PPT: Not All .AVI Files Play Under Windows NT (112422)

SUMMARY

To provide the ability to incorporate various multimedia data types into PowerPoint, the run-time files for Microsoft Video version 1.1 for Windows (including an OLE [object-linking-and-embedding] version of Media Player) are included with PowerPoint 4.0.

Several video compressor/decompressor (codec) files are provided with these run-time files, but not all of them work with Microsoft Windows NT because Video 1.1 for Windows is written for Microsoft Windows 3.1.

As a result, .AVI files that are inserted into a PowerPoint 4.0 presentation may play correctly with Windows 3.1, but may not play with Windows NT or Windows 95.

If you try to play or edit an .AVI file that doesn't use one of the supported codec files, the following error message appears:

There is no driver installed on your system.

MORE INFORMATION

To determine which codec file has been used to compress an .AVI file, do the following under Windows 3.1:

Open the .AVI file in Media Player. If you performed a complete setup of PowerPoint under Windows 3.1, the Media Player is in the same Program Manager group window as the Microsoft PowerPoint icon.

-or-

If the .AVI file has already been inserted into a presentation using Media Player, select the object in your presentation and choose Edit from the list that appears when you choose Media Clip Object from the Edit menu.
From the Device menu in Media Player, choose Configure.
In the Configure dialog box that appears, there is a list that contains information about the .AVI file that you have open.

An abbreviation for the codec file being used is contained in the first part of the Video entry in this information list. For example, in the following entry
Video: RLE 160x120x8 (RLE) 15.000 fps
the letters RLE indicate that the .AVI file was compressed using Microsoft RLE compression.

NOTE: This procedure does not work under Windows NT because the Video for Windows drivers provided with Windows NT are different than the drivers provided with Video for Windows version 1.1. As a result, the same information is not provided in the Configure dialog box when an .AVI file is open.

To insure that your .AVI files will play back under Windows NT, Windows 3.11, and Windows 95, make sure that .AVI files were compressed using one of the following methods:

   Abbreviation   Compression Name
   ------------   ----------------------------

   DIB            No Compression (full frames)
   RLE            Microsoft RLE compression
   MSVC           Microsoft Video 1
   RT21           Intel Indeo (TM) Video
   IV31           Intel Indeo (TM) Video R3.1
   IV32           Intel Indeo (TM) Video R3.2
   CVID           Cinepack CODEC by SuperMatch

The compression method that does not work under Windows NT, Windows 3.11, and Windows 95 is:

   Abbreviation   Compression Name
   ------------   -------------------------

   YVU9           Intel Indeo(TM) Video Raw

Contact the vendors of these codec files to find out when updated codec files will be available and how to get the updated codec files when they are available.

To obtain technical support about Intel products, call the following numbers:

(800) 843-4481 Indeo Video or ActionMedia II boards
(503) 629-7000 Smart Video Recorder

To obtain technical support about SuperMatch products, call the following number:

(408) 245-0646