4 files. The files can also be at 720p.

Powerpoint (especially on Windows) works the best and most reliable with WMV formats.

Your best bet - one that I have good experience with, delivering WMV's for customers Powerpoint - is buying an edition of Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD, and rendering to WMV trough Mpeg Streamclip (once you buy Flip4Mac Studio - you should check which version suits you the best - you can render full clips in Mpeg Streamclip, a free program)
If you have the free version, it only lets you render out 30 second files if I'm not mistaken.

Best regards and best of luck,

delivering to powerpoint
 

Get Flip4Mac and save it as a WMV file. If you go to Power Point's help search and type in inserting video, it recommends WMV. I recently did this for a client with several files and it worked very well.

Absolutely, Powerpoint only really plays nicely with WMV on Windows but it works pretty well.

Us Mac users would do well to remember that Quicktime on the PC isn't widespread and not all people can install software. WMV comes installed as default on pretty much every Windows PC of the last 8 years. So Flip4Mac is always handy.

If you buy Flip4Mac you can use Compressor or even export from the FCP timeline. Just remember that WMV files played back on the Mac never look as good as they do on the PC. It's something to do with hardware acceleration. What looks great on my Windows box looks a little rough around the edges on my Macs.

I must been lucky in my experiences although I had one professional client whose PC wouldn't play WMV either, she could only watch videos thru her browser. That was strange.

You have to remember that when you deploy Windows in a corporate environment the system administrators can lock down the computers in all sorts of ways. In that case it seems like Media Player was disabled, but the codec was installed. As the browser was enabled and can access the codec, that was the only way it was going to play.

She ran the company which had about four employees. I later found out that she had the computers serviced by someone who was apparently fearful of any video player like you have surmised. He denied that there was anything wrong with her computers although everything would work on an assistant's home laptop. It was very frustrating when I would make files (QuickTime, WMV, mp4) that her clients could use with ease but she was locked out except for standard video DVDs.

Hi Marcus,

where do you find the Compressor Preset? I only used Mpeg Streamclip until now...
Or is it in your video settings that you manually change on a custom preset?

Thanks and best regards,

Thanks for all the input everybody.

I've just installed Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD and output 3 different wmv files with various settings. Certainly I need to find whats optimal for resolution, data rate etc but that aside for the moment each version is out of sync. Play back of panning shots is also jerky in varying degrees.

As Marcus suggests quality of a wmv on a Mac will never be as good as on a PC but should I be encountering these kind of issues? Guess I'll have to get hold of a PC to know for sure but in the meantime your input would be appreciated.

Thanks

In Compressor it's hidden until you create a custom setting. You will find it under QuickTime Export components/ encoder type: Windows Media. Then you'll have to click "options" to set the coding methods.