Video stutters in PPT

[Arlin]

We have been using PPT 2010 as our screen presentation software (with the K-Lite codec pack to provide better video compatibility).
It is configured to use the presenter view mode.

Until recently, this was working very well.
But, lately, video playback began to pause & stutter (video & audio).
At first, I thought it was a certain video file/format. But, I found earlier ppt files that used to work well now had the same issue.

I applied all updates, but it did not seem to help:
All BIOS & Chipset firmware/drivers are up-to-date.
Video card driver is up-to-date
All Windows updates applied.
Updated to the latest K-Lite codec pack.

I enabled the "disable hardware graphics acceleration" option in PowerPoint (thus disabling hardware acceleration). This seemed to help, but did not totally solve the stutter problem. It still drops some frames, but the audio does not stutter anymore.

Playing the video through PowerPoint also seems to take a lot more processor power than using Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic (included with K-Lite codec pack). This leads me to think the issue may be in PowerPoint itself. We have looked into other worship software like ProPresenter or EasyWorship, but for now decided to stick with PPT 2010 since is meets our needs (or used to). Maybe we will need to move that direction sooner than I thought.

I am almost to the end of my rope... Thinking of un-intalling Office & re-installing. Then, if that does not work, do a hard drive format/wipe and start over.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Arlin

[formwalt]

I've been having the same issue on a capable 4GB Gateway laptop with integrated graphics card that is about a year old. I did find a temporary solution, however. With the projector connected and on, I went into my advanced graphics settings and reduced the resolution on the laptop screen and changed the color to 16-bit, while leaving the projector at full resolution and 32-bit color. In addition, under Control Panel, Performance Info. & Tools, Adjust Visual Effects, I changed the settings so that it would display for "best performance". This strips away a lot of the nice visual effects of Windows 7, but now I can play videos via PPT 2010 on the projector without stutters and hesitations.

In the long run, I'm considering upgrading laptops to one with a dedicated graphics card. I hope this helps!

[Arlin]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them, but I am already using a (mini) desktop computer with a dedicated graphics card.
Here are the specs:

Case/MB - Shuttle SH55-J2-BK-V1 Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 (LGA1156)
CPU - Intel Core i5-650 Clarkdale 3.2GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Video Card - EVGA 01G-P3-1441-KR GeForce GT 440 1024MB (Fermi) DUAL DVI PCI Express 2.0 x16
Hard Drive - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Monitor - ViewEra V191HV-B Black 19"
DVD Drive - ASUS Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

[petereit]

Another problem may be hard drive speed. Never put your media on the same physical drive as Windows. Don't let your media drive get more than 75% full and defrag all your drives regularly.

[Arlin]

Setting Visual Effects to "Adjust for best performance" did not make any difference for me.
@petereit: I agree that is a 'best practice' but this computer only has one hard drive... and I don't think that is the root cause anyway.

Windows7 performance index on this computer is 5.9 (hard drive is lowest).
The rest is 6.7 to 7.1 which is pretty good IMO... not a gaming machine, but should be more than adequate for presentations & videos.

Also, we had an old Celeron (WinXP) computer with PPT 2010 and did not see this sort of issue with that 'dinosaur'.

I think the problem might be PPT itself... Office SP1 was installed a couple of months ago. Maybe the problems started then.

[Arlin]

UPDATE: Chaning display color from 32 bit to 16 bit seems to fix the stutter nicely.
Question, how noticeable is 16 vs 32 bit color, especially on projector displays?
I am colorblind, so probably not the best person to judge.

[petereit]

Originally Posted by Arlin

I agree that is a 'best practice' but this computer only has one hard drive... and I don't think that is the root cause anyway.

Well, one would have to ask, "WHY is it a best practice?"

Because drive contention is a leading cause of dropped frames, which manifests as jerky video. Video is extremely hard-drive intensive. So is your operating system. Running both off the same drive typically demands higher throughput than most stock hard drives can deliver.

It would be a VERY simple issue to eliminate -- just move your video assets to an external USB drive. So long as you're working with SD video, it should completely eliminate all hard drive contention issues.