Video flicker on keynote?

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Level 1

4 points

Video flicker on keynote?

I'm using latest 13" MBP retinal display. I made a presentation with short video clips on the slide and I need to loop it to repeat the playing during the presentation. The clip play smoothly on first time but when it loops on second and subsequent times, the video flicker. I try to play the video with Quicktime and it loops well.

I just wonder if there is not enough 'power' of this 13" MBP (I know that the CPU in 15" is stronger) to play this simple task within Keynote?

Anyone know what's going on? Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 3:19 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 5, 2013 6:24 AM in response to Dick Cheung

What codec is used in the video?

in Quicktime go to; Window > show movie Inspector

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Answer 2

Dick Cheung Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 5, 2013 7:18 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Hi Gary, it showed MPEG1 Video. The strange thing is the first loop is completely alright but from second loop onwards, the video become flicker.

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Answer 3

Feb 5, 2013 7:49 AM in response to Dick Cheung

How much RAM is installed?

How much free disc space?

best practice when playing video is close all applications except Keynote

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Answer 4

Dick Cheung Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 5, 2013 7:14 PM in response to Gary Scotland

That's the thing upsetting me. It's the latest version: 2.9GHz Intel Core i7, 8G ram, and the flash drive is really flesh! (only Keynote install and no music, no movie, etc. still 187G space a/v).

As I mentioned, this is really a simple task for keynote and I don't expect it cannot achieve it. And if I play the looping in Quicktime player, it's fine. So I just wonder if anything incompatible with Quicktime and Keynote.

And I try to export the file to powerpoint format and play in microsoft powerpoint 2008 for mac, NO FLICKER!!

Really disappointed for Keynote....:<

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Answer 5

Feb 6, 2013 2:43 AM in response to Dick Cheung

I never use MPEG1 now, its a very old format and clunky at best.

so try converting the MPEG1 to H264 or MP4

The application for this is:

MPEG Streamclip

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Answer 6

Dick Cheung Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2013 6:33 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Thanks for your suggestion, I may get some time to try converting it and see if Keynote works better then. How about AVI format in Keynote?

But anyway, my dissapointment is on Keynote and Mac, so call a machine that handle video much much better than PC. And this time it totally lost to Powerpoint as the MPEG1 videos play prefectly.

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Answer 7

Feb 6, 2013 9:37 AM in response to Dick Cheung

AVI is not a good file type to use on Mac, its a Microsoft type and many AVI files cant play at all on Mac.

Stick with what works best; H264 or MP4

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Answer 8

Apr 23, 2013 12:51 AM in response to Dick Cheung

Same problem here:

When I use a QuickTime File exported straight from Apple Motion with the 1080p Preset (results in an 8Mbit/s video file with 1024x768 resolution) and put this clip into Keynote, I do get a lot of flickering-stuck video playback when playing back the Keynote.

The same file plays perfectly in QuickTime player, only in Keynote.

The flicker doesn't happen on my late 2012 iMac 27" with double monitor configuration as well, so it seems to be hardware related to the MBP 13" Retina (maybe because of the Intel 4000 chipset)?

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Answer 9

Apr 23, 2013 5:35 AM in response to thomas witt

As my previous posts suggest that H264 and MP4 CODECs work well in Keynote. Other CODEC's require extra processing power which results in dropped frames and loss of audio sync.

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Answer 10

Apr 23, 2013 5:50 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Does not apply to me. Video was encoded in H.264.

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Answer 11

Apr 23, 2013 6:20 AM in response to thomas witt

Then I would agree with the hardware issue, the lack of a graphics card in the Macbook Pro prevents its use with us in working with video.

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Answer 12

Apr 23, 2013 6:29 AM in response to Gary Scotland

This is basically correct, but doesn't explain why a video plays perfectly even at really high bit rates in quicktime player and doesn't play well in keynote, even if there are not any overlays of other object. In my understanding, this is maybe also something which isn't implemented too well in Keynote.

Given the fact that Keynotes last overhaul is now about 4 years ago - and the hardware as well as the OS evolved quite a bit in that time - that may be a legacy problem.

Let's hope for Keynote '13 (as we hoped for Keynote '12, Keynote '11 and Keynote '10).

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Answer 13

Dick Cheung Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 29, 2013 12:53 AM in response to thomas witt

Totally agree. The video plays well in Quicktime but cannot in Keynote. It probaly is the software problem rather than hardware.

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