Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 ...



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Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 Codec Compatibility and Rich-Media Streaming

by Bill Birney

Microsoft Corporation

July 2003

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Table of Contents

Summary 1

Introduction 1

Understanding Codec Versions 2

Selecting a Codec Version 3

Additional Information 4

Understanding Rich-Media Streaming 6

For More Information 6

Summary

With Microsoft® Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, you can choose which version of Windows Media® codecs to use when capturing content and publishing presentations. This document describes the codec versions so that you can optimize the quality of a presentation for your audience. The document also describes rich-media streaming, which you can use to guarantee the timely delivery of your presentation.

Introduction

When publishing a presentation or capturing content with Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, you have a choice of the following compression options:

• Windows Media 9 Series codecs. Files are compressed by using the current version of the Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series codecs.

• Windows Media 8 codecs or Windows Media 7 codecs. Video files are compressed by using a previous version of the Windows Media Video codecs.

This article provides information to help you decide which version of the Windows Media codecs to use to compress content, based on your audience and their computer configurations.

The Windows Media 9 Series codecs are the best choice for encoding because you can take advantage of the features that are available only with the Windows Media 9 Series platform, including better audio and video quality, and rich-media streaming. This article provides information that you can use to help you decide which version of the Windows Media codecs to use to compress content, based on your audience and their computer configurations. The article also includes a section about rich-media streaming, which you can use to guarantee the timely delivery of Web components.

This article contains the following topics:

• Understanding Codec Versions

• Selecting a Codec Version

• Additional Information

• Understanding Rich-Media Streaming

• For More Information

Understanding Codec Versions

Audio and video programs use codecs to reduce the amount of data that is in a file and, consequently, the bit rate of a stream. Because the amount of data is reduced, you can store digital media content and stream it over a network more easily after it is compressed. To compress content, codecs apply a number of compression algorithms that determine how to best reduce data while maintaining as much of the original quality as possible.

A complete codec is composed of two parts: a compressor and a decompressor. The codecs on a computer running Producer 2003 contain both parts so you can both create and play back content. Often, codecs that are on the computers that belong to users in your audience (the client computers) contain only the decompressor because the user only needs to play back the compressed content.

To make meaningful improvements to codecs, new features may be added that are not compatible with earlier versions of Windows Media Player. For example, a new codec feature may only work with Windows Media Player 9 Series. To take advantage of all the new codec features, therefore, users should upgrade to the latest version of Windows Media Player. When users upgrade to the latest version of the Player, all current Windows Media codecs are automatically installed.

However, there are several reasons why users may not be able to upgrade to Windows Media Player 9 Series or install the Windows Media 9 Series codecs, including:

• The user's computer is running a version of the Microsoft Windows® operating system that is not compatible with Windows Media Player 9 Series, such as Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0.

• The user's computer is running a non-Windows operating system with the current version of Windows Media Player, but not all Windows Media 9 Series codecs and features are supported. An example is the Apple Mac OS X operating system.

• The user's computer is running a non-Windows operating system that is not supported by Windows Media Player 9 Series.

• The user cannot access the Internet to install Windows Media Player 9 Series or automatically download the latest codecs.

• The user does not have permissions to install programs on the computer. This scenario is common in organizations in which Internet access and workstation permissions are restricted.

Because Producer presentations can be played back in several versions of Windows Media Player (which support different versions of the Windows Media codecs), Producer provides two codec options for capturing and encoding content. By using these two options, you can provide the highest quality content for your audience.

Selecting a Codec Version

Use the tables in this section to determine the optimum codec version for your audience. Locate the tables that correspond with the types of content in your presentation, and then note the Windows Media Player versions that your audience is using and the corresponding codec versions to use. If two codec versions are indicated, choose the earlier version. For example, if your audience will be viewing your presentation in both Windows Media Player 9 Series and Windows Media Player for Mac OS X and you want to capture screen content, you should use the Windows Media 7 codec version.

Audio only

|To support this version of the Player |Use this codec version |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 7.1 |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 6.4 |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player for Mac OS X |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X (planned for release |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|in Fall 2003) | |

Audio and video

|To support this version of the Player |Use this codec version |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 7.1 |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 6.4 |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player for Mac OS X |Windows Media 8 codecs |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X (planned for release |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|in Fall 2003) | |

Screen captures

|To support this version of the Player |Use this codec version |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 7.1 |Windows Media 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 6.4 |Windows Media 8 codecs for publishing |

| |Windows Media Screen 7 codec for capturing|

|Windows Media Player for Mac OS X |Windows Media 8 codecs for publishing |

| |Windows Media Screen 7 codec for capturing|

|Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X (planned for release |Not available |

|in Fall 2003) | |

Voice-quality audio (optimize compression for audio narration)

|To support this version of the Player |Use this codec version |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Windows Media Player 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 7.1 |Windows Media Player 9 Series codecs |

|Windows Media Player 6.4 |Not available (see Note) |

|Windows Media Player for Mac OS X |Not available |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X (planned for release |Windows Media Player 9 Series codecs |

|in Fall 2003) | |

Note   A Windows Media Audio 9 Voice codec for Windows Media Player 6.4 is planned for release in Fall 2003. Until then, use Windows Media Audio 9 codec for all content by clearing the Optimize compression for audio narration check box.

