Power Point Observation and Question

I am rather impressed with the way Power Point can compress files when it saves to the .pps format. For example, a single .wma sound track that is incorporated into a slide show background is being compressed about 50 to 1 when saved as a .pps file, and that's rather remarkable. When played back using Power Point, there is no loss in sound quality from the original .wma file that I can hear. So, Power Point must be decompressing the audio portion back out prior to playback.

On the other hand, why then does Media Player store the ripped track in a .wma format that is 50 times larger on disk with no option to compress it prior to the rip? Seems like huge waste of disk space. Agree? :ehh:

So, how do I compress .wma audio files so that both Media Player and Power Point can both use them and I don't waste lots of disk space? Any Ideas?

No, Power point does not compress any audio/video (AV) files. When you add an AV file to a slide, if the file is <= the size cutoff (you can change this limit) then the file is embedded in the pps. If it's > then the size cutoff, it just keeps a reference (link) to that file. The actual file is not embedded in the pps and that's why you see the small file size of the pps file. You can verify this trying this:
- Create a new pps and add some big AV files to it.
- After save the pps, play it. You will see the AV files playing as expected.
- Now move the original AV files somewhere else or rename them and play the pps again...

Stanav said, "The actual file is not embedded in the pps."
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That appears to be the case. Thanks for the feedback. Now, can you tell me how can I make sure that the sound track is incorporated into the .pps file? Just bump the cutoff limit so that it exceeds the size of the .wma file? I don't see anywhere how this "(you can change this limit)" is done either before the .wma file is embedded or after it is already embedded.

After you add an audio file to your presentation, go to "sound tools" and change the cut-off size limit there (see attached picture)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Code Doc

On the other hand, why then does Media Player store the ripped track in a .wma format that is 50 times larger on disk with no option to compress it prior to the rip? Seems like huge waste of disk space. Agree? :ehh:

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In Media Player you can tell it what format to rip in (mp3, wma, etc) and you can specify the quality as well. Just go to Tools -> Options -> click the Rip Music tab.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chris128

In Media Player you can tell it what format to rip in (mp3, wma, etc) and you can specify the quality as well. Just go to Tools -> Options -> click the Rip Music tab.

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Thanks, but that increases the size of the sound track by a factor of 11 when you select .wav rather than .wma format. You cannot change the quality of the .wav format.

I did find a format converter that will drop that back down to a reasonable size, but that means a slight decrease in sound quality. I am somewhat surprised that Power Point cannot embed a .wma file and maintain that format's best features--good sound and reasonable compression.

Maybe they can do that in the Windows 7 release, but I don't use that. Anybody know? :ehh:

Also, thanks, Stanav. I got that operational so that it picks up and embeds the file in the slide show.