Playing embedded videos, PPT 2010

Hi Folks,

I use many videos in my class. Like most of you, I get them from youtube. Occasionally we have network issues and internet isn't available in class, so I decided I wanted to start using one of the many various methods to download videos and then embed them into my PPT presentation.

That's where my problem is. At home, the video works great. On my school laptop... nothing. In the PPT itself, it just doesn't play. The files are MP4. I believe I have the proper codecs installed.

So when that tech snafu happened, I decided to just load up the video file. Yeah, another problem. Sound worked fine, but the video would transmit. Meaning I could see the video on my laptop, but it was a black box on the tv the kids were watching.

This was in VLC player.

So I ended up having to search youtube and find the videos again, etc. Wasted a lot of time in my class and I couldn't do near as much as I planned. I was over ambitious to begin with, so time was already precious.

I know I can embed and stream youtube videos into my ppt, that usually works... but again, if there's no internet that's of no use. I want to download the video and have it work correctly.

Any thoughts/ideas?

That's an excellent question  Morticae,

Firstly, you should ensure that the video you grab from youtube/etc is encoded using formats readable natively by a base install of windows.  I'm assuming in your case, the school has windows xp installed.  If you don't do this, then you may still be able to play the videos through something like VLC.  The problem you had may have just been a display issue.  Try mirroring your display settings in control panel/display settings.

You can embed videos into ppt because it's flash based.  If you want, you can just grab the flash file, so you don't do any encoding, and drop that into your ppt?  I haven't tried it, but should work fine...
What do you use to grab the videos off youtube?  If I may ask. :)

Let me know how it turns out.

I wasn't able to fix it, but I will keep trying. Maybe it's just a problem with the MP4 files. I will try a different format.

I use keepvid to get the files from youtube, it's an easy website. Just type in the URL and it generates download links.

Maybe it's a display issue, I don't know. My school laptop OS is in Korean so I don't mess around with the settings. I'm going to crack this nut eventually!

Is it only the video that does not show on the main screen, or nothing from your laptop shows?

It is possible to do what you are asking but it is very time consuming. Also it may be better for you to use either .flv or .wmv as windows handles those files much better.

The reason they don't show up could also be because the files are pointing to the wrong location. Are the home computers and school computers different or are you bringing in your laptop?

More information, and I may be able to assist you.