PPT98: Cannot Play Movies from PowerPoint 97 Files (183919)

SYMPTOMS

When you open a PowerPoint for Windows presentation that contains movie objects in PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition, and double-click the movie object in Slide view, you may receive either of the following error message:

This multimedia object is unavailable for playback because it is linked to a file on a different platform.

-or-

The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. You should reinstall the server application.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the movie file has not been converted to QuickTime for Macintosh format. PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition cannot use the PowerPoint for Windows movie data. PowerPoint for Windows stores a bitmap poster frame image of the first frame of the movie. And, it attaches a tag that contains the full path and file name of the movie file. Because this tag is in MS-DOS or Universal Naming Convention format, PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition is unable to read it.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

Copy the original movie files to the computer where PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition is installed.
Open the presentation in and delete all movie objects.
Reinsert each movie object. You can insert movie objects in any of the following formats:
- QuickTime (or MoviePlayer).
- QuickTime VR. NOTE: To insert these videos you need the QuickTime VR extension, which is available from Apple.
- MPEG videos. NOTE: To insert these videos you need the QuickTime MPEG extension, which is available from Apple.
- Video for Windows, also called Movie Clips or Audio Video Interleave (AVI) files.

All inserted movies will be linked to your presentation. If you show your presentation on a different computer, remember to also copy the movie file when you copy the presentation. If you don't, you will just have a picture of the poster frame of the movie.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: