PowerPoint 2016 exported mp4 video "jerks" on some slide transitions

So I was having the same issues, but I can now confirm this is not a problem with the video itself. The problem is in the code and how the players read them... after having the same issue I sent the mp4 file to my smartphone, and it worked normally with no flashings or "jerks" as you call it. Then I went back to my pc and opened the file in Quick Time, and guess what? No problems... went back to vlc and media player and the problem persisted.

Hi Jon_1990,

I completely agree with you that this issue should be taken more seriously by Microsoft and I have essentially given up my frustrations with this. Exporting to wma file type at the moment is the simplest solution, but the compression size isn't great and many platforms require a mp4 file format, which is why it's been suggested to recompile in Handbrake.

If your students can get away with a simple export to wma as a workaround, then this should be the only fiddly thing they'll need to be conscious of.

On a personal note, I particularly annoyed that Microsoft has not taken the time to address this issue- surely they would be aware of this and it's a pretty significant problem. I'd suggest to them that the either fix the problem properly with a hot fix, or remove the ability to export to mp4 altogether (if it's going to be broken forever)... or this is just going to keep on and on...

Regards,

Stephan

I appreciate very much your post, especially because I had not tried the combination you mentioned. I'm glad the change solved the problem for you. However, it did *not* for me, and I do not believe it to be a general solution, as explained below.

I tried the following (test A): 1) Set [no sound], duration 5 seconds, "on mouse click" checked, after 5 seconds, apply to all. 2) Export to mp4, using recorded timings. 3) Play in windows media player. Jerks occurred around 50 seconds, at tenth slide or so.

Also tried the following (test B): Same, but "on mouse click" unchecked. Unfortunately, jerks still occurred around 50 seconds, at tenth slide or so.

I do not doubt that you were able to solve whatever it was you were seeing. But I cannot see your examples and it did not work in my tests.

Moreover, and more fundamentally, the solution is not logical, think about it. The jerks as reported here occur on a *few* transitions, at around something like one minute, two minutes, etc. You can see from the files posted. If it was a problem with the way transitions are set up, as you suggest, the jerks would occur at *each* transition. There must be something else going on within ppt to cause the jerks. It does not seem a simple matter of the transition settings.

At this point, I would like to *soon* close the thread, as the moderator pressured me to do months ago. Let's say one more week for any final words from Tathagat Tao or anyone else.

I appreciate that the moderator, though incredibly clueless in many ways, I will not repeat my initial remarks, did agree to keep the thread open for quite a long time. It took a while and some convincing, but ultimately he listened to and respected the customer, which I appreciate.

I must say I had a miserable time with Microsoft "advanced" (sorry, did not seem very advanced to me) support. FWIW, it was some engineers in India. I have nothing against Indians, they can be very talented software people, but in this case it was definitely not the case. In very brief, 1) they begged off being able to test the problem themselves, insisting there was no way they could access a windows 7 computer. Incredibly dumb. 2) When I finally agreed to do testing for them, on my computers, they logged in remotely, their "tests" were an insult to any logical thinking person. We wasted many hours with for example flash and silverlight, which have nothing to do with the problem. It was incredibly tiresome, like a bad dream. 3) After finally admitting that ppt indeed produced the jerks, they refused to call it a "bug". Whether they choose to *fix* an obvious bug is their call, but mangling the language in this way is incredibly embarrassing and dumb. 4) They lied to me about a significant issue, I would rather not get into the details here, but they finally admitted their error after wasting their time reviewing the recordings of the conversations.

The only positive thing about Microsoft support was that they were consistently courteous. Well, that is something, but I would prefer more competence, which there was very little of.

I have struggled with and researched this issue for I suppose six months, carrying out many tests, some of which are posted in this thread, others done with Microsoft support. I have come to the very strong conclusion that for making an mp4 of a ppt slide show, it is best to use a screen recording software to record the slideshow being played. I have never experienced a bug with the slideshow. In contrast, I have found the mp4 export mechanism to be buggy. It basically works, and never crashes, but it beset with glitches such as 1) the jerks on a few slide transitions, and 2) interruptions in the background music playback at transitions. PPT is intended to be a professional software producing a clean presentation, but in my strong experience, as partly documented in this thread, PPT falls down big time in the video import section, which seems to have never been fully optimized and debugged, perhaps because video was an add-on, not the main use case of PPT.

Again, my strong conclusion, as some others have noted before, is to use PPT for the narration and slide transitions, which work great, but use screen recording software / video editing software  to convert to video and add background music. If making an mp4, do not use PPT to add music or export the video. Using the screen recording software and video editing software are not that difficult, so I am satisfied with the workaround. I would rather not recommend a particular screen recording or video editing software. I am sure there are many that can record the slideshow and add music. I would note that I use ffmpeg for some parts of the video production process.

Note: these conclusions are almost totally limited to office 2016 / windows 7. It is possible that other combinations might work satisfactorily, although I also did observe some glitches with office 2016 / windows 10. I would rather not get into details here, since I have already expended more than enough effort and am disappointed that Microsoft is so reluctant to take up the effort.

Thanks to the moderator and all posters. I would like to close the thread in about one week.

Thank you. I viewed the private message and submitted the personal details.

As a reality check, I downloaded again the pptx file showing the problem, the file linked to in my original post, and exported to mp4 video again. The "jerks" on some slide transitions showed up at *exactly* the same spots - 55 seconds, 1:45, and 2:36 time positions. So the problem is reproducible here. I wish somebody else would try to replicate the problem. That would be a helpful first step.

Daniel