Hi annmarie,

Can I ask if the video clips play correctly in powerpoint annmarie when you choose to simply play the presentation using the machine's monitor and not the projector?

In addition to running your presentation and noting if the video clips play correctly from powerpoint annmarie, can you tell me if after running your presentation if you are able to simply double click the video files and also open and play them correclty in Windows Media Player?

We'll do everything we can to help you annmarie, which is why firstly we need to find out if the video files play correctly in powerpoint using single monitor mode.

Thanks for replying so quickly annmaire. It lets me help you without any delay.

Since the video clips do play correctly annmarie in PowerPoint when not in dual mode, there are 3 possible reasons for why you are experiencing this problem.

Unsupported graphics card
Whilst many dual monitor graphics cards do support PowerPoint in dual monitor mode sadly, many do not. This happens quite often with the newer releases of PowerPoint such as 2007, 2010 etc.,

Graphics card drivers
It may be that your graphics card requries a driver update. You could visit the site of your graphics card manufacturer, for example ATI or Nvidia, and check to see if there is a newer driver release update for your graphics card. Simply download the update if there is one and install. Newer drivers help your graphics card run in a more efficient and "speedier" way. And it may simply be running old graphic card drivers which has created your problem.

I have my fingers crossed annmarie that it is actually the last option. If not then I hope it is the first (system resources) because this is something you can also do something about before your presentation.

The video files may be uncompressed, or compressed to a very high quality such as MPEG2 or DVD quality.

The higher the quality, the more processing power required for the presentation, and you can then imagine in dual monitor mode this is then doubled!

My advice, if you do not already have it, is to download Microsoft Movie Maker, or any other free video editing software, and load your video files.

Try exporting them in .WMV format and in smaller and more compressed resolutions. This will reduce the "load" on your system for playing your presentation.

You might notice at first that the video files play, but very very slowly. If this is the case then it is your system resources that require a reduced load. Try exporting your video clips once again, and this time again in a smaller and more compressed size.

Eventually you will find the perfect balance for your machine's ability to play the video in dual monitor mode in PowerPoint on your machine.

It just takes a little experiementation annmarie. Remember to start at full size and no compression, and slowly compress and reduce size more and more importing and testing your presentation until it is running as you wish.