Additional Information

This section provides additional information to help you select the appropriate codec versions. The following table lists the versions of Windows Media Player that are supported by Producer 2003, as well as the operating systems that each Player supports.

|Player |Supported operating systems |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows XP Home |

| |Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition |

|Windows Media Player 7.1 |Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, or Windows Me |

|Windows Media Player 6.4 |Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Server 4.0 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack|

| |3 (audio, illustrated audio, and video) or later |

|Windows Media Player for Mac OS |Apple Mac OS X version 10.1 |

|X | |

|Windows Media Player 9 Series |Apple Mac OS X version 10.1 |

|for Mac OS X (planned for | |

|release in Fall 2003) | |

When you select a codec version for capturing or publishing, Producer 2003 uses the codecs from that version that are appropriate for the types of content you are encoding. When you capture content, the codec version specifies an audio codec, video codec, or both, depending on the type of content you are capturing. When you publish a presentation, the codec version specifies a set of codecs that Producer uses to encode all the different types of content. For example, if you select Windows Media 9 Series codecs to capture audio and video, Producer uses the Windows Media Audio 9 and Windows Media Video 9 codecs.

The following list describes the codecs that Producer 2003 can use if you select the Windows Media 9 Series codecs version:

• Windows Media Audio 9. This is the standard audio codec, which is compatible with most versions of Windows Media Player.

• Windows Media Video 9. This is the standard video codec, which is compatible with Windows Media Player 9 Series only.

• Media Audio 9 Voice. This codec is used to compress audio if Optimize compression for audio narration is selected.

• Windows Media Video 9 Screen. This codec is used to compress screen capture content and is compatible with Windows Media Player 9 Series only.

The following list describes codecs that Producer 2003 can use if you select the Windows Media 8 codecs version:

• Windows Media Audio 9. This is the standard audio codec, which is compatible with most versions of Windows Media Player.

• Windows Media Video 8. This is the standard video codec, which is compatible with all versions of Windows Media Player that are supported by Producer.

• Windows Media Screen 7. This codec is used to compress screen content and is compatible with all versions of Windows Media Player that are supported by Producer. The Windows Media 8 codec set did not feature a screen codec, so the Windows Media Screen 7 codec is used instead. When setting up a screen capture, note that the version indicated in the Capture Wizard is Windows Media 7 codecs.

If you select the default codec version when publishing a presentation and video and audio content on the timeline was captured by using the same codec version, Producer does not compress the content again during the publishing process. However, if you select a different codec version or the timeline contains content compressed with a mix of codec versions, Produce recompresses the content as needed so that all the Windows Media files are compressed using codecs from the selected codec version.

When Windows Media Player attempts to play a file or stream that requires a codec that is not installed on the computer, the Player automatically downloads and installs the codec from the Microsoft codec Web site, if the codec is compatible with the Player version. If a client computer does not have access to the Internet, such as in an enterprise scenario, the codec can be installed by using a codecs installation package that is available online from the Windows Media Download Center ().

Understanding Rich-Media Streaming

When publishing your final presentation, on the Custom Publish Settings page of the Publish Wizard, you can enable rich-media streaming. This method of delivering content is designed to be used in presentations that are streamed over a network from a Windows Media server. When you enable rich-media streaming, the PowerPoint slides and Web content in your presentation are encoded into a separate stream of the final Windows Media Video file. When the presentation is played back, the Windows Media Player control that is embedded in the presentation Web page extracts the slides and other Web content from the stream as it receives them. The Player then delivers the data to the Web browser, which displays the content.

When you use the default playback method, only the audio and video streams are contained in the Windows Media Video file; the slides and other Web content are contained in separate files. These separate files are typically located on Web servers, which are designed to handle the downloading of content, but do not guarantee timely delivery of content. Not only is there a download delay before the presentation can begin, but the slides might appear late, incomplete, or not at all depending on network traffic and server load.

If you use rich-media streaming, on the other hand, the download delay is reduced, and Web files are delivered as part of the audio and video stream, guaranteeing that they arrive on time. Slides can be synchronized correctly with the audio and video in the presentation, which results in a smoother presentation and better user experience.

For local playback of presentations, however, there is little advantage to using rich-media streaming because the content does not have to be downloaded; instead, the Player can access the Web files directly from the hard disk or CD. You should also not use rich-media streaming if you are hosting all the content on a Web server. This scenario may cause delays because a Windows Media file that is hosted on a Web server is received by clients using progressive downloading.

In order to use rich-media streaming, do the following:

• Specify the Windows Media Audio & Video 9 Series setting in the Publish Wizard when publishing the final presentation.

• On the Custom Publish Settings page of the Publish Wizard, select the Enable rich-media streaming check box.

• Host the Windows Media files on a server running Windows Media Services 9 Series. Previous versions of Windows Media Services do not support this feature.

• Play back the presentation by using Windows Media Player 9 Series. Previous versions of Windows Media Player do not support this feature.

For More Information

• For more information about Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, see the Producer Web site ().

• To download Windows Media Player or other Windows Media technologies, go to the Windows Media Download Center (.)

• To learn more about Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series compatibility, see the Windows Media Web site ().

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