Importing PowerPoint QuickTime Videos is inconsistently successful --- WHY?

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Importing PowerPoint QuickTime Videos is inconsistently successful --- WHY?

I'm trying to use QuickTime videos created by PowerPoint in some of my iMovies. To get better resolution of fine detail, I've been rendering at 1280 x 960. Usually, the QT file gets anti-aliased in some manner when I import it, and all is good. However, lately, I'm getting very jaggy results!

I've noticed that when things work normally, a Get Info window on the QT file exported from PowerPoint will list the Codecs Sprite, Color Balance Filter, and Base. When the imported video is jaggy, the Get Info window on the QT file exported from PowerPoint will list only the Codecs Sprite and Base.

Any clues? I NEED these slides to look smooth, and they have always looked great until recently. Now, sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't!

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.4.8), G4 17 inch

Posted on Oct 25, 2006 1:56 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 25, 2006 6:16 PM in response to Bill Burkholder

I'm trying to use QuickTime videos created by
PowerPoint in some of my iMovies. To get better
resolution of fine detail, I've been rendering at
1280 x 960. Usually, the QT file gets anti-aliased in
some manner when I import it, and all is good.
However, lately, I'm getting very jaggy results!

I've noticed that when things work normally, a Get
Info window on the QT file exported from PowerPoint
will list the Codecs Sprite, Color Balance Filter,
and Base. When the imported video is jaggy, the Get
Info window on the QT file exported from PowerPoint
will list only the Codecs Sprite and Base.

Any clues? I NEED these slides to look smooth, and
they have always looked great until recently. Now,
sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't!

Okay, I found the reason on my own! This may help you if you've ever wanted to import PowerPoint slides into iMovie with reasonably smooth text and graphics.

The solution is to include at least one short dissolve in your show! If you do that, PowerPoint forces the use of the Color Balance Filter codec in the QuickTime movie. Apparently, that is the key to smoothing (anti-aliasing?) the text and graphics in your slides!

I output 1280 x 960 resolution in my files from PowerPoint. This gets down-sampled to 640 x 480 with the aforementioned smoothing. Results are very acceptable for corporate training videos.

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